Exploring Valerie Bertinelli's Cocaine Confessions — Including the First Time She Snorted the Drug on 'One Day at a Time' Set

Valerie Bertinelli's first experience with cocaine was the start of a years-long chapter shaped by the drug.

The TV veteran shared candid details about her history with cocaine in her 2008 memoir, Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time. In the book, she confirmed she tried the drug for the first time as a teen with her One Day at a Time costar Mackenzie Phillips.

The revelation aligned with Phillips' recent account of the pair's cocaine-fueled days while filming the sitcom in a new interview.

"So this might surprise you that during lunch break, Valerie and I would drive to my house, get in the pool, drink wine, and snort coke," the American Graffiti star said. "But Valerie talks about it openly, so it's not like I'm pulling her covers or anything. The thing was that I was the, you know, Valerie didn't have the kind of addiction that I had, she didn't have addiction."

According to Phillips, she and Bertinelli would "do coke together in the dressing room and stuff." Although she was the one who got caught, she said she was ultimately grateful it happened.

In the 2008 book, Bertinelli reflected on her and Eddie Van Halen's wedding day on April 11, 1981, which was the time drug use became increasingly prevalent in her life.

"The priest we tapped to perform the ceremony gave us questionnaires so he could get to know us better and offer more personal words. As we filled out the forms at home, we each held a little vial of cocaine," she wrote. "Now, if you ask me, those are not two people who should be making decisions about the rest of their lives."

The former sitcom star added, "I passed out on the bed in my gown, and Ed fell asleep in the bathroom."

While promoting Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time on Today in February 2008, Bertinelli acknowledged that the presence of drugs at the start of the marriage should have been a warning sign.

"It doesn't really bode well for the marriage, I don't think," she told co-host Meredith Vieira.

In a separate interview with Oprah Winfrey following the release of the 2008 memoir, Bertinelli revealed she used cocaine so heavily to keep up with Van Halen's lifestyle, and overcoming the habits associated with the drug was a much slower process.

"The week off I would destroy my body trying to stay up with him," she recalled. "It got to a point whenever I heard the birds chirp, it was, 'Oh, God, no.' It took me years after stopping the cocaine before I could enjoy a sunrise and enjoy the sound of birds."

Bertinelli reflected on becoming swept up in Van Halen and his band's hard-partying orbit on the "Literally! With Rob Lowe" podcast in 2022.

She shared, "I am a prude now but I [partook] as well for a few years there until I just couldn't take it anymore."

When Rob Lowe agreed "[we] all did [drugs]" in the 1980s, Bertinelli noted cocaine "was everywhere and easy to get."

"It was before the bill had become due and we just didn't know. Not only that ... people were saying it was good for you," said Lowe. "It helped you think, it was what 'successful' people did in our industry. All the people you admired did it."

The mom-of-one responded, "I got tired after a while of hating the birds chirping. When I would hear birds chirping, I would just get so tense. It took me years before I enjoyed a sunrise and enjoyed the birds chirping. It's like, 'I was going to stop three bumps ago and I didn't and here I am and the birds are chirping, Goddammit! Why did I do this!'"

In a May 2024 Instagram video after the premiere of Wolfgang Van Halen's episode of Behind the Music, the Hot in Cleveland alum spoke candidly about how she turned her relationship with Eddie into "some sort of fantasy, soulmate recreation of history."

"I fell in love with him when I was 20, and it rapidly declined into drugs, and alcohol, and infidelity," she said. "Nothing that makes you feel loved and wanted and cared for. Nothing that would scream soulmate, that's for sure."

Valerie continued, "But after Ed died, I was more than willing to put myself in the grieving widow category for a man that I hadn't lived with for 20 years. What we had together was this beautiful son that we both unconditionally loved. That's what I got out of that marriage was Wolfie, the best thing that ever happened to me. Not a soulmate."

Eddie died on October 6, 2020, at the age of 65. Although he battled cancer for years, his death certificate listed cerebrovascular accident or stroke as his immediate cause of death.

While discussing her past partying and drug use on The Drew Barrymore Show, Valerie remarked she doesn't "remember anything about the '80s."

"For the longest time, I always felt guilty about the things I experimented with and what I tried when I was a young girl," she told Drew Barrymore, who replied it was such "an ABC Afterschool Special term."

"Were you ever in an ABC Afterschool Special?" the host asked, referring to the anthology series that focused on pre-teens and teens' issues.

Valerie said she was in 15 and Getting Straight about drug prevention before joking, "I was an Afterschool Special! … By the way, I was also the 'Just Say No' girl with Nancy Reagan, until I just said yes."

In a March episode of "The Bossticks" podcast, Valerie said her past lifestyle was "a lot of fun" — but she has no desire to return to it.

"We waited 10 years to have Wolfie," she said of her and Eddie's son, Wolfgang. "We went through a lot in those 10 years—basically the '80s, which I don't remember too much of between the drugs and the alcohol."

She added, "It was fun. You know what? I'm not gonna lie, it was a lot of fun… but I would never — I would not do it again."