Valerie Bertinelli won over more fans on social media with an honest post showing off her figure.
At 64, Bertinelli proudly embraced her body as she looked into her bathroom mirror, wearing just a black bra and matching underwear. She then took a selfie with her black and white checkered phone case.
Over the past year, the Food Network star has focused on self-love and healing, gaining support from millions of fans as she shares relatable stories about her everyday life.
Standing in a hallway bathroom wearing nothing but her undergarments, Bertinelli shared that she felt content despite having a lot on her mind.
“At some point I will talk about the madness my body has been through this year,” she wrote on Instagram.
“But right now every lump, bump, wrinkle, and saggy part of me just feels acceptance and simple appreciation to be standing in front of a mirror in a hotel bathroom in downtown Manhattan, ready to color my roots late on a Monday night.”
Her path to acceptance hasn’t been easy. Earlier this year, Bertinelli decided to stop drinking and focus more on her future, leaving the past behind.
“Right now every lump bump wrinkle and saggy part of me just feels acceptance and simple appreciation to be standing in front of a mirror in a hotel bathroom in downtown Manhattan ready to color my roots late on a Monday night.
She’s posted videos and messages encouraging her followers to “never forget the miracle of being here.”
In one message, Bertinelli wrote, “I’ve always been really good at beating myself up about my past and how I could’ve done better. I became a master at judging myself. Judge, jury, and executioner.”
“I don’t wanna do that anymore. I want to lead a full, authentic life, with my heart open to experiencing everything. No more judging. Accepting who I am, flaws and all. What makes me, me.”
Bertinelli spoke to her followers, encouraging them to think about any coping habits or unhealthy behaviors, like drinking or binge eating, that they might have developed that “can prevent us from opening our hearts fully.”
“I think we’ve built a really lovely community here and I love when you all talk amongst yourselves, the last post being a great example of everyone sharing their journey. It’s been inspiring. When we work together and share our stories, we can lift each other up. Let’s keep inspiring each other,” she wrote.
As part of her “intentional” healing journey, she worked on her latest cookbook, “Indulge.” She told People that healing isn’t a straight path and involved “a lot of therapy sessions, a lot of learning that I deserve to feel good.”
“First came the work,” she said. “Why I thought I didn’t deserve to be loved. Why I was using food to numb my feelings. All the drama and trauma I hadn’t dealt with — with Ed and my last marriage.”
“The cookbook was an offshoot of the emotional and mental healing I’ve been doing,” she said. “I know we’re talking about a cookbook, but this cookbook got me through all of it.”
“Ed” refers to her late first husband, musician Eddie Van Halen, and the father of her only child, Wolfgang Van Halen. Her last marriage was to financial planner Tom Vitale, whom she divorced in 2022.
“The more I let myself cry, the better I felt. I wasn’t trying to be happy or sad or thin. I wasn’t trying to be anything other than who I was,” she wrote in the book.
Although the Emmy Award-winning actress found love again with writer Mike Goodnough, the couple broke up in November after 10 months of dating.
