Valerie Bertinelli revealed that a canceled sitcom led to the birth of her son, Wolfgang Van Halen. The actress made the reveal during a “memory bank” segment of The Drew Barrymore Show on Sept. 18, according to People magazine.
Bertinelli’s acting career was in high gear in the 1970s and ‘80s, with roles on Apple’s Way, The Hardy Boys, a string of TV movies, and most notably, the CBS sitcom One Day at a Time, where she played Barbara Cooper for nine seasons. She also married rock legend Eddie Van Halen in 1981.
Six years after her run on One Day at a Time ended, Bertinelli was offered another comedy series, titled Sydney. She played a private investigator alongside Craig Bierko, Rebeccah Bush, Daniel Baldwin, Barney Martin, and a pre-Friends Matthew Perry.
The series debuted on March 21, 1990, but 13 episodes later, it was canceled. Perry, for one, was relieved. In his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, the actor confessed to having a “crushing” crush on his married co-star and fantasized that she’d leave Van Halen for him. He also alleged that he had one make-out session with Bertinelli, which they never spoke about again.
“The show did very badly, and I was so grateful that four weeks after that fateful night, Sydney got canceled, and I didn’t have to see Valerie anymore,” Perry wrote.
On The Drew Barrymore Show, Bertinelli revealed that the cancellation of Sydney marked a major life pivot for her.
“As soon as we were canceled, I said, ‘Okay, it’s time,’” she recalled. “And I got pregnant a couple weeks later. I was like, ‘I’m 30. We’re either gonna do it now or we’re not, Ed.’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, yeah!’”
Bertinelli and Eddie Van Halen welcomed their son Wolfgang on March 16, 1991, almost one year to the day that Sydney debuted.
While there had previously been rumors that Bertinelli struggled with infertility, in a 2001 interview with the Deseret News, the actress confirmed that she made a conscious decision not to have a child for the first 10 years of her marriage. The timing was right when Sydney ended, so she quickly became pregnant.
Bertinelli returned to acting soon after Wolfgang’s birth. She posted an Instagram photo dated October 1991 that showed her holding baby Wolfie while on location for a TV miniseries.
“Filming In a Child’s Name in Wilmington, North Carolina,” she captioned the photo. “My mom and Ed watched Wolfie while I was on set.”
Although her marriage to Van Halen didn’t last, Bertinelli once told fans on Instagram that the birth of their son was the best part of her life.
“What we had together was this beautiful son that we both unconditionally loved,” she said, per Today.com. “That’s what I got out of that marriage — it was Wolfie — the best thing that ever happened to me.”
This story was originally reported by Parade on Sep 21, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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