Valerie Bertinelli’s Boyfriend Mike Goodnough Shares Photo with the Star’s Cat

Valerie Bertinelli’s boyfriend, Mike Goodnough, has the approval of one very important person in her life—her cat, Batman!

On Friday, April 26, Goodnough shared an Instagram photo of the feline sleeping gently inside his arms while relaxing in bed together.

“‘To inhabit a land, one must quiet its dogs. To be its king, one must befriend its cats.’ — either Confucius or something I just made up. I am now in league with Batman,” began Goodnough in his lengthy caption.

He quipped that Bertinelli’s five other cats —Henry, Bubba, Tigger, Beau, and Nelson — will soon “all come aboard” and “the prophecy will be complete.”

“A ‘Man of the Cats’ will appear unexpectedly and bring peace to the restive village. I’m a Leo. We do stuff like that,” continued Goodnough.

While Bertinelli, 64, revealed that she was dating someone new in an interview with USA TODAY in March, she and Goodnough didn’t go public until earlier this month.

In an April 20 Instagram post, the Indulge cookbook author shared a photo of the two smiling from ear to ear, quoting lyrics from Taylor Swift’s new song “So High School,” off her recently released 11th studio album The Tortured Poets Department, in the caption.

“🎶 I’ll drink what you think and I’m high from smokin’ your jokes all damn night 🎶,” Bertinelli wrote.

Goodnough also made it official by sharing the news in a Substack post titled “Rumors, Rumors, Rumors.”

“I am Valerie Bertinelli’s boyfriend… and that may well be among the most surreal sentences I’ve ever pecked out. But it’s true… and nothing about our actual relationship seems surreal. It just seems… good… lucky… a gift,” wrote Goodnough.

“Life is crazy, kids. It just is. It’ll rain hellfire down on you for years and bring you to your knees… and then it’ll open the skies to deep blue and love and calling someone ‘Honey’ because you just love the absolute hell out of her and feel so very thankful for the gift of that feeling, the gift of her,” he continued.

“So, the little rumor going around, consider it happily confirmed,” Goodnough wrote. “I just adore her. I’m so glad we’re together.”

The former Food Network host, who finalized her divorce from her second husband, Tom Vitale, in November 2022, echoed similar sentiments while gracing the cover of PEOPLE earlier this month.

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While she didn’t reveal the name of her boyfriend at the time, she told PEOPLE, “I’m in love. It’s a seesaw of emotions because I was adamant I was never falling in love again.”