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Valerie Bertinelli is celebrating two years of personal growth.
The Food Network, 64, alum finalized her divorce from ex-husband Tom Vitale on Nov. 22, 2022.
“Today marks two years of freedom,” the Indulge author captioned an Instagram post Friday, before listing off a long list of emotional accomplishments. “Two years of walking through self doubt and doing my best to get to the other side. Two years of knowing that I didn’t deserve to tolerate the intolerable. Two years of working through shame and self loathing. (Still working on that part🥴long tail that😅) Two years of working to find my true self.”
She also gave a shout-out to Mike Goodnough — the writer whom Bertinelli dated since March, before their relationship ended earlier this month, according to a source.
“Two years of eventually dipping my toe in and feeling love again. (Thank you, Mike ♥️),” Bertinelli wrote. “Two years of confronting past demons and traumas and doing my best to work through them.”
Instagram/therealhoarse
The Hot in Cleveland star continued, writing that she wants to be the “best, most authentic version” of herself “heading into this last chapter of [her] life.”
The celebrity chef thanked her friends, family and followers for their compassion and feedback. She also specifically thanked Goodnough again at the end of the caption, adding, “And therealhoarse, thank you for being such a big part of my growth this year. I’m so grateful I met you.”
To close out the post, Bertinelli gave some honest mental health advice. “Most importantly, I want you to know that if you’re struggling right now, I’ve been there and some days I can still be there but I want you to know it does get better. I promise you. It gets better. Some days will still be hard and challenging, but on other days, the light will shine brighter and you will feel it. I love you. 🤍”
Just this week, the Valerie’s Home Cooking host shared a vulnerable post.
“So I don’t know if you can tell from this video (and my heart is still beating a little rapidly as I write this) I had a really bad anxiety attack today,” she wrote in the caption of the Nov. 17 video, which showed her hand shaking. “I haven’t had one like this in a very, very long time. A few hours ago, I was weeping uncontrollably, and my heart felt like it was pounding out of my chest. I couldn’t stop shaking.”
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She detailed her history of panic attacks and how her body reacts when having one. Bertinelli explained that she dissociates and is “focused solely on calming down and finding any road to a more relaxed and peaceful body.”
“Gratefully these attacks have become much more infrequent, so this one took me a little bit by surprise today,” she noted.
Bertinelli filed for divorce from Vitale in May 2022, six months after filing for legal separation in November 2021.
When the divorce was finalized that November, she shared a candid clip taken at an airport on the way to see her son — 33-year-old musician Wolfgang Van Halen — and revealed, “My lawyer just called. The papers are all signed. They’re about to be filed.”
“On 11/22/22, I am officially f—— divorced,” she added. “Happily divorced. Finally. It’s finally over.”
The actress married Vitale in 2011 during a New Year’s Day ceremony at their cliff-side Malibu home after several years of dating. They were introduced by her brother Patrick.
