11 Biggest Bombshells From Valerie Bertinelli's New Book 'Getting Naked': Final Words to Eddie Van Halen, Ruptured Implants and More

Valerie Bertinelli poured her heart out in her new book.

In Getting Naked: The Quiet Work of Becoming Perfectly Imperfect, which came out on March 10, the 65-year-old actress went back to the most guarded parts of her past and allowed readers to see her life more closely. Among the themes she explored were her two failed marriages to Eddie Van Halen and Tom Vitale.

"I couldn't crack the code of lasting love. Romance has never been easy for me, never even sane," she admitted. "It's a messy math equation — love, marriage, divorce — and I'm terrible at math. Worse at marriage."

The One Day at a Time alum was married to the late Van Halen guitarist, with whom she shares son Wolfgang Van Halen, from 1981 to 2007.

According to Valerie, she and Eddie were "amicable through the most difficult times" of their split, adding they shared a lasting love until his death in October 2020.

"How could I have continued to feel love for Ed after our divorce but have no feelings — neither good nor bad — for my second husband after fifteen years of togetherness?" she wrote. "Hopefully that will change over time. I can already feel myself softening. I've reached a point of indifference and grace, which is so much healthier than hanging on to anger."

She also revealed they made amends before his passing because he "wanted to make it right" with her, too.

"I was told that every time I would walk out of a room, he would look around and say, 'The biggest mistake of my life was letting her go,'" she continued.

While her marriage to Eddie did not last, Valerie reminisced about the fond memory they shared during their last Thanksgiving together.

"He took me outside and opened his heart in a way he said was way past due," she shared in the book. "We both did. We found a place of deep love and forgiveness for our past mistakes."

The musician died from a stroke at the age of 65 after a lengthy battle with throat and lung cancer.

Valerie disclosed, "My final words to him when he was taking his last breaths in the hospital were, 'I love you.'"

In her memoir, Valerie said Eddie "didn't get enough time" in life.

"He was making amends the year before he passed. He was talking to all the people in his life. He was cold-calling them. It was sweet — and that was Ed at the core, sweet," she mentioned.

Valerie noted her ex-husband "wanted to be the right person, the good person that he already was."

"His heart was always pure. He was such a good man," she continued.

Even after Eddie's death, Valerie believes her ex-husband has continued to support Wolfgang's achievements.

One time, she found herself wishing Eddie was still alive while their son was performing at one of his shows.

"That was our kid onstage. Playing guitar. Singing songs he wrote," she shared in the book. "I needed an arm to grab. Parents will know what I mean. Ed was the only one who would have understood the way I felt. We would've been competing to see who could whistle the loudest."

Elsewhere in the tome, the Hot in Cleveland star brought up her divorce from her second husband.

"I thought what I had with Tom was love, but after we split, I found myself debating whether the love had been real," she wrote, pointing out the divorce "hit so hard" and left her "angry."

As she navigated her life, she became torn between "obsessing about [her] weight and body" and dealing with "the hard truths" in life.

"After my second marriage ended, something had to give or else I was going to end up an unhappy old lady — and what was the point of that?" she asked.

Valerie and Tom finalized their divorce in November 2022.

Valerie was also candid about the cosmetic procedures she had in her newly released book, revealing she had a "complicated relationship" with her b----- after they were "mocked relentlessly."

"They were called 'little quarters,' 'itty-bitty t------,' and 'tiny b------,'" she shared. "I took it all to heart. Instead of appreciating the changes my body was going through, I dreaded them. I had no idea what I was supposed to look like; I only knew it was wrong."

She soon got b----- implants, which later contracted an infection straight out of a "horror movie" after one of them ruptured following a scary fall.

"I sprinted down the stairs, tripped, and landed on my right b---. I heard a pop. I knew exactly what had happened," she shared.

Valerie learned one of the implants had ruptured. When her doctor showed her the old implants, she described them as something like "ostrich eggs, hard and crusted over."

"I couldn't believe they had been in my body. I went home, bandaged and sore, with drains under my arms, uncomfortable but hopeful," she added.

The Valerie's Home Cooking star revealed everything was "great" for the first two weeks, but she later noticed her right b----- began to take "shades of green, yellow, and blue."

"The next day it started to swell and turned a dark purple," she described her body part. "I felt myself getting dizzy. By nighttime, I was running a fever."

"When I got up, though, the pain was intense. My b----- was throbbing and it kept getting worse. I knew I had to see the doctor, but it was Saturday morning. I decided to wait until Monday," she wrote in the book. "By then, I was really sick. My b----- was discolored, painful, and swollen. I was burning up. I had fluid leaking out of the sutures around my n-----."

Three weeks later, she underwent a procedure to remove the infected implant.

Valerie detailed, "The second surgery involved removing the implant and the infection from the tissue surrounding the muscle. Recovery took more time ... The doctors referred to it as cratering. The description was accurate. Another apt word was gross. Like, really gross. It looked like a horror movie — and it was. I had an open wound the size of a misshaped quarter and a hole more than an inch deep where my nipple used to be. My nipple, or what was left of it, was holding on to within a literal half inch of its life."

She received a small implant to restore "what was left of [her] n------" during a third operation nearly seven months after undergoing her first corrective surgery.

Amid her recovery, Valerie hopes a fourth surgery will "even things out once and for all."

"They are now two completely different sizes. The implant on the left is over the muscle, and my right side is sad and misshapen," Bertinelli said of her b------ in the book. "In all seriousness, I'm lucky to have survived. That weekend scared the p--- out of me. After a lifetime of always thinking I needed to fix something about myself, this last go-round has been a doozie."

Valerie's book also mentioned several celebrities, including Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.

"First, her fiancé, Travis Kelce, had clearly heard her yet-to-be-released new album, The Life of a Showgirl, and he loved it. He knew it was great, and he was savoring it for a few more months before she shared it with the world. I saw all that in his eyes," she wrote, referring to Taylor's appearance on the "New Heights" podcast.

She disclosed, "My other main takeaway from the podcast? I saw a young woman who was so, so, so very much in love. I was envious. But in the best way."

Valerie met Metallica rocker James Hetfield when Wolfgang opened for the band in Amsterdam in 2023.

According to the Touched by an Angel star, she had seen photos of James but had no idea "he was this handsome."

"In person, he was even taller, more rugged. … I had never seen Metallica live, but I could tell that I wasn’t the only woman in the arena feeling this way," she wrote in the book.

In one of the darkest parts of the book, Valerie divulged she was sexually abused when she was 11.

"It doesn't matter who, when, or how it all happened," said Valerie. "What does matter is the effect it had on me. The pain. The beliefs I carried about myself after it. That's what shaped me."

Comparing the "secret" of the abuse to a "slow-growing cancer," she wrote, "For decades, I told no one. Even in therapy, I stuck to my story. 'I love my life. S----- things happened. But I love my life.'"

Valerie continued, "The abuse happened — and yet I'm still here. It brought pain, anger, embarrassment, guilt, and shame — and yet I have known connection, joy, and love. I carry scars — and yet I heal again and again. I used to believe healing meant letting go, purging the pain. Now I know healing is not erasure. It’s a reckoning. … A refusal to let shame hold more weight than love."

When she walked onto the set of The Drew Barrymore Show, Valerie felt an "immediate connection" with Drew Barrymore despite never meeting her in person before.

"I sensed a kindred soul, a truth seeker and a truth teller, someone who'd been through the entire wash cycle more than a few times," she shared in the book. "She seemed to have a quiet pride of the colors that still shone bright and didn't mind those that had faded… Drew's show felt as close to home as I’ve ever felt on a set."

Valerie's brother Mark was 17 months old when he "died in the most horrible way," she revealed to a news outlet.

In the memoir, Valerie confirmed she was pregnant with her son when her mom "started to open up about Mark."

"Before then, details about him came out in dribs and drabs. But once I was carrying my own child, she told me about her own pregnancy and what Mark had been like as a baby and a toddler," she stated.

Valerie then reflected, "He was her second boy, a bright light, happy and adventurous. He wandered off one afternoon and drank from a glass Coke bottle sitting on a barn shelf without knowing it was storing poison. A part of my mom died that day, too."