Valerie Bertinelli is leaving her job as co-host of the Kids Baking Championship on Food Network. She used to be on the show with Duff Goldman. It was sad to hear that she had been fired on Friday. Valerie told her friends this sad news in an Instagram video the next day.
Even though she knows it’s just business—things like budget cuts—she said it made her feel bad. Reports say that they did talk about her coming back to the show after her contract was up, but the talks ended because her team thought she earned more.
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The 63-year-old Valerie said that Kids Baking Championship was important to her, even though it was for work. This season in particular.
Children’s Baking Championship season 12 is currently airing on Food Network. It was shot in the summer of 2022. As host of the show, Valerie Bertinelli called that year the “apex year of h***” because it was a hard one for her. Later that year, she got divorced from Tom Vitale.
She said that, like many people do during hard times, she pretended everything was fine. Kids Baking Championship kind of saved her. She’ll never be able to go back and tell everyone, “Hey, I made it through.” That pains me.
Bertinelli then said nice things about her co-host and the “really wonderful people” she has worked with for 12 seasons.
She wrote the new bakers on the show a message saying that she would be there in spirit even though she wouldn’t be there in person.