The actress is opening up about the 'hidden bruises' from her past.
Valerie Bertinelli is celebrating a body-confident moment with her fans. On Sunday, the Hot in Cleveland star went on TikTok to reveal that she was sporting a pair of pants that she never used to wear because of the sound they made when her legs rubbed together.
She told her followers that putting the pants on had "activated a small hidden bruise," because someone from her past used to comment on her thighs rubbing together, and tell her she was "too lazy to do anything about it [so] they wouldn’t rub together." The 62-year-old actress added that this person "mercilessly mocked" her appearance.
Bertinelli admitted that she had planned to put the pants "away forever," and had even at times "changed the way" she walked when she did wear them.
"That’s in the past," Bertinelli said of how she used to feel in the clothing. "I'm so grateful that the work that I’m doing on healing is working. So it’s making me giggle now. … Now I can wear them, hear that sound and that’s the sound of freedom."
As for critics who might watch her TikTok post and think she should "let go of it and move on," Bertinelli responded,
"This is called moving on. This is called healing. Hidden bruises are something that emotional, verbal and mental abuse do to you that people can’t see but we kind of deal with every day."
This recent post comes just a week after Bertinelli reflected on her divorce from Tom Vitale. "I'm over the narcissist. I'm long over the narcissist. What I’m working on is what made me tolerate the intolerable?" she shared. "...That question just was a lightbulb. What made me tolerate the intolerable? So, by searching for that -- by healing that -- I have just put a better life forward for myself. I'm more joyful. I'm more happy. A life that I already have that I'm grateful for, but a life that I can truly enjoy. Because then I finally feel like I deserve it."
Choking back tears, Bertinelli added, "We all deserve to have a beautiful life. And it starts here, within. I want you all to feel that for yourselves 'cause we all deserve it. So yes, I have moved on from the s**tty part, and I'm going into the really hard, hard part that has the most benefits to it."
Bertinelli finalized her divorce from Vitale in November. As part of the divorce settlement, the actress forked over $2.2 million to her ex. The pricy settlement didn't put a damper on her celebrating the split, though. Bertinelli called it the "second best day" of her life.
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