Valerie Bertinelli is firing back at critics trying to take her to task for showing off her body. After posting a picture of herself in her underwear to her Instagram account Monday, the actress and cookbook author followed up the post with a message for her detractors.
“To all of you who sit in judgment of my body, the photo, and my reason for posting it, I hope you find a place in your heart to not judge yourself as harshly as you judge others,” she wrote.
Bertinelli included a caption about personal confidence and perseverance in her initial post. “At some point, I will talk about the madness my body has been through this year,” Bertinelli said. “But right now, every lump, bump, wrinkle and saggy part of me just feels acceptance and simple appreciation to be standing in front of a mirror.”
Bertinelli, a one-time spokesperson for the weight loss program Jenny Craig, continued her response to the photo’s backlash by touching on her experience in the public eye since her rise to fame on the sitcom “One Day at a Time.”
“I have dealt with judgment my entire life, starting from when I was a young girl,” Bertinelli wrote. “It has taken me a long time to realize that my judgment, with patient discernment, is the only judgment that counts. I have no power over someone else’s judgment of me and now I have no interest. Finally.”
“I don’t care what you think of my body,” Bertinelli continued. “I don’t care what you think about my posting it. For the first time in my life, I love my body as it is … even as challenging as it’s been and is, I am grateful for this journey and wouldn’t trade this body for my 20-year-old body any day. Ever."
