Whoopi Goldberg Reveals She Was Addicted To Cocaine Early In Her Career: Was A Very High-Functioning Addict

Whoopi Goldberg opened up about her battle with cocaine addiction in the 80s. One day the actress realised she needed to get rid of it when a housekeeper found her lying on a closet floor.

Outlook Entertainment Desk

Updated on: 8 May 2024 3:58 pm

Whoopi Goldberg on her drug addiction Photo: Instagram

Actress Whoopi Goldberg released her new memoir, 'Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me' on May 7. It's about her early life, in New York City with her family, losing her mother and brother, the hurdles she faced as a young adult and a lot more. In her memoir, Goldberg opened up about her battle with cocaine addiction in the 80s. The 68-year-old actress also revealed that one day she realised that she needed to get rid of the addiction when a housekeeper found her lying on a closet floor.

Whoopi in her memoir, wrote that she didn’t know the effects of cocaine had on her until she reached a “low” where she was in a hotel room for two days. She said, "I had stayed pretty far away from drugs, except for pot, after getting cleaned up in the early ‘70s'' and added, ”But Los Angeles and New York started to redefine what ‘recreational drug use’ meant in the ‘80s." She further said, "It was a really good time for about a year. Then I fell into the deep well of cocaine and sank to a new low. Nobody around me caught on to where I was at with it. At least, that’s what I wanted to believe. I would have called myself ‘a very high-functioning addict.’”

Whoopi Goldberg with her book 'Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me' Photo: Instagram

The Oscar-winning actress got addicted to cocaine and she realised she was getting sloppy when she went to work. ''I was sitting on the closet floor, just putting it up my nose, all by myself,'' she said and added, ''I didn’t hear the housekeeper knock or let herself in the room to clean it up.”

The 'Sister Act' actress further revealed, “I looked at myself in the mirror near the door and saw cocaine all over my face''. “Get up, get out, and fix your life,” she told herself. “'You’ve been sitting in a closet for two days. It’s not good','' she recalled telling herself. ''I had already decided that I was willing and ready to stop, so I was going to do whatever I needed to stop putting drugs up my nose,'' said Whoopi.