Valerie Bertinelli, 65, was bravely candid in an eye-watering interview with People about the sexual abuse she experienced at age 11, giving never-before-heard details about the trauma she endured and how she changed her life in the last couple of years to heal from a past she had no control over.
“I had no plans to reveal this,” Bertinelli said of her childhood abuse, which she goes into depth about in her memoir “Getting Naked,” scheduled to hit the bookshelves on March 10. “This was going to be a book about teaching people how to love themselves. I did not know that I would go this far.”
Valerie Bertinelli Says Her Inescapable Past Does Not Define Her
The Food Network star explained how the shame of her childhood abuse lingered through her entire life until she realized that what happened to her does not define who she is. Bertinelli shared that because she’s taken the steps to heal from the trauma, she’s now able to be open about what she experienced.
“I guess because I’m healing from it, it’s not so scary anymore,” Bertinelli said. “I can say it out loud. I was sexually assaulted. It doesn’t feel like it owns me anymore.”
The “One Day at a Time” actress told People that she “purposely” included a photo of herself at age 11 in her memoir “because that was the little girl that was sexually abused,” adding, “And it boggles my mind that this little girl was taken advantage of that way. It boggles my mind because it’s still happening… and I’m furious about it. And we need to start speaking up and saying, ‘Enough.’”
Bertinelli said that the first person she opened up to about her abuse was her therapist — 10 years ago. Now, though, she’s confronting the beast by sharing her story to help others who might have had similar experiences, all while healing herself in the process.
Valerie Bertinelli Says 2024 Anxiety Attack Forced Her to Confront Childhood Trauma
“The very first time I said it out loud to my therapist, I thought, ‘I’m going to feel better now.’ It got worse before it got better. I maybe ate a little bit more, drank a little bit more,” she explained. “When you stop eating things for comfort, stop drinking alcohol, it exposes your feelings. You can deal with them or not. And I chose to deal with them. I don’t feel shame about it anymore. I’m pissed off that it happened. Nobody deserves that.”
Bertinelli shared that a 2024 anxiety attack was the catalyst to her self-improvement and decision to disclose details about her childhood abuse in the public eye.
“All of that shame had nothing to do with my body. It was just something to take out my shame on. My poor body,” she expressed. “I was so mean to it. I just needed to get all those voices out of my head. As I was going through that, I’m thinking people are going to wonder, ‘Why do I have so much self-loathing?’ That’s not normal. It’s because trauma happened in my childhood for the most part. I can’t speak for anybody else, but it’s pretty textbook.”
