Valerie Bertinelli documented her weight loss journey one day at a time.
However, the 65-year-old recalled being fired as a spokesperson for an unnamed diet company after gaining the weight back.
While on “The Drew Barrymore Show” last week, Bertinelli played a game called “Memory Bank,” where guests reflect on different life moments.
The actress brought a picture of herself from her Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in 2012. She donned a white dress and heels for the monumental occasion.
“You look stunning,” host Drew Barrymore stated, to which Bertinelli replied: “And I felt so horrified.”
“I had started a diet program and then became their spokesperson in 2007 and I had lost 50 pounds,” the “Hot in Cleveland” star explained about the years leading up to the event.
“And then life started to get the better of me, and I wasn’t taking care of my mental and emotional health, so the weight started to come back on.”
“And this was the last year, I believe, that I was with this diet company,” Bertinelli explained. “And they fired me, eventually said, ‘We can’t keep going with you because you’re gaining weight again.’”
The dress in the picture was a size 12.
“I remember thinking, ‘But size 12’s not that big!’” the “One Day at a Time” alum said.
“But I had gotten down to a size 4 — which was way too small for me and impossible for me to maintain.”
Bertinelli revealed that her weight has been “up and down, but pretty much, basically, this weight my whole life that I am right now, and I’m a size 10 now.”
“And I would’ve been horrified then being on the diet program being a size 10. But right now, it’s about my mental and emotional health.”
These days, Bertinelli prides herself on being in a much better place with her weight.
“My mental and emotional health — even though I’m getting teary-eyed — is so strong right now,” she said. “I’m so strong and firm in who I am and, no matter what people throw at me, I know who I am and I know what kind of person I am and it doesn’t matter how much I weigh.”
“What matters is who I am, how I treat people. Period!”
Despite the upsetting memory, Bertinelli kept the dress from the Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony.
“And it fits me just fine,” she quipped. “It’s a little less snug than it is there, but I just. If anything, it doesn’t matter what size we are. What is our heart? How do we treat people? Period!”
Barrymore’s co-host Ross Mathews chimed in, “Preach, Val.”
Although the actress did not publicly disclose the diet company, she did discuss her partnership with Jenny Craig in her 2008 book, “Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time.” She took over from late brand representative Kirstie Alley in 2007.
Barrymore, 50, herself shared that she hopes “we’ve also come some distance between just saying skinny and fat as opposed to like, what is healthy for you.”
“You’re right!” Bertinelli replied during the sit-down. “What is healthy for you? What is healthy mentally, spiritually, emotionally, physically?”
In October, the Golden Globes winner opened up about her body struggles over the decades.
“I just think there’s some sort of… I think all of us have a little bit of body dysmorphia, because we’ve been trained to think that we’re not enough and our bodies are wrong and they’re not,” Bertinelli said while on “The Drew Barrymore Show” at the time. “Our bodies are our bodies. Our bodies are beautiful. Just put it in everything and anything you want to put it in!”
In Dec. 2024, Bertinelli took to social media to clap back at body-shamers.
After posting a photo of herself in a bra and underwear, Bertinelli called out critics who judged her body.
“It has taken me a long time to realize that my judgment, with patient discernment, is the only judgment that counts,” she stated.
Bertinelli also said that it’s taken her nearly “3 years of emotional labor to get to this point mentally” where she doesn’t care about the cruel comments about her physical appearance.
“For the first time in my life,” Bertinelli added. “I love my body as it is.”
This past November, she rocked a shocking hair transformation in an Instagram selfie.
In the snap, Bertinelli posed for the camera while donning a bright blonde do, writing, “New hair who dis?”
She added, “It’s a wig 🤭.”
On her Instagram Stories, Bertinelli documented herself trying to remove the hair piece, confessing: “I have no idea how to get this off.”
“There are a lot of pins in here,” she mused, “and my hair is glued to my head.”
Bertinelli successfully took off the wig to show off her natural brunette hair.
The star had previously detailed dealing with gray hair in a 2024 Instagram video.
“PSA about filters and gray roots. I’m filming with no filter today because some of y’all get really bent out of shape when I choose to use a filter, which I’ve told you about,” Bertinelli told followers at the time “Sometimes I use filter, and sometimes I don’t. Most of the time, I do use filter because this is me with no makeup, and this is no filter.”
