Whoopi Goldberg has been in
the public eye
for decades as a comedian, actor,
co-host of The View.
She's truly one of a kind.
What you may not know about her
is that behind the scenes,
her remarkable mom, Emma
and her brother Clyde, were her anchors.
Their connection was extraordinarily
deep all their lives.
Wolf, his mom died in 2010
and her brother, a few years later,
their deaths
had a profound effect on Whoopi
and still do.
And she writes incredibly lovingly
about them in a new memoir
titled Bits and Pieces
like My Mother, My Brother and Me.
The book is out this week.
It is beautiful.
I recently spoke to her
for a future episode of my podcast,
All There Is.
The full interview will be available
in the next season is released.
Not sure when that's going to happen,
but soon.
But I wanted you to hear some of
what they had to say.
You wrote.
You said after
your mom died,
you said she'd prepared me for this day,
but I would never be ready.
I wasn't ready to not be her kid.
And you also said it took
a while to settle in on me,
that my mom's death has been
the most
devastating experience of my life.
It was an acute trauma.
I still think about her every single day.
Yes.
But I figured out
because one of the reasons I.
I also thought I should write the book
is because I didn't think
I was responding correctly.
And I.
I couldn't figure out why.
I couldn't figure out why I wasn't more
devastated.
And then a couple of days ago,
I figured it out.
A couple of days ago.
I figured it out a couple of days ago.
There was
nothing left unsaid with us.
So there was no
there was no angst to find.
There was that
that thing that I've seen in movies
where I see people go through.
I didn't go through it
because my experience was, you know,
I adored and loved you and you were the
the center of my life.
And same with my brother.
And we said it to each other
all the time.
You said, I'm not in any rush to go
wherever they went,
but a lot of days
I'm just sort of walking through it,
getting where I need to go
and doing what I need to do.
I had no clue that things would change
so dramatically for me
once they were gone.
Was I so tethered to my mom and brother
that I can't find my own bearing?
It feels that way.
They were my home base,
my reality check,
because they both knew me from the start.
And you also said
it's not like
either one could have done
anything about dying.
But from time to time, I feel like,
Why did you all leave me here?
Yeah, I asked that I.
Yeah, Yeah.
But the answer to that
is because we have stuff
we got to get done, that's why.
And we're not supposed to.
This is not our time.
It's not our time.
We got kids and grandkids, and
they need to know us.
They need.
They need to know us.
That's why it's my belief, you know?
But yeah, that
I find myself asking that question
like,
Yeah.
Why did you leave me?
There were three of us.
I also realized
when I ask that, that it's very much
it's the question.
Like the ten year
old me, he's asking you.
It's like the angry question
of a hardhearted child of like,
why did you leave?
Yeah. No.
And.
And I once flirted
once flirted with
thinking about leaving.
And then I thought how?
What a terrible thing
that would be to do to my kids,
to knowingly do to my kid
who actually likes me, you know?
Yeah.
She's a really good person
and a fine woman, and she's raised
she and her husband have raised
three fine, very bizarre children.
And why would you do that to them?
Why would you leave them with that?
So,
yeah. And not.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm glad.
Yeah, me too.
I think.
You know, when somebody dies,
people don't know what to say.
And I, I, I've been doing this podcast.
I still don't know what to say
a lot of times, but I'm better at it now.
But what did you
you write in the book about
writing to people and
what do you say to people
when when,
when you have a friend
who lost a loved one?
Well, I say, you know, no one
no one who hasn't lost
this way can understand.
So you can't be mad at them
for not saying the right thing
because even
you don't know what the right thing is.
So just let people love you.
Let them come in, love you,
and just appreciate that they
they're not going to know
what you're feeling.
You're not going to get
they can't read your mind,
but know
that all of these things
are going to be coming at you
and you're going to get really pissed off
because you
why are you
you know,
why are you talking to me like this?
It's because they don't know what to say,
you know?
So I just recommend saying
I'm so sorry
and hug somebody
for write them a note.
Say, I,
I don't know how to deal with this
because it's never happened to me.
Be honest.
With people.
Goldberg is amazing.
I love her and her book is
lovely and remarkable.
If you think you know her
and if you like her
and you think you know her,
there's a lot you can learn about her
That's extraordinary.
That's in this book.
And her
amazing, amazing mom, Emma, who was it
sounds a lot like my mom.