{"id":1369,"date":"2026-01-28T14:40:42","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T14:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/likeanimalslife.com\/?p=1369"},"modified":"2026-01-28T14:40:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T14:40:42","slug":"love-after-she-gave-up-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/likeanimalslife.com\/?p=1369","title":{"rendered":"Love After She Gave Up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/likeanimalslife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/623967544_122248150946120003_8965689236965586758_n-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1370\" srcset=\"https:\/\/likeanimalslife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/623967544_122248150946120003_8965689236965586758_n-1.jpg 640w, https:\/\/likeanimalslife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/623967544_122248150946120003_8965689236965586758_n-1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/likeanimalslife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/623967544_122248150946120003_8965689236965586758_n-1-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Valerie Bertinelli didn\u2019t stumble into a fairy tale; she carefully walked toward a person who felt safe. Mike Goodnough was a writer whose voice had long resonated with her, first as a distant presence and then as a quiet constant. In the wreckage after divorce and the lingering ache of losing Eddie Van Halen, she built a life that didn\u2019t depend on being in love. She leaned on work, healing, and the kind of small rituals that keep a heart beating when it\u2019s convinced it\u2019s done hoping.<\/p>\n<p>What changed wasn\u2019t a headline or a grand gesture\u2014it was accumulation. Messages that became a rhythm. Humor that softened defenses. Vulnerability that felt less like risk and more like home. So when she finally named him as her partner, it wasn\u2019t a stunt. It was a woman, long acquainted with heartbreak, choosing to believe in joy again\u2014and saying it out loud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Valerie Bertinelli didn\u2019t stumble into a fairy tale; she carefully walked toward a person who felt safe. Mike Goodnough was a writer whose voice had long resonated&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1370,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"views":654,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/likeanimalslife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/likeanimalslife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/likeanimalslife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/likeanimalslife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/likeanimalslife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1369"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/likeanimalslife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1371,"href":"https:\/\/likeanimalslife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369\/revisions\/1371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/likeanimalslife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/likeanimalslife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/likeanimalslife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/likeanimalslife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}