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Valerie Bertinelli Says Hotel Staff Mistook Her for a Sex Worker on 1980s Van Halen Tour

Her podcast recollection spotlights gendered assumptions in rock-tour settings.

Overview

  • Bertinelli, speaking on Wednesday’s Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast, said hotel staff in Brazil blocked her from an upper floor after mistaking her and Valeri Kendall for sex workers.
  • She placed the episode in the early 1980s during a Van Halen tour stop, when she was newly married and visiting Eddie and his brother Alex.
  • Without cell phones at the time, she said she used a lobby phone to call Eddie to come down and escort them upstairs.
  • Us Weekly and Complex reported her remarks after the podcast, and no independent confirmation or hotel response has been published.
  • Bertinelli and Eddie Van Halen were married from 1981 to 2001 and share son Wolfgang, context that helps explain the ongoing interest in her recollections.