Following her divorce from Tom Vitale, Valerie Bertinelli moved on with writer Mike Goodnough for less than one year.
The One Day at a Time actress, who shares son Wolfgang with her late ex-husband, Eddie Van Halen, revealed in March 2024 that she was dating someone “very special” for the first time after her split from Vitale in November 2021.
“It’s unlike any relationship that I’ve ever experienced with a man,” she shared in an interview with USA Today. “I don’t want to say too much, but I feel incredibly blessed and lucky to have met him, because I wasn’t expecting it!”
Two months after keeping her mystery man under wraps, Goodnough confirmed through his Substack that he is dating Bertinelli — and that they are very much in love.
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“I am Valerie Bertinelli’s boyfriend … and that may well be among the most surreal sentences I’ve ever pecked out,” Goodnough wrote on his Hoarse Whisperings Substack in April 2024. “But it’s true … and nothing about our actual relationship seems surreal. It just seems … good … lucky … a gift.”
While reports surfaced that Bertinelli and Goodnough split in November 2024, she didn’t publicly address the break up until March 2025.
Keep scrolling for more details on Bertinelli and Goodnough’s romance:
March 2024
On March 14, Bertinelli shared that she had started dating someone “very special” and that she didn’t expect to find love again after splitting from Vitale after 11 years.
“I was going to die with my six cats and my dog and be incredibly happy doing it,” she said in an interview with USA Today at the time. “So this came out of left field, and I’m grateful it did. This would not have happened three years ago, four years ago, last year – it wouldn’t have. And I feel incredibly lucky to have met him and made a connection with him.”
April 2024
Less than a month after Bertinelli revealed she had a new man in her life, she gushed over how she had fallen in love with him after meeting him online.
“I’m in love,” she told People in an interview on April 1. “It’s a seesaw of emotions because I was adamant I was never falling in love again.”
Bertinelli explained that she had become friendly with Goodnough years prior after meeting via Instagram.
“It was strictly platonic but there was something about him that I connected with that felt familiar,” she told the outlet, adding that things didn’t turn romantic until they began speaking on the phone earlier this year. “It’s crazy the comfort level. It feels incredibly right. I found joy first, and then a man entered my life.”
A couple weeks later, on April 15, Bertinelli went into more detail on her romance.
“He’s amazing. He would like to think he’s complicated and brooding, but he’s thoughtful and kind and ridiculously talented,” she gushed on The Drew Barrymore Show. “He’s an amazing writer. He’s gorgeous, like, so hot. He does it for me.”
Bertinelli went on to share that she met him in New York a month ago.
“I’m just gone,” she joked on the show.
April 2024
On April 17, Goodnough finally confirmed that he was Bertinelli’s mystery man via his Hoarse Whisperings Substack.
“Life is crazy, kids. It just is. It’ll rain hell fire down on you for years and bring you to your knees … and then it’ll open the skies to deep blue and love and calling someone ‘Honey’ because you just love the absolute hell out of her and feel so thankful for the gift of that feeling, the gift of her,” Goodnough wrote. “So, the little rumor going around, consider it happily confirmed. I just adore her. I’m so glad we’re together. Valerie Bertinelli … dating … me?! I know. Ludicrous.”
Goodnough also acknowledged how he knows his relationship with Bertinelli will put him more in the spotlight, but he isn’t afraid of it.
“Along with being in a relationship with someone of Valerie’s accomplishments and renown come certain things,” he explained. “Among them is increased attention. I’ve already seen a bit of that here on Substack in the form of a little uptick in signups for free subscriptions. People read about someone, get curious, and go check them out. Totally natural. The net result is a growing community – which is good.”
March 2025
Bertinelli said she’s “irreversibly changed” by Goodnough “for the better” while confirming their split.
“I know I am becoming a much stronger and more benevolent human for having met him and spent time with him,” she said via Instagram. “Before I had the pleasure of meeting Mike, I was initially and immediately attracted to his writing. It’s heartfelt, authentic, smart, funny, sensitive, caring, and from the soul. And the way he puts words together is just sooo ridiculously beautiful. 🤩 I’m a big fan, can you tell? And as luck would have it, the human being in person is exactly as heartfelt, authentic, sensitive and caring as his writing. And wickedly witty.”
Bertinelli gushed that she’s “so lucky” to have met Goodnough and to “soak up his insights.”
Later that month, Goodnough denied that the pair were feuding. “I am not communicating with Valerie via my posts,” he wrote via Instagram. “I am not engaging with the things she posts. While I am disappointed in the array of hostile, dishonest, and uncalled for backhanded swipes she continues to take at me, there is no war between us. She just won’t stop shooting. Valerie is in a war with her ghosts. I’m just the guy who catches the bullets. And that isn’t new.” Us Weekly reached out to Bertinelli’s rep for comment at the time.
