Overview
- The 65-year-old actor makes her first public disclosure in a PEOPLE cover interview, saying she now views herself as a survivor.
- Her account appears in her memoir Getting Naked, due March 10 from Harper Wave, which opens the chapter with a photo of her at age 11.
- Bertinelli says she first told a therapist about a decade ago and initially coped by eating and drinking more before choosing to face the trauma.
- She recounts a severe anxiety attack at the end of 2024 that pushed her to intensify her healing work.
- She credits her son Wolfgang Van Halen, cooking, and work on The Drew Barrymore Show with helping her recover, and no perpetrator is named or legal action described in the reports.