Valerie Bertinelli’s ex is spilling more details about the end of their “complicated relationship.”
Mike Goodnough clarified in a Threads post on Sunday, April 20, that he was the one who “ended the relationship,” responding to another social media user’s suggestion that Bertinelli, 64, had “left” him.
Goodnough’s latest post comes after he opened up about his “painful” split from the Food Network star.
The public acknowledgement of Bertinelli and Goodnough’s relationship happened in April 2024. Although news of their split surfaced in November 2024, Bertinelli only spoke about the breakup in March.
Reflecting on the impact of their time together, Bertinelli shared on Instagram, “I’m irreversibly changed by him for the better. I know I am becoming a much stronger and more benevolent human for having met him and spent time with him.”
She continued, “Before I had the pleasure of meeting Mike, I was initially and immediately attracted to his writing. It’s heartfelt, authentic, smart, funny, sensitive, caring, and from the soul. And the way he puts words together is just sooo ridiculously beautiful. 🤩 I’m a big fan, can you tell? And as luck would have it, the human being in person is exactly as heartfelt, authentic, sensitive and caring as his writing. And wickedly witty.”
On April 1, Goodnough denied engaging in a war of words with Bertinelli online. “I am not communicating with Valerie via my posts. I am not engaging with the things she posts,” he wrote via Instagram. “While I am disappointed in the array of hostile, dishonest, and uncalled for backhanded swipes she continues to take at me, there is no war between us. She just won’t stop shooting. Valerie is in a war with her ghosts. I’m just the guy who catches the bullets. And that isn’t new.”
Three weeks later, on Saturday, April 19, Goodnough addressed his split from the Hot in Cleveland actress and apologized for his previous comments.
“I regret having posted it. I wish I hadn’t. The issue addressed was real. My post made it worse rather than better,” he wrote. “Valerie and I had a complicated relationship. Our time as a couple ended months ago but our close contact only really ended recently. So, it is more ‘fresh’ than it would seem.”
Goodnough went on to list the “external” things that he claims “got in the way” of their relationship but stated that the “one thing that was never an issue was our love for each other.” He described the “dissolution of [their] relationship” as “by far the most painful experience of my life.”
“It has been so acutely agonizing, it has entirely changed the scale of how much heartbreak can hurt,” he continued. “Over the last few months, I had hoped we’d find a way to a gentle parting rather than a closed door but couldn’t seem to get us to one. I reached out again this week in that hope. No answer is an answer though. I accept it.”
Goodnough concluded, “With that said, this chapter is now closed for me. I won’t have anything more to say about it – and nothing I have to say will be about it. I’ve cried about this enough. It’s time to move on.”
