Valerie Bertinelli says she and ex-husband Eddie Van Halen 'went through a lot of hell' before making amends toward the end of his life

• Valerie Bertinelli said she and her ex-husband Eddie Van Halen weren't always on good terms.

• On NBC's "Today," she explained they were "young" and "very immature" when they met and got married.

• "I'm so happy that we were able to come to a beautiful place by the end of his life," she added.

Valerie Bertinelli and her ex-husband Eddie Van Halen were close friends when he died from cancer on October 6, 2020, but the Food Network host acknowledged that it took years for their relationship to reach a healthy point.

"We went through a lot of hell as well," Bertinelli told host Hoda Kotb on Tuesday's episode of NBC's "Today."

She continued: "We weren't really good to each other at a lot of points in our lives because we met so young and were very immature. But I'm so happy that we were able to come to a beautiful place by the end of his life. I wish he was still here."

Bertinelli and the revolutionary guitarist were married from 1981 to 2007 and welcomed one child together, Wolfgang Van Halen, who is now 30 years old.

In an excerpt that People recently published from her memoir "Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I Am Today," available for purchase on Tuesday, Bertinelli wrote that she and Van Halen were "portrayed as a mismatch" from the outset of their relationship.

He was seen a "bad boy rock star," Bertinelli recalled, while she was known as "America's sweetheart."

"Privately, Ed wasn't the person people thought he was and neither was I," she said, later explaining that she "hated the drugs and the alcohol" but "never hated him."

Following their divorce, both parties went on to remarry; Van Halen wed Janie Liszewski in 2009, and Bertinelli married Tom Vitale in 2011. She filed for legal separation from Vitale in November, a year after Van Halen's death. However, she said that the decision was unrelated to her ex-husband.

Despite Bertinelli and Van Halen's history of highs and lows, they came together in the aftermath of the rockstar's cancer diagnosis. In her book, Bertinelli wrote that she and Wolfgang — along with Van Halen's second wife, Liszewski, and his brother, Alex Van Halen — were by the musician's side at the hospital during his final weeks.

Before he died at 65 years old, she recalled Van Halen telling her: "Maybe next time. Maybe next time, we'll get it right." And in his final moments, "I love you," was the last sentence he said to his ex-wife and his son, according to Bertinelli.

"They are the last words we say to him before he stops breathing," she wrote.

Read the original article on Insider