Whoopi Goldberg Opens Up About Former Cocaine Addiction And Grief In New Memoir

Whoopi Goldberg‘s new memoir, Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me, is her most personal undertaking thus far. The book details how she’s grieved the deaths of her mother and brother as well as personal struggles she’s endured over the years, like a former cocaine addition.

“I had stayed pretty far away from drugs, except for pot, after getting cleaned up in the early 70s,” said the now 68-year-old. She recounted being at lavish Hollywood parties where “lines of cocaine were laid across tables and bathroom counters for the taking.”

Admittedly, Goldberg felt she could “handle” cocaine because it didn’t seem “dangerous” and was easily accessible. However, after about a year, she began hallucinating. It even caused her to be unable to leave her bed for 24 hours. Her “slap in the face moment” came when she was caught snorting in a high-end Manhattan hotel room closet by a housekeeper.

The EGOT winner saw her reflection with her face “smeared with cocaine” and quit. Going cold turkey wasn’t an easy transition, but she knew it was a necessary one because “I didn’t want to die.”

The Sister Act star also appeared on The View to discuss the book.

She explained to her co-hosts that she had to write Bits And Pieces for a multitude of reasons—one being her memory. It’s been over a decade since she lost her mother, Emma Harris and brother Clyde K. Johnson. “I was just starting to forget a lot of stuff,” said Goldberg. “Everyone’s gone, so I have memories of things that happened [minus specificity].”

She joked, “I should’ve started the book, ‘This may or may not have happened exactly the way I said it happened’ […] but it’s all true.”

Watch the full segment below. Bits And Pieces hits shelves on May 7. Buy the book here.