Valerie Bertinelli stopped by the Today show to discuss her new memoir, Getting Naked.
The One Day at a Time and Hot in Cleveland actor’s book, published Tuesday by Harper Wave, reckons with getting older and learning to accept the changes that come with age. A critic for Kirkus called the book “hopeful, sweet, and very charming.”
Today show co-host Jenna Bush Hager asked about the photo shoot for the cover of the memoir, which features Bertinelli unclothed.
“It was a little nerve-wracking,” she said. “But I’m glad I did it. I’m one of those people that if I feel fear about something, I’m like, OK, let’s grab it by the neck, and let’s feel that fear and do it anyway.…I’ve spent so many decades looking back at pictures of my younger self and going Why didn’t I appreciate what I had then? And now I’m like, OK, when I’m 80, I’m going to go, Yeah, girl, you did it.”
Hager noted that Bertinelli writes in the book about being sexually abused as a child, and asked why she decided to write about it.
“I had finally gotten to a place where I was at peace with it, and I wasn’t ashamed of it any longer,” she said. “I didn’t take the blame for it any longer. I wanted other people to feel that and hear that as well. I remember, just recently, going through an argument with someone, and I had been open and vulnerable with my shame with them, and because they were angry with me, they were able to use that as a weapon and hurt me. And I thought, I gave them this weapon, so I can take it away and I can disarm it by finding peace with whatever the shame is and not having it destroy me and not letting someone else hurt me with it.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
