Academy Award winner Whoopi Goldberg has admitted that she chose her acting career over her only child Alexandrea Martin because she knew the opportunity to pursue success in entertainment ‘would never happen again.’
During a candid chat on Tuesday’s episode of The View, the 68-year-old star told her co-hosts that her daughter ‘didn’t always like it’ but stressed that she never travelled anywhere without her kid.
The panel were discussing Lily Allen’s recent comments about how having kids ‘ruined her career’, when Whoopi decided to come clean about her own life choices after she became a mother at the age of 19 in May 1974.
‘My kid came before my career, and I chose my career because I knew this would never happen again,’ she explained. ‘She didn’t always like it, but that is the process of being a parent – they’re not supposed to like everything you do.’
When her co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin responded: ‘And you gave her a better life,’ Whoopi said humbly: ‘Well, I hope… but the idea was I never didn’t travel with my kid.
‘I mean, even when I wasn’t famous, when we went on tour, when she sat in that theatre with me, you know wherever I went, she went. So it depends on what you’re able to do when you’re able to do it.’
Whoopi’s daughter Alexandrea was 11 years old when her movie goers got the chance to witness her talents in her first major film role in Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple, in which she played Celie Harris-Johnson.
The acting jobs started coming in thick and fast for the New York native and in 1991, Whoopi won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Oda Mae Brown in the 1990 hit Ghots – which starred Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore.
She went on to play Deloris Van Cartier in the much-loved movie Sister Act 1992, as well as the sequel Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit the following year.
The mother-of-one has also enjoyed voice roles in popular films such as Disney’s The Lion King, A Christmas Carol, The Rugrats Movie and later in 2010’s Toy Story 3.
Whoopi is a recipient of numerous accolades, and is also one of 19 entertainers to win the EGOT, which includes an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and a Tony Award.
She has been a host and moderator on ABC’s The View since September 2007, when she replaced Rosie O’Donnell.
Mother-of-two Sunny Hostin joined in on the conversation and claimed: ‘I really think that you do have to prioritize certain things, like you can’t have everything all at the same time.
‘You can have it at different times and my mother actually sacrificed her career for the first five years of my life and stayed at home with me and I remember that, and I stayed at home with Gabriel for the first year and a half, two years, and I stayed home for about six months with Paloma because at that point we couldn’t afford for me to not work.’
The 55-year-old continued: ‘And I have turned down… I was offered my own show but it was in Los Angeles and so I turned that down. So my career has suffered I think, but I don’t think my children have and those are the decisions that I made.’
Mother-of-three Sara Haines chimed in and said of 38-year-old Lily: ‘I can’t relate to the life of a popstar or what that means for her career so I’m not addressing her directly, but I do think women can have it all at different times.
‘So what I would say is both my parents had to work, we couldn’t afford not to so I grew up in a home where my mom balanced all of it, where she was home in and out but we kind of were with each other and that built a strong family.
‘For me, I’m not good at home and by that I mean I find that job so much harder around the clock – for me. It messes with me mentally and so it doesn’t mean that everyone always has that choice, from financial imperative to mental health to other things, sometimes you have to do both.’
Sara, 46, continued: ‘I think the problem here is if you want to take a break and have all those years at home, that could hurt a career, but for me it was just maternity leave which you just come right back in and you do find ways to balance.
‘As Sunny said, you have to choose your moments because you’re not going to be able to… you always prioritize the family, it’s the North Star of everything but you can, I don’t think that means you have to ruin a career to have a child.’
Alyssa, 34, who doesn’t have children yet, then added: My husband and I talk about this a lot because we’re thinking about starting a family soon and he said, “say yes to everything now because we’re not gonna be able to say yes to everything we’re asked to do”.
‘But I think there used to be this adage where it’s like you can be thriving at work, in a relationship and in your friendships – choose two, but not all three.
‘That’s what happens, like something may suffer a little, it doesn’t mean that it’s going downhill. You just have to prioritize what’s most important and I think family long term will be the most rewarding,’ Alyssa added.
Joy Behar then piped up and asked the panel: ‘Do you think that men are asking themselves this question?’ to which they all replied a resounding: ‘No.’
Laura Adams is a tech enthusiast residing in the UK. Her articles cover the latest technological innovations, from AI to consumer gadgets, providing readers with a glimpse into the future of technology.
