WHOOPI Goldberg writes about her mother’s tragic mental breakdown in her new memoir and how she saved her from suicide when she was a child, The U.S. Sun can exclusively reveal.
The View co-host, whose mother, Emma Johnson, died in 2010 after suffering a stroke, is set to release her raw book, Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me.
It documents how her family, including her brother Clyde, who died of a brain aneurysm five years later, shaped her early life while growing up in public housing in New York.
She wrote that, although they struggled for money, her mom never wanted to apply for welfare and worked as a nurse to provide for her two children.
In the book, Whoopi recalled how she came home early from elementary school one day and found her mom looking “disheveled” and barefoot wearing a slip dress under a black trench coat.
Whoopi, whose real name is Caryn Johnson, explained how she was “muttering incoherently” and didn’t realize she was home.
“I watched as she went over to the oven, turned it on, and put her head in there,” she recalled of the disturbing moment.
“I was old enough to know this was really bad news. I ran over and grabbed her around the waist and pulled her out.”
Whoopi recalled how she and her older brother watched as their mom, who was a single parent, was carried away on a gurney.
ELECTRIC SHOCK THERAPY
She said she felt “protective and p**sed off” as neighbors gawped at her mother as she was helped into an ambulance and taken to Bellevue, a psychiatric hospital in the city.
The 68-year-old star said they were not given any updates on her health and didn’t see her for two years, as family members took turns looking after the siblings.
Her mom returned to their home, but Whoopi admitted she was not the same person, and she and her brother found the situation difficult to understand.
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She eventually got better and even went on to get a master’s degree and moved to California to support her daughter.
Whoopi said it was years later when her mother revealed when she was released from the hospital she didn’t recognize her children but was desperate not to be sent back.
Emma explained she’d undergone electric shock therapy and decisions about her health had been determined by her estranged husband and father-in-law.
The actress was always close with her mom and found out about her death after receiving a phone call at work.
I think I’m just sad sometimes that I think, ‘Who will love me the way that she did?’ But I realize that my brother and I have each other and so we’re ok.
Whoopi Goldberg
She flew back to the States after leaving the London production of Sister Act.
MOVING TRIBUTE
In a tribute on Instagram, she described her mom, who got her master’s in early childhood education at New York University, as “one of the best people I’ve had the privilege of knowing.”
“I’m not sad, because she had a great time,” she said.
“My mother was a great adventure person, so she loved to go on adventures, and my brother and I made sure that her life was full and rich.
“I think I’m just sad sometimes that I think, ‘Who will love me the way that she did?’ But I realize that my brother and I have each other and so we’re ok.”
She has since posted several tributes to her lookalike mother and spoken about their close bond during episodes of The View.
“The first time I went was in the early ’80s, but my mother had always said ‘I’m going to take you and Clyde’ — that’s my brother — ‘I’m gonna take you to Disneyland’ and she never could afford to do it,” she said.
“I asked her to come see me in California, sent her a ticket, and she said, ‘You know, where do you live because I feel like I’ve been in this car a long time. She had no idea where we were going.”
Whoopi’s autobiography will be released on May 7, 2024.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255), chat on 988lifeline.org, or text Crisis Text Line at 741741.
