Former Food Network star Valerie Bertinelli fought back tears as she claimed she was fired as a spokesperson for a diet company after gaining weight.
The One Day at a Time actress, 65, shared details of the alleged incident, which happened at an unnamed business almost two decades ago, during an episode of The Drew Barrymore Show.
Bertinelli detailed the situation during a game of Memory Bank, a segment which sees famous faces reveal anecdotes from yesteryear.
For her turn, Bertinelli showed a photograph of herself dressed in a white dress at her Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in 2012.
‘I felt so horrified,’ she said.
Prior to the ceremony, Bertinelli was the face of an unnamed diet company where she documented her weight loss journey.
‘I had started a diet program and then became their spokesperson in 2007 and I had lost 50 pounds,’ she said.
‘And then life started to get the better of me, and I wasn’t taking care of my mental and emotional health, so the weight started to come back on.
Valerie Bertinelli claimed she was fired as a spokesperson for a diet company after gaining weight
The TV star recalled how she had gained three dress sizes by the time she was honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012
‘And this was the last year, I believe, that I was with this diet company.’
Bertinelli claimed she was fired because of her weight gain and that at the time of the ceremony she was a size 12.
‘I remember thinking, “But size 12 is not that big!” she continued.
‘But I had gotten down to a size 4, which was way too small for me and impossible for me to maintain.’
Bertinelli noted that her weight has always yo-yoed and that she is currently a size 10 now.’
‘I would’ve been horrified then being on the diet program being a size 10,’ she said. ‘But right now, it’s about my mental and emotional health.’
Visibly overcome with emotion, Bertinelli said that her weight does not define her.
‘I’m so strong and firm in who I am and, no matter what people throw at me, I know who I am and I know what kind of person I am and it doesn’t matter how much I weigh,’ she added.
Bertinelli detailed the situation during an episode of The Drew Barrymore Show
She noted that her weight has always yo-yoed and that she is currently a size 10 now
Bertinelli still owns the white dress from her Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony.
‘It fits me just fine,’ she said.
She added to applause from the audience: ‘It’s a little less snug than it is there, but I just, if anything, it doesn’t matter what size we are.’
‘What is our heart? How do we treat people? Period!’
