Valerie Bertinelli opened up about being fired as the spokesperson for a diet company because she regained weight after initially losing 50 pounds.
On Jan. 14, the 65-year-old actress made an appearance on “The Drew Barrymore Show” and took part in the show’s “Memory Bank” segment in which Barrymore and her guests are presented with photos from pivotal moments in their lives, leading them to recount the stories and emotions behind the images.
During the segment, Barrymore, her co-anchor Ross Matthews and Bertinelli reacted to a photo of the “Hot in Cleveland” star, who was seen smiling while wearing a white floral sheath dress at her Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in 2012.
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“Look at you, Val! God, you’re so beautiful,” Barrymore said. “You look stunning.”
“And I felt so horrified,” Bertinelli said.
Bertinelli explained that in the years leading up her Hollywood Walk of Fame Ceremony, she had publicly chronicled her weight loss efforts while representing an unnamed diet company.
“I had started a diet program and then became their spokesperson in 2007, and I had lost 50 pounds,” she recalled. “And then life started to get the better of me, and I wasn’t taking care of my mental and emotional health, so the weight started to come back on.”
“And this was the last year, I believe, that I was with this diet company,” Bertinelli continued. “And they fired me, eventually said, ‘We can’t keep going with you because you’re gaining weight again.'”
The “One Day at a Time” actress noted that the dress she was pictured in was a size 12.
“I remember thinking, ‘But size 12’s not that big!’” Bertinelli recalled. “But I had gotten down to a size 4 — which was way too small for me and impossible for me to maintain.”
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“And I’ve been up and down, but pretty much, basically, this weight my whole life that I am right now, and I’m a size 10 now,” she continued. “And I would’ve been horrified then being on the diet program being a size 10.”
Bertinelli became emotional as she described how her priorities and view of her self-worth had changed since that time.
“Right now, it’s about my mental and emotional health,” she said. “My mental and emotional health — even though I’m getting teary-eyed — is so strong right now.”
“I’m so strong and firm in who I am and, no matter what people throw at me, I know who I am, and I know what kind of person I am, and it doesn’t matter how much I weigh,” Bertinelli continued.
“What matters is who I am, how I treat people. Period!” she emphasized as the audience clapped and cheered.
Bertinelli went on to say that she still owns the dress from the photo.
“And it fits me just fine,” the former Food Network star said. “It’s a little less snug than it is there, but I just — if anything, it doesn’t matter what size we are. What is our heart? How do we treat people? Period!”
“Preach, Val,” Matthews said.
“I hope that we’ve also come some distance between just saying skinny and fat as opposed to like, what is healthy for you,” Barrymore said.
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“You’re right!” Bertinelli told her. “What is healthy for you? What is healthy mentally, spiritually, emotionally, physically?”
“I’m figuring that out,” Barrymore admitted.
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Bertinelli has previously expressed that she does not “like diet culture“ and is more focused on making sure she eats enough protein, carbs, fat and fiber.
In a February 2024 Instagram post, Bertinelli revealed that she no longer weighs herself.
The actress shared two throwback photos of herself in a bikini, writing, “This is a 150lb body on a 5’4 frame. I don’t weigh myself anymore because this is considered overweight by whose standards I don’t know.”
She added that the standards are “stupid and I believed them for far too long. I now, finally, know that I am a kind, considerate, funny, thoughtful woman. So please remember, who you are and what your character is, should never be overshadowed by what size you are or how much you weigh. You are enough. Just the way you are. F— ‘em.”
