The actress explained that she already has someone special in her life: her pet cat, Batman.

Valerie Bertinelli offers excellent response when asked about dating again

The actress explained that she already has someone special in her life: her pet cat, Batman.

By Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2022. Her work has previously appeared on MTV News, Teen Vogue, and NME.

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May 4, 2026 12:11 p.m. ET

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Valerie Bertinelli on April 30, 2026. Credit:

Leon Bennett/Getty

- Valerie Bertinelli is enjoying her single era.

- The *Love, Again* actress was asked if she'd be open to dating again at a recent red carpet.

- "No! I sleep with a black cat. That tells you everything you need to know about me,” she said.

Valerie Bertinelli is *purrrrfectly* happy staying single, thank you very much!

The actress and lifestyle expert shut down a question about potentially dipping her feet back into the dating pool while attending a recent panel and screening of her Lifetime film, *Love, Again, *at the Academy's Wolf Theatre at the Saban Media Center in Los Angeles.

“You’ve mentioned you’re maybe not so interested in dating, but if you were…” the interviewer began in a clip posted by the social media account Pause Rewind. Bertinelli then interjected, “Oh, hell no. No. 2024 sucked the life out of me. So, no.”

Valerie Bertinelli poses before an In Conversation for Bertinelli's new book, "Getting Naked: The Quiet Work Of Becoming Perfectly Imperfect" at 92NY on March 10, 2026 in New York City.

Michael Loccisano/Getty

When pressed again about theoretically finding someone new, Bertinelli explained that she already has a very special someone in her life: her cat, Batman.

“No! I sleep with a black cat. That tells you everything you need to know about me,” she said. “And I love that furry little 11 pounds.”

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Valerie Bertinelli recalls Eddie Van Halen saying that 'letting her go' was his 'biggest mistake'

Bertinelli reposted the interview on her own Instagram account, sharing along with it footage of herself lying in bed with Batman and giving him lots of pets. “My man,” she captioned the post.

Bertinelli is referring to her relationship with writer Mike Goodnough, whom she dated for 10 months in 2024. Speaking with PEOPLE in March, she explained that she learned a lot from their time together.

“Here’s the thing about big loud mistakes, I was given the opportunity to learn a really deep life-changing lesson, and that is what I’m grateful for,” she said at the time. “Oh god, did I learn a lot. And if I ever start dating again, I ain’t talking about it for a long time. I got to see if it works out first.”

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Bertinelli was previously married to rocker Eddie Van Halen from 1981 until 2007, though the pair separated in 2001. She tied the knot for a second time with financial planner Tom Vitale, with whom she was married from 2011 until 2022.

In her memoir *Getting Naked: The Quiet Work of Becoming Perfectly Imperfect*, Bertinelli wrote that Van Halen told others in the final year of his life that letting her go was the biggest mistake of his life. Van Halen died from cancer at age 65 in 2020.

"He wanted to make it right with me, too,” she wrote. “I was told that every time I would walk out of a room, he would look around and say, 'The biggest mistake of my life was letting her go.' In our own way, we never did let go."

She went on to describe their relationship as "amicable"  even during "the most difficult times of our split,” adding, "We hurt each other's feelings, but we always tried to do the right thing."

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