Valerie Bertinelli Remembers Betty White in Emotional Interview: ‘She Just Oozed Kindness’

• Valerie Bertinelli memorialized her late Hot in Cleveland co-star Betty White in an interview this week.

• “She just oozed kindness,” Bertinelli said. “It wasn’t a struggle for her. It was just that’s who she was.”
  

• “I am not sad for her. I mean, I am so happy,” she continued. “It’s always harder for us that are left here behind.
  

Valerie Bertinelli was just as shocked and saddened as the rest of the world when she learned that her former co-star, Betty White, passed away on New Year’s Eve at age 99. Now, after working alongside White for six seasons of Hot in Cleveland, the actress is reflecting on White’s incredible legacy.

“She just oozed kindness,” Bertinelli told Entertainment Tonight this week. “It wasn’t a struggle for her. It was just that’s who she was. She was a kind, kind human being.”

Besides starring in the same sitcom, the two women share another similarity: Both lost a spouse. White was married to her husband Allen Ludden from 1963 until his death in 1981, and she never married again. Bertinelli, meanwhile, has been processing the grief of her ex-husband Eddie Van Halen’s death since his passing in 2020.

“I am not sad for her. I mean, I am so happy,” the Valerie’s Home Cooking host continued. “It’s always harder for us that are left here behind, but she is with Allen now.”

The day White passed away, Bertinelli shared a brief, but heartfelt message on Instagram. “Rest In Peace, sweet Betty,” she captioned a picture of the pair. “My God, how bright heaven must be right now.”

The idea of a reunion between White and Ludden has also stuck with other Hot in Cleveland castmates. “[Co-star] Wendie Malick said something really lovely. She said, ‘You know damn well Allen was sitting on the rainbow bridge and all of her animals throughout all of her life are sitting there waiting for her, too,’” Bertinelli recalled. “I could just see Betty’s face light up and those dimples getting deeper. That is what made her happy.”

Bertinelli first met White on the set of Hot in Cleveland, where she learned that the actress was just as sweet and witty in person as she was onscreen. “I think Betty is beloved by fans because you can just feel how kind she is,” Bertinelli told the Today show last November, before White had passed away.

“She can be wicked funny and say something that’s cutting in such a funny way, but she can get away with that because she’s just so kind,” she continued. “She’s just one of the kindest people I have ever known.”

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