“I do wish Ed were here just so we could go, ‘Look at our kid. That’s so cool!”: Valerie Bertinelli on her son Wolfgang Van Halen’s success
Eddie Van Halen passed away in 2020.
Credit: Monica Schipper/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Wolfgang Van Halen’s mother, the actress and TV personality Valerie Bertinelli, is unsurprisingly proud of her son.
And in a new interview she’s been saying that she wishes his father, late guitar legend Eddie Van Halen, was still here to celebrate Wolfgang’s achievements too.
Appearing on Good Morning America to promote her new cookbook, the 63-year-old is asked by host Lara Spencer how proud Eddie would be of Wolfgang. She replies, “Oh, so proud. I do wish Ed were here just so we could go, ‘Look, look at our kid. That’s so cool!’”
@gma #ValerieBertinelli says she wishes the late Eddie Van Halen was alive to see how amazing their son Wolfgang is: “I wish Ed were here just so we could go, ‘Look at our kid, so cool.’” ❤️ #Family #EddieVanHalen
Bertinelli and Van Halen married in 1981 and separated in 2001 before divorcing in 2007. However, they maintained a good relationship, and she was there when he died in 2020.
She’s been discussing her ex-husband and son a lot recently, telling People in an interview earlier this month that, when Eddie was dying, “I didn’t want to believe it was happening. Even while it was happening, I wasn’t believing it was happening.”
Bertinelli also shared that, after Eddie died, his family ordered pizza to his hospital room. She was there with Wolfgang, Eddie’s brother Alex Van Halen, and his wife Janie Liszewski, and told People, “I forget who suggested it, but we were like, ‘should we have pizza?’… Because he couldn’t eat, and the last thing Ed really wanted was pizza. He loved pizza and burritos, so we had pizza in his hospital room. I hope people don’t think that’s morbid.”
Meanwhile, Wolfgang has said that he always honours his dad on stage by pointing to the sky at the end of every show. He said, “The reason I do what I do is because of my dad. So if I didn’t or at least think about him throughout the process, I’d be doing a disservice to my existence.
“So I think it’s very important to establish that to thank my dad every night, every time I’m on stage. Just to thank my father and to know that he’s always there with me every night.”