Valerie Bertinelli has pulled back the curtains on her struggle with body image as she opened up about her “deformed” breasts.
The “Murder of Innocence” star detailed how she’d always hated her naturally small breasts and chose to get implants to add some girth, but things went sideways and left her more “embarrassed.”
Valerie Bertinelli is looking forward to what makes her happy, which includes watching her son Wolfgang Van Halen on stage, as well as her return to home cooking.
Why Valerie Bertinelli Said She Has ‘Deformed’ Breasts
Valerie Bertinelli got candid about her struggles with her appearance during a conversation with Drew Barrymore discussing her recent memoir, “Getting Naked.”
In the book, the “Night Sins” actress detailed how she had multiple surgeries on her breasts, but things went sideways and eventually led to her having “deformed” breasts. And in her chat with Barrymore, she described the situation in vivid detail.
She said, “I mean, if you read the book, you’ll know that my boobs are deformed, and I talk very extensively and graphically about how deformed they are. I had four surgeries in 2024. But Drew is like, ‘How bad can it be?’ I’m like, ‘Really?’”
Bertinelli then mimicked opening her blouse and said that Barrymore was like, “Oh yeah, that’s bad.”
“I love her honesty,” she added. “It’s like, I can trust this woman.”
Barrymore then chimed in, “And then I proceeded to be like, ‘here’s what we can do.’”
“My boobs suck, but I’m not dating, so it doesn’t matter,” Bertinelli added, per Fox News Digital, with Barrymore interjecting, “Yet.”
The Actress Opened Up About How The Situation Came To Be
In “Getting Naked,” which was released March 10, Bertinelli narrated that she had always hated her small breasts and decided to get small implants just to add some weight.
However, the results turned out more outrageous than she’d envisaged, which left her “embarrassed” to the point that she had to hide them.
“After I got the implants, I never put them on display. I tried to hide them even, embarrassed that I had done it,” she wrote.
The actress then suffered a terrible fall and had to undergo surgery to take out the old implants and have smaller ones installed some 6 weeks later.
However, just a week into it, she started experiencing discoloration and swelling in the region, and felt herself “getting dizzy.” She stated that she would also run a fever at night, and sometimes her temperature went up to 104 degrees.
Valerie Bertinelli Described The Moment She Knew Things Had Gone Bad
The “Silent Witness” actress described the moment she realized things had spiraled out of control in an interaction with People Magazine earlier this month.
“The look on my doctor’s face when he finally saw me made me think, ‘Oh sh-t, I guess I should have come in earlier.’ And he took everything out [the implant and the surrounding tissues], and then my breast became infected and started to cave in on itself. It became a crater,” Bertinelli shared.
“I have to have one more surgery to even them out,” she told the news outlet. “Me and these guys (pointing to two of her cats, Henry and Batman, along with Luna) are the only ones looking at my boobs anyway, but I don’t care because I can’t see without my glasses on … I’ll have to date somebody who can’t see.”
“Anyway, those were my boobs,” she added. “Anybody want to date me? It was so serious I just had to find the humor in it.”
The Actress Says She’s ‘Lucky To Have Survived’ The Infection
Despite Bertinelli’s condition at the time, she wanted to go to a Jon Bon Jovi concert in which her son, Wolfgang Van Halen, was playing.
However, he and his wife kept her from it, with the actress admitting she was “bummed” to have missed it.
“The have-you-lost-your-mind looks they gave me all said the same thing: ‘What part about almost dying from an infection don’t you get?’” she wrote.
According to Fox News, she noted that she’s “lucky to have survived” the infection and scare that resulted afterwards.
Valerie Bertinelli Is Focusing On What Makes Her Happy
Bertinelli is currently focusing on what makes her happy after her near-death experience.
This includes watching her son, Wolfgang, on stage and on tour, as well as working on the “Drew Barrymore Show” as part of the “Drew Crew” of lifestyle experts.
She is also excited about her return to home cooking following the new launch of the digital platform “Valerie’s Place,” and watching long videos of birds on YouTube with her cats.
