The familial relationship between Valerie Bertinelli and her TV mom, Bonnie Franklin, extended past what happened on the set of “One Day at a Time.”
During a recent appearance on “The Drew Barrymore Show,” Bertinelli, who was just 15 when she joined “One Day at a Time,” said that Franklin, who died in 2013 at 69, helped her find aid for her declining mental health while shooting the 1975 sitcom.
“I mean, I finally went to Bonnie by the time I turned 20 and said, ‘I’m struggling,’” Bertinelli recalled. “And she could see that I was struggling, and she sent me to a psychiatrist. She sent me to a therapist.”
“Your mom on TV mom’d you and sent you to therapy?” Drew Barrymore asked. Bertinelli responded, “Yeah.”
Bertinelli’s anecdote spawned from a larger conversation about Ariana Grande, who recently said studios and labels should include therapy in their clients’ contracts.
“Ariana is absolutely spot-on,” Bertinelli said. “I think people need that support, absolutely.”
“These are the people who have the lived experience,” added Barrymore, who also has been famous from a young age. “So I don’t feel like she would say these things for sensationalism or righteousness, she’s saying them in advocacy of supporting people.”
“One Day at a Time,” which ran from 1975 to 1984, aired 209 episodes across nine seasons. Starring Franklin, Bertinelli, Pat Harrington Jr. and Mackenzie Phillips, the show followed the “misadventures of a divorced mother, her family and their building superintendent in Indianapolis,” per the official logline.
