Whoopi Goldberg Recalls Cocaine Incident from the 80s As a 'High Functioning Addict' in New Memoir

The View host Whoopi Goldberg bared it all in her memoir Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me, including how being a "high functioning addict" in Hollywood back in the 1980s "kicked her a**." The Oscar-nominated star recalled an awkward incident at a hotel involving drugs after which she hit rock bottom. 

In her book, she called herself a 'heroin addict' by the 1970s, and her first husband Alvin Martin, who's also the father of her daughter Alex, was her drug counselor, per The Sun. However, she further wrote that after moving from New York to California to advance her acting career, she began attending high-profile Hollywood soirees and consequently got addicted to cocaine.

As the comedian narrated, such was the case back then that a bowl of Quaaludes would greet people at the door of parties, and lines of cocaine would be laid out for famous people in the likes of Hollywood, Bel Air, and Beverly Hills. She also referred to herself as a "high-functioning addict." 

Furthermore, her dependency on drugs affected her performance on the sets. But Goldberg said that she realized she was getting "sloppy" only after a year of being under the influence. Ahead in the book, the 68-year-old recounted a "slap-in-the-face" moment at a luxury hotel in Manhattan back in the 80s when someone showed up with an ounce of cocaine at her birthday. 

The Sister Act star detailed she was sitting on the closet floor sniffing the drug by herself when a maid knocked on her door. "I screamed," Goldberg wrote. "She screamed and backed up and looked like she was going to run. I had to get to her quickly and try to calm her down. She was staring at my face as I talked." 

The woman eventually realized it was the star's room and after she left, Goldberg looked at herself in the mirror and was horrified to see cocaine all over her face. "I'd have been so embarrassed if my mother knew the extent the coke had me in its clutches," The View host confessed. The guilt followed as the problem got out of hand and she was letting her daughter down. 

The book spoke at length about the severity of her drug use which also triggered bouts of hallucinations. In an episode from ABC's daytime talk show from 2011, Goldberg revealed, "I ended up sitting on a bed for three or four days scared there was something under the bed. I wet the bed, I pooped the bed… I was so scared. I hit bottom. I did that a long time ago." 

TMZ reported in 2011 that Goldberg "smoked a joint" before she went on stage to receive the award for Best Supporting Actress in Ghost during the 63rd annual Oscars in 1991. She confessed, "Smoking cigarettes and pot every now and then are my habits. And I thought, 'I've got to relax.' So I smoked a joint, my homegrown, to get calm before the glamorous Hollywood gathering." 

Although she struggled to focus while on stage, the actress-turned-TV host showed no signs of being under the influence.