It is natural for the month of February to bring up lots of emotions about romantic relationships. If you are happy, you want to celebrate that. If you are working through past relationship traumas, those emotions can bubble to the surface. The latter is the case for Valerie Bertinelli.
Valerie took to Instagram to share her experiences as she works to heal from an unnamed relationship. It was triggered by a pair of pants she owns. These pants represent so much more.
“I had a small hidden bruise that was activated today,” Valerie began her story. She was walking and talking to the camera in a casual conversational manner. She treats her followers like good friends.
She discussed the pants in question. She told users when she wore them and walked they rubbed, causing an audible noise like a swoosh.
"You can probably hear them," Valerie said.
The sound of those pants brought up painful memories for Valerie. “I'd stopped wearing (the pants) because I was … mercilessly mocked,” she explained. She added that her unnamed ex told her she was “too lazy to do anything about” her weight, which would stop the issue at hand.
This hurt Valerie deeply. She was already struggling with having a positive body image, and her partner’s cruel words did not help. She even tried to waddle at one point to prevent the pants from making a sound.
Thankfully, Valerie is now in a much better headspace. She has done the work to get there. She hopes by sharing her story she can inspire others to do the same.
“Hidden bruises are something that emotional, verbal, mental abuse do to you that people can’t see. But we kind of deal with them every day when they’re activated. I’m so grateful that the work I’m doing on healing is working,” she said.
Valerie now wears these pants with pride. They are a symbol of how far she has come.
"Now I can wear them, hear that sound and that’s the sound of freedom," she said.
While it is not known which romantic partner Valerie is referring to in this Instagram post, her divorce from Tom Vitale was finalized in 2022.
“I am gonna be more than happy to be happily divorced and spend the rest of my life alone,” she told Today about the situation.
