The actress reflects on how her life has changed since her 2007 ad campaign with Jenny Craig.
Valerie Bertinelli is getting vulnerable. The 63-year-old actress delivers a powerful message on self-love while wearing her so-called "fat clothes" from her 2007 weight loss ad campaign.
Wearing a pale pink button-up shirt and jeans, Bertinelli reflects on the significance of her outfit in a video posted to Instagram on Monday.
"I found the clothes I was wearing in my very first 'Before' picture for Jenny Craig," she says. "I have done so much emotional and mental work to recover from years of, ugh, pretending everything's OK when it wasn't."
The Golden Globe winner continues, "Health is not body size. Health is not that number you see on a scale. Your worth as a human being isn't dictated by your body. It's not defined by your body. I thought I was fat the last time I wore these clothes."
Bertinelli pauses, taking a breath to steady herself.
"I've never felt more beautiful, more at peace, more mentally and emotionally stable than I do today," she concludes, adding with a laugh, "And I'm wearing my 'fat clothes.' That's f**ked up."
In her caption, the star further elaborates on how she happened across the old outfit.
"Warning: vulnerable post incoming -all hateful commenter’s will be blocked. 🥰" she began. "I have been doing a lot of emotional and mental purging in the last year. And the past few weeks, purging my closets and getting rid of things that no longer bring me joy. These were in the back of my closet in my office. I don’t know why I kept them, but now I’m glad I did. It’s nice to see how far I’ve come emotionally. I continue to work on not suppressing or numbing my feelings with food or alcohol and here I am. I am enough. Our bodies do not define who we are as human being’s. A number on the scale does not define how much love your heart can hold. Please love yourself, every single part of you. YOU ARE ENOUGH."
Earlier this year, the Hot in Cleveland star celebrated a body-confident moment with her fans as she joyfully rocked 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." Bertinelli added that this person "mercilessly mocked" her appearance.
The One Day at a Time alum 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."
Meanwhile, Bertinelli has been enjoying her independence this year following her divorce from financial planner Tom Vitale in November 2022 after more than 10 years of marriage. As part of the divorce settlement, Bertinelli forked over $2.2 million to Vitale. The pricy settlement didn't put a damper on celebrating her split, as she called it the "second best day" of her life.
Bertinelli was also previously married to the late rock star Eddie Van Halen, with whom she shares son Wolfgang Van Halen.
