Whoopi Goldberg Reveals Her Mother Never Divorced Her Clergyman Father Even Though He Was Gay

The View cohost, Whoopi Goldberg's most anticipated autobiography, Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me is releasing on May 7th. The Oscar winner plans to delve into previously undisclosed parts of her life in the book. As per The US Sun, diving into significant memories from her early years, Goldberg shares that her estranged father, a priest, was gay. 

Despite the estrangement, she added that her mother, Emma Harris, had called him "the love of her life" and never divorced him. An extract from the book reads, "My mother didn't talk about the marriage ending because she stayed married to him until the day he passed, nor do I think she ever thought of it as a failure. It turns out that my dad was gay. Which couldn't have been easy either." 

Additionally, Goldberg elaborates on how her mother never received government assistance or child support and had to work incredibly hard as a nurse to provide for the family. Providing further context, she explains that her father was a church minister who was brought up in a conservative Southern Baptist home. He also juggled several occupations such as a mail carrier and a diamond trader. Goldberg claimed that although her mother attempted to compel her father to pay child support, she was unable to afford legal representation and that supporting Black women living in New York's projects during the 1960s was "not high on the state court's priority list". 

The Color Purple actress reported that when her mother had a mental breakdown and spent two years in the hospital, her father and grandfather did try to support the family a little. Her mother eventually passed away in August 2010 following a stroke and her brother Clyde died five years later after suffering a brain aneurysm. Opening up about her father on The View, during the segment showcasing Kelly Rowland reuniting with her dad after 30 years, Goldberg once shared, "We know lots of people who can't be what we would like them to be, what they might like to be...But we can respect them for who they are." 

Goldberg also went on record and stated once that she didn't think her dad appreciated her because he didn't spend much time with his two kids before his eventual passing in May 1993. During an interview with People, Goldberg revealed that her mother initially did not recognize her children after enduring electroshock therapy while being hospitalized for two years.

“My mother at one point when I got older…said, ‘Can I tell you a secret?’ I was like, ‘Sure’...She said, ‘I didn't know who you were when I got out of the hospital.’ It's like, ‘I'm sorry, what? I'm sorry, what?’ She said, ‘Yeah, I had no idea who you were. I just knew I never wanted to go back to that hospital. So I had to do everything I could. If they said the sky was green, and I could see it wasn't green, and it was blue, I'd say, 'Yes, the sky is green.' 'Cause I never wanted it again.’" Goldberg added, “I said to her, ‘And nobody knew. You didn't tell anybody...So you carried this for 40 years?’" to which her mum replied, "‘Well, what else was I going to do?’”