Valerie Bertinelli’s Ex Mike Goodnough Opens Up About Their ‘Complicated Relationship’ - And ‘Painful’ Split

Mike Goodnough is detailing his “painful” split from Valerie Bertinelli.

Five months after the One Day at a Time star ended her relationship with the lifestyle writer, he’s opening up about their “complicated” dynamic. In case you didn’t know, Valerie hard launched her relationship with Mike last April. But sadly just seven months later in November, the pair called it quits. At the time, insiders told DailyMail.com that the 64-year-old decided to end things after friends raised concerns that he was more “captivated” by her fame than anything else:

“Valerie jumped into a serious relationship with a man who initially commented on her social media post, which should have been a red flag. She essentially became involved with a fan rather than someone who genuinely wanted to know her for who she is. He seemed more captivated by her fame.”

She reportedly “recognized this before things went too far” and decided to cut her losses. Since then, tensions have only risen as fans believe the two have been taking swipes at each other with cryptic social media posts. Mike denied that speculation earlier this month, claiming Valerie was “playing a one-woman tennis match thinking there is someone on the other side of the net” with regard to his posts. He criticized her for making “hostile, dishonest, and uncalled for backhanded swipes,” claiming “she just won’t stop shooting.” He concluded his post at the time:

“Valerie is in a war with her ghosts. I’m just the guy who catches the bullets. And that isn’t new.”

Yeesh! But now just weeks later he regrets saying anything at all!

On Friday, the 53-year-old took to Instagram to reflect on their time together in a lengthy post. Accompanying a photo that reads, “You & Me the End,” he wrote:

“Writing this post makes me absolutely miserable But it feels like something I have to do. A couple weeks ago, there was an ado about conflict between Valerie and I that ended up in the press. A post of mine here was the cause of it. I regret having posted it. I wish I hadn’t. The issue addressed was real. My post made it worse rather than better.”

He continued:

“Valerie and I had a complicated relationship. Our time as a couple ended months ago but our close contact only really ended recently. So, it is more ‘fresh’ than it would seem. In trying to be a couple, an endless number of things got in the way. Almost all of them were ‘external.’ They were things outside of our relationship per se which nonetheless interfered. The one thing that was never an issue was our love for each other. I loved Valerie more than I’ve ever loved someone in a relationship of choice. (My love for my son is a whole different thing).”

He went on:

“As a result, the dissolution of our relationship and way it played out has been by far the most painful experience of my life. It has been so acutely agonizing, it has entirely changed the scale of how much heartbreak can hurt.”

Wow… He added:

“What was once a 10 is now a four. Over the last few months, I had hoped we’d find a way to a gentle parting rather than a closed door but couldn’t seem to get us to one. I reached out again this week in that hope. No answer is an answer though. I accept it.”

Well, can you really blame her after the digs he made at her??

Mike concluded:

“With that said, this chapter is now closed for me. I won’t have anything more to say about it — and nothing I have to say will be about it. I’ve cried about this enough. It’s time to move on.”

He finished off by apologizing for turning off the comments: