Hot in Cleveland Star Valerie Bertinelli Engaged to Boyfriend Tom Vitale

[Brian Damage]

Three years after officially divorcing rock icon Eddie Van Halen, actress Valerie Bertinelli is preparing to give marriage another try. In an interview with AARP Magazine, the 50-year-old star opened up about her engagement to long-time boyfriend Tom Vitale, who proposed after a romantic night out in Florence.

"We'd talked about getting married," Bertinelli told the magazine, "but I was still shocked. It was sweet when he asked me, because he was so scared. I was like, 'Are you kidding me?'"

Bertinelli and Vitale, a private equity fund manager, began dating around six years ago. Bertinelli and the Van Halen rocker had separated after a quarter-century of marriage before she began seeing Vitale.

"After Ed and I separated, I thought, 'I'll finish raising my son [Wolfgang], and I'll go away, have about 40 cats, and just get nice and fat.' I thought I would be alone for the rest of my life, because I didn't want the responsibility," she said. "Relationships are too hard."

But she did find love again, after bonding with Vitale over their shared Italian roots and love for family. "I can't imagine my life -- for the rest of my life, till the day I die -- without him."

The 'One Day at a Time' star revealed she's letting Vitale plan the nuptials, which will happen sometime this fall. For now, she's scouting out wedding dresses and marveling at finding her soul mate later in life.

"Marriage at this age is so much different than when I was first married at 20. I feel incredibly lucky because here I am (at) 50 and I feel like I really am in the prime of my life. I'm doing a little bit of wedding dress shopping, too, thinking, 'Well, I don't have to wear white!'"

Bertinelli and Van Halen tied the knot in 1981, and for many years, the relationship was as good as it appeared to the outside world. But his substance abuse grew with time, and in 2001 she discovered her husband had boarded a plane with their son while carrying a small packet of cocaine in his wallet.

A few years later, they separated and eventually she filed for divorce.

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey last year, Bertinelli acknowledged that both she and Van Halen were to blame for the breakdown of their marriage. "I cheated. He claims to this day that I cheated first, but I don't know. I don't know about the timing," she told Oprah.

On the upside, Valerie and her ex have reconnected since their bitter divorce, and she now considers him a good friend and actually sat in the front row for his 2009 wedding.

http://www.popeater.com/2010/05/20/v...ed-tom-vitale/

[catlover79]

Congrats to Val and Tom - I wish them a long and happy life together!

[Auntie]

Congrats to them both. I wish them all the best!

[Dr. Thong]

I think it speaks volumes that Valerie is now with a conservative, stable guy who's a businessman. I guess she had enough of a roller coaster ride with a wild rocker after twenty years.

What's even weirder is that Tom has played golf with Eddie and Wolfgang and apparently, they get along just fine.