Valerie Bertinelli is moving on from her ten-year marriage to ex-husband Tom Vitale by selling off the items she wore during their 2011 wedding ceremony.
On Wednesday, the Hot in Cleveland actress took to Instagram to share some of the mementos she listed on The RealReal, an online luxury marketplace. “Dropped a few things off with @therealreal,” the 62-year-old actress wrote alongside images of the items, which included two Tiffany diamond rings and a pair of Jimmy Choo heels she wore during her wedding to Vitale in January 2011.
“A couple of Tiffany rings that have some bad memories attached and a pair of shoes I wore to a wedding in January 2011,” she wrote, and added a winky face emoji. “They should be up in a couple of weeks!”
Her post received an outpouring of support from friends and fans in the comments section, including some kind words from her son Wolfgang Van Halen, who she shares with the late rock star Eddie Van Halen.
“Love you, Ma,” the musician wrote, alongside three red heart emojis.
“It’s a good thing to let things go,” another fan commented. “I say after you give those away, do something that makes you happy – cut some flowers from your garden & place them in a vase, take a walk on the beach, and lastly make your favorite meal & have a great glass of wine.”
“It’s not always easy but cleaning house, metaphorical and physical, can be both emotionally cleansing and freeing,” said someone else.
Valerie Bertinelli filed for divorce from Tom Vitale in May after they legally separated in November 2021. Along with the keepsake items, Bertinelli recently listed her Los Angeles home for $2.5m.
The Food Network host’s decision to sell the items comes amid her bitter divorce battle with her ex over spousal support agreements. The financial planner is currently contesting their 2010 prenuptial agreement. In court documents obtained by PEOPLE, Vitale asked to be awarded spousal support from Bertinelli, while also blocking the actress from seeking spousal support from him.
When Bertinelli appeared on the Today show in June, she told host Hoda Kotb that she’s content on her own after her divorce. “I am gonna be more than happy to be happily divorced and spend the rest of my life alone, I’ll be happy that way. Well, with my six cats and my dog and my son, and hopefully one day grandchildren,” Bertinelli admitted. “Because of the challenges that I’m going through right now, because divorce sucks. I can’t imagine ever trusting anyone again to let into my life. So I have some trust issues that I’m sure I’m going to have to get past.”
Valerie Bertinelli was previously married to Hall of Fame rock star Eddie Van Halen for more than 25 years, before their divorce in 2007. Their son, Wolfgang, is 31 years old.
When the Van Halen musician died of cancer in October 2020, Bertinelli shared a touching tribute to her ex-husband in her 2022 memoir, Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I Am Today.
She wrote that as Van Halen lay dying in the hospital, she told her ex-husband through tears: “Maybe next time. Maybe next time, we’ll get it right.”
“I loved Ed more than I know how to explain,” Bertinelli said. “I loved his soul. ‘I love you’ are the last words Ed says to Wolfie and me and they are the last words we say to him before he stops breathing.”
