Valerie Bertinelli reflects on the ‘loud absence’ of her late ex-husband Eddie Van Halen

Valerie Bertinelli got candid about the “loud absence” of her late ex-husband, Eddie Van Halen, nearly five years after he died of throat cancer.

“Some days I really do miss you,” the “One Day at a Time” alum shared via Instagram Thursday, alongside a throwback photo with the musician.

“There will always be a loud absence in these gratifying sideline years. Who do I yap to when there was really only one person I could talk to about Wolfie the way that we did?” she added, referring to their 34-year-old son, Wolfgang Van Halen.

“The pride we both felt. Still feel. I’m grateful for where we landed,” Bertinelli, 65, continued. “Through the ups and the downs to still alight where we did is a blessing.”

The actress gushed over her son’s career as a musician, saying, “You’d be so proud of Wolf. I know we’d be screaming together in the stands watching him on stage.”

“Seeing who could whistle the loudest. I will never not miss being able to experience that with you.”

Bertinelli and Eddie were married from 1981 to 2007 before the latter moved on with his second wife, Janie Liszewski, in 2009.

The legendary rocker and Liszewski were married until he died in 2020.

Eddie was 65 when he passed away from cancer, and Bertinelli hasn’t shied away from sharing tributes for the guitarist and giving fans insight into their marriage ever since.

The “C.H.O.M.P.S.” star shared in January 2022 that the Van Halen rocker’s final words to her were “I love you.”

She also took to Instagram in May 2024 to share how she had once turned her relationship with her ex “into some sort of fantasy, soulmate recreation of history.”

Bertinelli explained her romance with Eddie began to “rapidly [decline]” as a result of his alcohol and drug use. She also cited his infidelity.

“Nothing that makes you feel loved and wanted and cared for. Nothing that would scream soulmate, that’s for sure,” she explained. “But after Ed died, I was more than willing to put myself in the grieving widow category for a man that I hadn’t lived with for 20 years.”

Despite their setbacks, the “Hot In Cleveland” alum shared she was thankful for her marriage with the “Jump” rocker, adding, “What we had together was this beautiful son that we both unconditionally loved.”

“That’s what I got out of that marriage was Wolfie, the best thing that ever happened to me. Not a soulmate.”

Bertinelli, meanwhile, was last romantically connected to her now-ex Mike Goodnough, whom she dated for 10 months in 2024.