Whoopi Goldberg Confronts Past Addiction in Candid Memoir
Whoopi Goldberg is looking back on a traumatic moment in her life when she decided to choose a better path for her future.
On Tuesday (May 7), the EGOT winner released her new tell-all memoir "Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me" where she delved into her past addiction to cocaine and an incident that confronted her with the harsh realities of her toxic lifestyle, according to Business Insider. At that moment, she decided to get clean.
Goldberg's drug use occurred during the 80s when "Los Angeles and New York started to redefine what 'recreational drug use' meant" during that time.
"It was a really good time for about a year," said "The Color Purple" star. "Then I fell into the deep well of cocaine and sank to a new low. Nobody around me caught on to where I was at with it. At least, that's what I wanted to believe. I would have called myself 'a very high-functioning addict.'"
She confessed, "Then cocaine started to kick my ass."
"I'd go to work and realize I was getting sloppy."
A turning point came for "The View" co-host at her birthday party at "a very upscale hotel in Manhattan" when she received an ounce of cocaine.
"I was sitting on the closet floor, just putting it up my nose," she recalled. "All by myself. I didn't hear the housekeeper knock or let herself in the room to clean it up."
Goldberg remembered the housekeeper screaming when she saw her on the floor, then after she got up, she realized why.
"I looked at myself in the mirror near the door and saw cocaine all over my face," Goldberg said.
"Get up, get out, and fix your life," she recalled thinking. "You've been sitting in a closet for two days. It's not good."