Whoopi Goldberg Says Her Mom Forgot Who She Was After Undergoing Electroshock Therapy

Christy Piña
·2 min read
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Whoopi Goldberg got candid about her mother’s experience in a mental hospital following a mental breakdown when The View co-host was in elementary school.

In an interview with People ahead of the release of her upcoming memoir, Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me, Goldberg revealed her mother forgot who she was after undergoing electroshock therapy during her two-year hospitalization. The severe treatment wiped her memory and resulted in her not remembering the Ghost star or her late brother, Clyde.

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“My mother at one point when I got older … said, ‘Can I tell you a secret?’ I was like, ‘Sure,'” the actress and comedian told the publication. “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.’”

She continued, “I said to her, ‘And nobody knew. You didn’t tell anybody.’ I said, ‘So you carried this for 40 years?’ She said, ‘Well, what else was I going to do?'”

Harris’ hospitalization was not only traumatic for her but also for Goldberg, who was only 8 years old when her mother was first checked into the mental institution. Children were also not allowed in the hospital, so she had to go two years without her mother at such a young age.

“Living without my mother, who was always my world, who had always been that center of gravity, suddenly the center of gravity wasn’t there,” the daytime talk show co-host explained, adding that her mother had thankfully taught her how to interact with adults at that point, so it helped. If she needed information, she knew how to ask for it and explain why she was asking.

Goldberg also opened up about what her mom experienced on Wednesday’s episode of The View, revealing that her father forced her mother to get the electroshock therapy treatments.

“There was a time in this country where your husband, your brother, or any man involved in your life could make medical decisions for you,” The Color Purple actress said on the show. “My mother’s father — my grandfather — and my dad, OK’ed it, that my mother get the shock treatment for two years.”

Goldberg’s mother died in August 2010 following a stroke, while her brother, Clyde, died from a brain aneurysm five years later.

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