Valerie Bertinelli Back in Bikini for 49th Birthday!(pic)

People Mag ^ | 3/25/2009 | Elizabeth Leonard

[SonOfDarkSkies]

The night before Valerie Bertinelli prepared to step out in public wearing a bikini – for the first time in nearly 30 years! – she found herself unable to sleep. As her mind raced with insecurity ("I thought, Am I really going to do this? Can I pull this off?" the actress admits), Bertinelli tried to summon up a pep talk, telling herself, "What am I so afraid of? Come on – it's just a bathing suit!"

And yet as any woman knows, those innocent-looking strips of Lycra can be a terrifying sight – especially for someone just shy of her 49th birthday (April 23), who only two years ago tipped the scales at 172 lbs. – more than 40 lbs. over her goal weight for her 5'4" frame. But after whittling herself down to 132 lbs. in about 9 months on Jenny Craig (for whom she serves as a company spokeswoman), Bertinelli, who had last worn a bikini when she was 20, was ready for a new challenge.

"I thought, If I'm so afraid of a bikini, there’s something wrong. And so I had to get back into one!," Bertinelli says in the new PEOPLE, available on newsstands Friday.

[SonOfDarkSkies]

I wouldn't really care except this is a great inspiration for everyone trying to get in or stay in shape as they age.

[beaversmom]

Well she looks very nice.

[Vaquero]

Hot for teacher.

[avacado]

"I hit that... gazillion times!!!"

[theDentist]

Yum!

[gathersnomoss]

That can’t be....

[toast]

That’s not Eddie Van Halen these days, is it?

[geege]

Oh man what a mess.....He was a hottie also!!!

[exist]

Holy crap how is it possible than Robert Plant looks better than EVH?

[wordsofearnest]

Doesn’t look like she’s lost anything off her fastball.

[mnehring]

49? Damn!

[gathersnomoss]

Hendrix looks better than Eddie, and he is dead.

[exist]

Here's a pretty recent pic of Robert Plant:

[pgkdan]

Very nice...I’ve always had a soft spot for Valerie Bertinelli. I never had an imagination good enough to buy that she could ever have been Mckenzie Phillips sister as she played on that 70’2 tv show.

[ErnBatavia]

[Netizen]

Just goes to show, you don’t have to be pencil thin to look great!

[Responsibility2nd]

Amazing what air-brushing and photo-shopping can do for a pic.

But seriesly...

[knarf]

My first was Annete Funicello, but Valerie was the next more appropos (in a fantasy sort of way) TV personality/creature of lustful beauty.

There was always something a little unapproachanle about MTM Laura Petry, Mary is still one fox of a lady.

You lookin' good, Val.

[bilhosty]

Looks good. google in images Helen mirren and see another older woman in her bikini.

[Justaham]

She used to date Steven Spielberg (he was already married then.). A quote from her interview in 2008, "I went up to read for Raiders of the Lost Ark which I was so wrong for...And the next day I got a call and some flowers ... [Spielberg] asked me out. We went out a few times ... And did more." Uh, too much information, Val."