Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg has admitted 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 she never went anywhere without her child.
The panel discussed Lily Allen’s recent comments about how having children ‘ruined her career’ when Whoopi decided to speak out about her own life choices after becoming a mother aged 19 in May 1974.
“My child 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’s the process of being a parent – they’re not supposed to like everything you do.’
Whoopi Goldberg, pictured here in 1986, has admitted she ‘chose’ her acting career over her daughter Alexandrea Martin
The 68-year-old actress made the candid comments during Tuesday’s episode of The View
Whoopi, pictured here in 2004, told the panel that her only daughter Alexandrea ‘didn’t always like it’
Whoopi pictured here at Tyler Perry Studios opening in October 2019 with Alexandrea
When her co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin replied: ‘And you gave her a better life,’ Whoopi humbly said: ‘Well, I hope so… but the idea was that I never traveled with my child.
“I mean, even when I wasn’t famous, when we went on tour, when she was in that theater with me, you know, wherever I went, she went. So it depends on what you’re capable of, when you are able.’
Whoopi’s daughter Alexandrea was 11 years old when her moviegoers got the chance to see her talents in her first major film role in Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple, playing Celie Harris-Johnson.
Acting jobs started coming in thick and fast for the New York native, and in 1991 Whoopi won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Oda Mae Brown in the 1990 hit Ghots – starring Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore.
She went on to play Deloris Van Cartier in the much-loved film 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 has received numerous awards and is also one of 19 entertainers to have won the EGOT, which includes an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, an Oscar and a Tony Award.
She has hosted and moderated ABC’s The View since September 2007, replacing Rosie O’Donnell.
Sara Haines (right) claimed women don’t have to ‘ruin a career to have a child’ as Whoopi listened to her point of view
Alyssa Farah Griffin admitted she’s ‘thinking about starting a family soon’, while Sunny Hostin (right) said women ‘can’t have it all at once’
Comedian Joy Behar asked the panel if they think ‘men are asking themselves’ the question about children and careers
Mother-of-two Sunny Hostin joined the conversation and claimed: ‘I really think you have to prioritize certain things, like you can’t have everything at the same time.
‘You can get it at different times and my mum actually sacrificed her career for the first five years of my life and stayed at my house and I remember that and I stayed at Gabriel’s for the first year and a half, two years , and I stayed at home for about six months with Paloma because at that time we couldn’t afford for me not to work.’
The 55-year-old continued: ‘And I’ve turned it down… I was offered my own show but it was in Los Angeles and so I turned it down. So my career has suffered, I think, but I don’t think my kids have, and those are the decisions I’ve made.’
Mum-of-three Sara Haines chimed in, saying of 38-year-old Lily: ‘I can’t relate to the life of a pop star or what it means to her career, so I don’t address her directly, but I do. think women can get it all at different times.
“So what I would say is that both my parents had to work, we couldn’t afford not to, so I grew up in a home where my mother balanced it all, where she was home in and out, but we were just like with each other and it built a strong family.
‘For me, I don’t feel well 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 necessity to mental health to other things, sometimes you have to do both.’
Alexandrea and Whoopi pictured at the 38th Emmy Awards in September 1986 with her second husband David Classen
When her co-host suggested she had given her daughter ‘a better life’, Whoopi responded, saying: ‘I hope’
Whoopi often took her daughter to star-studded events and the duo are pictured here arriving at the 86th Academy Awards in March 2014
Sara, 46, continued: ‘I think the problem here is that if you want to take a break and have all those years at home, it could damage a career, but for me it was just maternity that you just come back i. you find ways to balance.
‘Like Sunny said you have to choose your moments because you won’t be able to… you always put family first, it’s the North Star for everything but you can I don’t think that means you have to destroy 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 won’t be able to to say yes to anything we are asked to do.”
“But I think there used to be a saying where it’s like you can thrive at work, in a relationship and in your friendships — pick two, but not all three.
‘That’s what happens, just like something may suffer a little, it doesn’t mean it’s going downhill. You just have to prioritize what’s most important, and I think in the long run family will be the most rewarding,” Alyssa added.
Joy Behar then stepped up and asked the panel: ‘Do you think men ask themselves this question?’ to which they all answered a resounding, ‘No.’