This news does not rock: Valerie Bertinelli has never been on a first date before.
Yes, you read that right. During Wednesday’s episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, the One Day at a Time actress revealed that none of her previous partners — including the late rock legend Eddie Van Halen — ever actually asked her out on a traditional first date before they began dating.
Bertinelli made the revelation during a conversation about the recent “Bob the Builder” relationship trend, in which people match with others on dating apps to ask for help building furniture or fixing things around their respective homes.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Bertinelli said. “I think sometimes you wanna play a game or, I mean, I don’t even know. I don’t know. I’ve never been on a first date, so I have no idea how it works.”
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
Eddie Van Halen and Valerie Bertinelli in 1994
Her admission shocked fellow Drew’s News desk cohost Ross Mathews, but not host Drew Barrymore. “That’s because she goes straight to marriage,” Barrymore teased.
“Wait, you’ve never been on a first date?” Mathews asked, to which Bertinelli responded, “No. No one’s ever asked me out.”
Barrymore then said what everyone else in the room and watching at home was likely thinking: “You’re Valerie Bertinelli. How the hell is that possible?”
But Bertinelli noted that there was a very simple explanation. “I got married at 20 and I was married for 20 some odd years,” she said, referring to her 26-year marriage to Van Halen from 1981 until 2007.
Barrymore followed up by asking what the “Jump” rocker and Bertinelli did when they first met instead of going on a date. “Do you remember like your first night with Ed?” she asked. “Was it an official date? Did you guys just meet somewhere?”
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“My brother Patrick, brought us to the concert that [Van Halen] were having in Shreveport, Louisiana,” Bertinelli replied. “My parents lived out there, and we just made eyes and then we talked backstage and then we talked.”
After the show, Bertinelli said that Van Halen, who died in 2020, invited her to attend the band’s concert in Oklahoma. “So Patrick and I went, and then we were together ever since,” she said. “Eight months later, we were married.”
Outside of the cosmic magic that is falling in love with a musician at a rock concert, it’s not immediately clear why none of Bertinelli’s other partners didn’t ask her out on a first date. After divorcing Van Halen in 2007, the author was married to Tom Vitale from 2011 until 2022. She was also linked to writer Mike Goodnough in January 2024, but the couple went their separate ways in November.
Barrymore has helped set people up on first dates on her show before — maybe there’s an opportunity here?
The Drew Barrymore Show airs weekdays on CBS.
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