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Valerie Bertinelli has said she was mistaken for a prostitute in the early 1980s.
The incident occurred when she joined her late ex-husband Eddie Van Halen on tour in South America.
Hotel staff barred the actress and her spouse's brother, Alex Van Halen's then-wife, Valeri Kendall, from returning to their husbands' rooms on the upper floor after mistaking them for sex workers.
The ladies had been partying at a bar late into the night.
Appearing on the latest episode of actors Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson's Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast, Valerie, 66, explained that she missed an episode of her sitcom One Day at a Time to jet out to South America with Eddie for his Van Halen tour.
'Van Halen was going to South America, and I wanted to go,' she shared.
Valerie Bertinelli has said she was mistaken for a prostitute in the 1980s. Seen in 1985 in LA
The incident occurred when she joined her late ex-husband Eddie Van Halen on tour in South America in 1983. Seen in the 1980s
The band performed in Brazil in 1983 when Bertinelli was 22 years old.
'And part of it was on one of our hiatuses, and then the other part I should've been back for work, but I begged them, "Can I please go so I can go to South America for two weeks?" And I did. So they were great,' she mentioned.
She explained, 'So there was one episode that I was not in.'
However, the Hot In Cleveland alum could not remember if the incident happened in Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro.
She said, 'Ed and Al, his brother, had gone downstairs and we, Al's wife at the time, had said, "Let's go down and join them."
'So we go down to join them, and then we're at the bar, whatever. And then the boys go back upstairs, and we said, "OK, we'll join you later." And we were having fun at the bar.
'Valeri and I got to the elevator to go up to the room, and [hotel staff] are like, "No, no." I said, "Why? What's happening? Why can't we go up?"
'And they were trying to tell us that prostitutes aren't allowed on the upper floors.'
The star, now 66, explained that she jetted to South America with Eddie for his Van Halen tour. 'Van Halen was going to South America, and I wanted to go,' she shared. Seen in the 1980s
She took time off from her hit TV show One Day At A Time to join her spouse
The Touched By An Angel cast member tried to flash her wedding ring at the hotel workers to prove she was Eddie's wife and not a sex worker, but they did not budge.
So the actress was forced to make an embarrassing phone call to her husband to prove they were married.
The ex-Food Network star said: 'I had to leave the elevator, get on the phone because there were no cell phones in the early 80s, and call Ed in the room and say, "Can you come down and get me because they won't let me up. They think Valeri and I are prostitutes."''
Bertinelli at a screening of Lifetime's Love, Again in North Hollywood in April
She has a new tell-all book out
Bertinelli laughed as she said: 'So I've been mistaken for a prostitute before.
'Or, to be polite, a sex worker.'
The TV personality married the rock star in 1981, and they have a 35-year-old son, singer-songwriter Wolfgang Van Halen.
Valerie and Eddie's relationship broke down because of his use of drugs and alcohol, as well as his infidelity.
They divorced in 2007, 13 years before his death.
Van Halen passed at age 65 following a long battle with throat cancer.
Bertinelli has been working nonstop these days.
The actress spends much of her time in New York City as she is a part of The Drew Barrymore Show. And she is also in the Lifetime movie Love, Again.
English (US) ·