Valerie Bertinelli hasn’t had a sip of alcohol in more than eight months, and she couldn’t be prouder.
The 64-year-old, who now makes regular appearances on The Drew Barrymore Show, opened up about her sober life while speaking to PEOPLE at the Food & Wine Classic in Charleston on Saturday, Sept. 28.
In the interview, she revealed the real reason behind her decision to stop drinking alcohol earlier this year.
“I actually think a lot of it has to do with aging,” she said, adding that she feels “better” without alcohol in her system. “I think the older you get, the less you really want to really be putting that in your body.”
In fact, Bertinelli says she doesn’t even think about alcohol now. “I don’t miss it because I don’t miss how it actually made me feel either after having it or the next day,” she added.
Bertinelli first considered sobriety in 2022
Bertinelli has been open about her sober journey ever since she decided to partake in ‘Dry January,’ a public health initiative that encourages people to abstain from drinking alcohol for a month.
She discussed the decision in an April interview with PEOPLE, revealing that she didn’t “need anything to amplify my happiness” and was currently “on the road of intentionally finding my core happiness.”
In fact, she first considered removing alcohol from her life while writing her 2022 memoir, Enough Already.
At the time, she was still mourning the loss of her first husband, Eddie Van Halen, in 2020, and recovering from her tumultuous split from her second husband, Tom Vitale, two years later.
While she used to use food and alcohol as a “toolkit for soothing and ignoring,” she now sees the beauty in questioning her emotions and not running from or numbing the emotional pain she experiences.
“Emotions are information,” she told PEOPLE in April. “When I decided to really question why I was having a certain emotion, I was able to — most of the time — walk through it and get to the other side.”
Bertinelli becomes newest member of the ‘Drew Crew’
For those who want to hear more about Bertinelli’s newfound sober life and the many life lessons she has learned along the way, fans will be seeing more of the celebrity chef after becoming the newest member of the ‘Drew Crew.’
Bertinelli began her role as a “regular lifestyle expert” on The Drew Barrymore Show earlier this month, just in time for the Season 5 premiere on Sept. 9, People reported.
So far, some of her favorite topics to talk about are those involving health and wellness.
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“Drew tackles subjects that I wish I had heard about 10 years ago,” she told PEOPLE earlier this month. “She tackles subjects that not a lot of people do, and she does it with such grace and such vulnerability.”