Valerie Bertinelli Says She's 'Coming to Terms with My Body' After Posting Viral Bikini Mirror Selfie
"I saw myself in the light and I went, ‘Oh I'm not mad at that,' " the Food Network alum said of snapping the viral selfie
CBS; Valerie Bertinelli/Instagram
Valerie Bertinelli talks about her viral mirror selfie on 'The Drew Barrymore Show'Valerie Bertinelli is proud of her body.
In a preview clip of her appearance on the Friday, Dec. 13 episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, Bertinelli, 64, discussed the response she'd received to her viral bikini mirror selfie.
Asked by co-host Ross Matthews why she decided to share the selfie, Bertinelli responded, “Well, you know what, I have been coming to terms with my body now, aging, and I saw myself in the light and I went, ‘Oh I'm not mad at that.’ “
The Food Network alum then stood up and lifted her red jumper to reveal her stomach as Barrymore, 49, clapped.
“Like all those, you know, planks and sit-ups I've done, you can see underneath the saggy skin,” she joked. “But I have to say … it's 64 years of gravity. It's science. If you focus in on that picture, you're gonna see the little saggies and I'm proud of them because I'm 64. It’s a belly.”
Bertinelli went on to discuss how people have criticized her body and appearance, either telling her she is too slim or she is overweight.
“Why, why, why? And there's so many people, ‘You're too thin, you're too fat, you're out of shape. You're in shape. Oh my God. I want those abs. Oh my God, you're ugly.’ So what I've learned is my dad was wrong. You can't make everybody like you. And I'm okay with that, finally at this age.”
"I don't like that I was part of that manipulation of our brains of we have to look a certain way. We have to be a certain weight," she continued, adding that she has now learned to accept her body. "I'm a size 10. How is that too thin? I'm a size 10. How is that too fat? I'm just me. It's my body."
Bertinelli posted her viral selfie on Dec. 3 and opened up about the acceptance she felt for her body after a difficult year.
“At some point, I will talk about the madness my body has been through this year. But right now every lump, bump, wrinkle and saggy part of me just feels acceptance and simple appreciation to be standing in front of a mirror in a hotel bathroom in downtown Manhattan ready to color my roots late on a Monday night,” she captioned the photo.
In the photo, Bertinelli could be seen posing in a black two-piece as she snapped a selfie in front of a bathroom sink while holding a box of hair dye.
A day later, the "Drew Crew" member responded to social media users who criticized the photo.
“To all of you that would sit in judgment of my body, the photo, and my reason for posting it, I hope you find a place in your heart to not judge yourself as harshly as you judge others,” she wrote alongside a series of new mirror selfies on Instagram.
“I have dealt with judgment my entire life starting from when I was a young girl,” she continued. “It has taken me a long time to realize that my judgment, with patient discernment, is the only judgment that counts.”
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CBS; Valerie Bertinelli/Instagram
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“... It’s taken me almost 3 years of emotional labor to get to this point mentally and for the first eight months of this year I had physical setbacks,” she said, adding that “for the first time in my life, I love my body as it is.”
“It’s not the 20-year-old body that I hated and it is a shame that I hated that beautiful body. Yes, it was a very different body than the one I now inhabit, but it hadn’t yet been through the journey I needed to go through," she added.
“Even as challenging as it’s been and is, I am grateful for this journey and I wouldn’t trade this body for my 20-year-old body any day. Ever,” she concluded, signing off with “XO Valerie” and a peace and heart sign emoji.
The Drew Barrymore Show airs weekdays on CBS (check local listings).
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