Eddie Van Halen 's ex-wife and Wolfgang Van Halen , Valerie Bertinelli , spoke about the moment of the guitarist's death in her new book, Enough Already: Learning To Love The Way I Am Today .
In an excerpt published by People , Valerie reveals that she was present at the time of Van Halen's death, along with their son, Wolfgang. She and Eddie had been divorced since 2007, and days before the guitarist's death, Valerie reportedly told him: "Who knows, maybe next time? Maybe next time we can get everything right."
According to Valerie, Eddie Van Halen's death happened "in slow motion." She received a call from the hospital on the morning of October 6, 2020, asking her to come to the hospital as quickly as possible because Eddie's breathing had changed.
“'I love you' were the last words Ed said to me and Wolfie, and those are the last words we said to him before he stopped breathing,” Valerie recounts.
According to Valerie, after 20 minutes of silence, everyone started telling stories about Eddie, which brought them to laughter instead of tears. "Suddenly, we were laughing out loud," she recalls. "We laughed – and that's much better than crying."
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