Valerie Bertinelli had a major crush during her years playing Barbara Cooper on the sitcom One Day at a Time. The actress appeared in an episode where she performed a song by one of her idols—a pop-rock icon she once dreamed of marrying.
In January 2026, Bertinelli, 65, shared a nearly 50-year-old ODAT throwback clip on Instagram. In the scene, she and co-star Mackenzie Phillips were performing the Elton Johnand Kiki Dee song “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.” Bertinelli channeled John by wearing oversized glasses, a fur coat, and platform boots as she dueted with Phillips on the 1976 hit.
Bertinelli captioned the video to note that her son, Wolfgang Van Halen, got his musical talent from his father, the late Van Halen guitarist and backing vocalist Eddie Van Halen.
“50 years later, I can look back at this without being embarrassed anymore by my lack of musical ability and appreciate how brave I was,” Bertinelli captioned the clip. “Joking aside, this was scary, nerve-racking, and at the same time, exhilarating and so fun to do with @mackphillips. The epitome of (even as a 16-year-old girl) feel the fear and do it anyway.”
Bertinelli added that at the time, she was an Elton John superfan. “I LOVED Elton John,” she wrote. “There were posters of him all over my bedroom wall and as a 13-year-old girl, I dreamt I would one day marry him.”
She also noted that it all worked out for her and John’s future husband, David Furnish.
The One Day at a Time episode was titled “Happy New Year,” and it aired Dec 28, 1976, on CBS. In the episode, the characters put on a show for a local retirement home.
In 2011, Bertinelli told Extra she first saw John in concert one year before impersonating him on One Day at a Time. "I really want to see him on the show!” she added of her TV series at the time, Hot in Cleveland. “I want him to sing to me. I've loved him since I was 13. I saw him at the Troubadour in 1975... I saw him at the Forum for The B---- is Back."
Bertinelli, who went on to marry Van Halen in 1981, revealed on Sirius XM’s Wolfgang Top of the Pack that she did meet John years later when she was with her rock star husband. She joked that the “Crocodile Rock” singer seemed to like Van Halen more than her. “Elton John — thought I was going to marry him before I met your dad," she told her son Wolfgang Van Halen at the time.
The actress also told AARP that John was her “first celebrity crush. “I adored him, him, still adore him,” she said. “The last time I saw Elton John live, it was on my birthday,” Bertinelli added that John stopped the show to announce he had a very special guest in the audience celebrating a birthday—then called up comedian George Lopez to the stage.
“I still beat George up about this to this day,” she cracked. “Because we have the same birthday and Elton called him up onstage and not me!”
?SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox?
Hence then, the article about valerie bertinelli once dreamed of marrying a rock star before eddie van halen was published today ( ) and is available on Parade ( Saudi Arabia ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Valerie Bertinelli Once Dreamed of Marrying a Rock Star — Before Eddie Van Halen )
Also on site :
- Homemade dumplings are a Lunar New Year staple. Last week, a cafe invited those who’d never made them to give it a try.
- Trump strips endangered species protections for lesser prairie chicken, the dancing, booming grouse of the Southwest
- Man arrested in Telford on suspicion of possession of gun after Ketley incident