You Gotta Have Faith | Valerie Bertinelli | Faith Ford

Getting Naked: The Podcast

In this heartfelt episode of Getting Naked: The Podcast, Valerie Bertinelli reconnects with her longtime friend and fellow actress Faith For

Key takeaways

• Friendship and authenticity are foundational to long-lasting relationships, even across decades.

Main topics

• Friendship and long-term relationships
• Caregiving for aging parents

Notable quotes

"I just wanted to be the mother, housewife piece of work." – Faith Ford on her role choice for 'Hope & Faith'

Conclusion

The episode closes with a warm reminder of the power of connection, sh

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) I am so excited about today's episode of Getting Naked. We have one of my closest and dearest friends that I've known for 35 years. Her name is Faith Ford. You all know her and love her too. Speaker 1 (0:26) I have a really fun recipe for you today. You saw how easy that was. Look at all that flavor we packed into chicken breasts. I love the flavor of maple syrup, especially for these kind of muffins. I Speaker 2 (0:35) see all of your comments. I swear I do. You are wondering, where's my shell? Speaker 1 (0:40) This is so dang delicious. Smells divine. That's a jalapeno popper. Oh my God. That's so good. Yes, I'm back and I am cooking for all of you. All right, Sophie, what are we reheating today? Welcome to Now Val's Cooking. Guess what we're gonna make right now. We're Speaker 2 (0:54) live. Hi, everybody. How are you? You have to go to Speaker 1 (0:57) Valerie's Place. That's where you can see our book group, this podcast. That's where you can go for all the cooking that you want to see. Oh, yes. I've missed cooking for you. I'm glad I finally get to do it again. I'm dancing. That's how good it is. So head to Valerie'sPlace.com and go ahead and sign up. You guys are the original members, and I can't thank you enough. Speaker 2 (1:16) It's happy time. Speaker 1 (1:21) Hi, everybody. Thanks for showing up. Thanks for coming by. Before we get off on today's episode, I just want to give you a quick reminder to stay tuned for the full reveal. And that is for only Valerie's Place members. You can get the full reveal. You can get early access to all the podcasts if you're a member of Valerie's Place. So if you want to become one, just go ahead and move on over to Valerie's Place dot com. Sign up and you will get all that I just told you. OK, I have a guest today that I'm so excited about. Speaker 1 (1:51) I have loved this woman basically the whole time my son's been alive. She was Wolfie's first kiss when he was just like 16, 17 months old. I still have that picture. And we just became fast friends because when you meet her, when you know her, you know why. Like, you can't not be friends with Faith Ford. Hello, Faith Ford! Speaker 1 (2:20) Hey. Hi, honey. So this woman has been nominated for a million Emmys. She's been nominated for Golden Globe Awards. You probably all know her as Corky on Murphy Brown or as Hope on Hope and Faith, which always drove me crazy because you should have been Faith. You could have just switched the names. Oh, no, I Speaker 2 (2:39) wanted it that way. Why? I Speaker 1 (2:41) fought Speaker 2 (2:41) for Hope. I wanted Hope. I just wanted to be the mother, housewife piece of work. Speaker 1 (2:46) But why didn't you just make... The mother housewife, which is so you, which, you know, and make that name train wreck, too. Yeah. And we're both train wrecks. That's why we love each other so much. Yes, Speaker 2 (2:59) exactly. I just I like that I was a different name. I just I felt like it was too confusing. That's all. Speaker 1 (3:05) Yeah. Yeah. But it was still a great show. And you and Kelly had a wonderful chemistry together, just as you had a great chemistry on Murphy Brown. Speaker 2 (3:14) rapport. I have good chemistry with you two. We just haven't worked together yet. Can you believe it? Speaker 1 (3:19) I can't believe that. I can't believe you were never on Hot in Cleveland. Although I must say, thank God you turned the roll down because then I was able to go up for it. Because I hear that it was offered to you before it was offered to me. I Speaker 2 (3:33) don't think so. I think it was just a general, don't you love this script? And I said, yeah, but I just don't see the person that I am in it. You know what I'm saying? And I heard rumors of Betty White and I thought, well, I could be Betty White. I'm just not old enough yet. Speaker 1 (3:47) But I'm going to get there. Yeah, yeah, but you're still behind me. I'm the only Speaker 2 (3:51) person who can't wait to be my real age. I know. Speaker 1 (3:54) I've been Speaker 2 (3:54) 80 since I was 20. Speaker 1 (3:56) Yes, you have. And you have another birthday coming up in just a month. Speaker 2 (4:00) Yes. Speaker 1 (4:01) Yeah. How old are you going to be this time? What, you're 60? Speaker 2 (4:03) I'm 62, but it feels too young sometimes. Yeah, Speaker 1 (4:07) you're such a baby. I'm always going to be four years ahead of you, dear. That's just the way it is. Speaker 2 (4:13) All my favorite friends are so much older than me. Not that I don't like my younger friends, but they're the ones I identify with more. You're around my sister's age. I don't know what it is, but I've always loved older people than myself. Well, you've Speaker 1 (4:30) always been an old soul in a youngster's body. Me, me, me, me. Yeah, you've got that. I mean, you've always been an amazing cook. You've always taken care of people. You're just, you have that mothering kind of instinct. And like, okay, and you mothered me, you mothered my son. Do you remember how we first met? Yeah. Speaker 2 (4:55) Do you want to tell us Speaker 1 (4:56) about it? Do you want to tell everybody about it? Well, okay, Speaker 2 (4:59) first off, my ex-husband came home and he had been playing golf, which he did a lot. He had a lot of time on his hands. Yes, he did. And he said, I just played golf with Ed Van Halen. And I said, you mean the singer? And he said, yes. And I said, well, how about that? How did that work out? He goes, it was great. He goes, and by the way, he wants you to meet his wife. And I said, well, does his wife want to meet me? Speaker 2 (5:28) They were like arranging this arrangement. They did. They did. Speaker 1 (5:32) Yeah. And so I said, I thought that they met at a gas station. They did. They did. At that gas station as Speaker 2 (5:39) well. But he came home and said he met him and he said, you should meet him sometime. And then he came home and said, this is the time. And I said, this time right now. And he said, yes. And said, he wants you to come up right now. And I went there and I think you were like in your house. And he said, just go on in. going in there. I'm like, but I've never been in. So I go in through the garage, everything. I'm like, Hello? Hello, Valerie, and you came out and you were like, Speaker 2 (6:10) I can't believe it. You were really great. Because I thought, I would not like when someone prearranged and I didn't even know they were coming, you know? But you were so welcoming from the time I came in and I came into your office and then I think you fed me something and immediately we bonded, didn't we? We Speaker 1 (6:26) did. Immediately. And Wolfie just adored you from the first moment. Speaker 2 (6:30) He was such a cherub. I mean, he looks like, pictures of him as a baby look just like you. Yeah. Speaker 1 (6:38) Just like me and Ed. Because I have that picture of the three of us where Wolfie's in the middle and then there's pictures of me and Ed at the same age. And the three of us, you can't tell us apart. It's crazy. Speaker 2 (6:49) Yeah, and you and Ed just basically look like you could be a brother and sister. Easily. It was crazy. Speaker 1 (6:56) Yeah, which is so odd because he's Dutch-Indonesian. I'm Italian-English-Irish. Like, how do we look so similar? I don't know. It's something back in there. And you're also royalty. I know. I saw you Speaker 2 (7:12) on Who Do You Think You Are? Or was it Henry? Speaker 1 (7:14) No, it was Who Do You Think You Are? Yeah. Speaker 2 (7:17) I saw you there. I know. My mom Speaker 1 (7:20) was so happy to find out that she came from royalty. Because she's always loved her English soaps and she loved anything royal. She was always doing all that kind of, you know, looking into it. Hey, speaking of moms, how's Pat? Speaker 2 (7:32) She's good. She's actually up, up. And I go and bring her something. Actually, Campion made breakfast this morning. He stuck a quiche in the oven. Campion! I brought her over. Yes, he's a good husband. He really is amazing with my mom. In fact, I think it's because he lost his mom when he was a young age. And so all the kids helped out. He had seven children in his family. Wow. I think that's just basically why he's so good with older people. It's perfect. Because he helped with my dad. Then he's helping with my mom. And he's good with you, the old person that you are. Yes. He just takes, listen, let me just tell you something. It's like when he's out of town, it's like, oh, my life. I just go, no, I can't do anything. I wouldn't have been able to do this if Campion hadn't been here. Not because I couldn't do it, just because it's just like one more thing to Speaker 1 (8:28) add to my. For the audience, they may not know that you no longer live in Hollywood. You live, and you never really lived in Hollywood. We lived a mile from each other in the Valley. We were Valley girls. But you now live in Louisiana where you were born and raised. What brought you back there? You know, Speaker 2 (8:46) L.A. was not really as happening, and I was having to travel everywhere anyway. you know, he got sick. Once he had his aneurysm, it was all about being with him as much as possible. Speaker 1 (8:56) Yeah. I loved Charles so much. He Speaker 2 (9:00) was so good. He was such a good man. Speaker 1 (9:03) He Speaker 2 (9:03) had a second one. And then we were really like needing to be home more. Speaker 1 (9:07) Yeah. And Speaker 2 (9:07) so we just sort of knew it was going to be just a matter of time. And I think at around 20 is. Speaker 2 (9:14) 2012, we just put the house on the market. And it was a good idea in L.A. It was a good idea because the first person who came