For almost a decade, Valerie Bertinelli has been a mainstay on Food Network, hosting programs such as Valerie’s Home Cooking and Kids Baking Championship. However, the two-time Golden Globe winner announced, she has been let go from Kids Baking Championship.
Bertinelli gained national fame in her youth for playing Barbara Cooper Royer on the sitcom One Day at a Time. Her performances on Touched by an Angel and Hot in Cleveland were critically celebrated. Bertinelli’s work on Food Network kicked off in earnest in 2015 but last year and this year has seen her last ties severed – but it wasn’t for lack of interest on her part.
Valerie Bertinelli has been let go from ‘Kids Baking Championship’
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Over the weekend, Bertinelli took to Instagram to share some heartbreaking news with her fans. “I’ve been avoiding facing what I got confirmation of last night, and I didn’t want to talk about it last night,” she shared in her video post. “I wanted to sleep on it because it really hurt my feelings.”
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She continued, “I know it’s not supposed to. Logically, I know it’s business. Budget cuts, right? But it really hurt my feelings to know that I’m not going to be asked back to be on ‘Kids Baking Championship’ really sucks.”
Cutting many ties
Bertinelli was let go from Kids Baking Championship, which she co-hosted with Duff Goldman since 2015, on Friday. But leading up to this official split, she had reportedly been in talks to continue on the program, reports PEOPLE via a source. It is claimed that Bertinelli’s team “decided they wanted more and talks stalled.”
Another source claimed, “Her deal was up, and [Food Network] chose not to renew. They did not make a new offer, but Valerie very much wanted to continue.”
Season 12 of Kids Baking Championship is currently airing and still features Bertinelli in it as co-host; those episodes, she explained, were filmed during the summer of 2022. Bertinelli referred to that time of her life as her “apex year of hell” amidst a messy divorce from Tom Vitale.
“Without sounding like a drama queen, the show saved my life,” she said. “Working with all those really wonderful people and feeling productive and knowing I could spread some kindness and not just wallow in my hell … It was like a floatation device. So it really hurts that I won’t be able to go back and see everybody and say, ‘Hey, I made it through.’”
