Whoopi Goldberg On Grief, Loss, And The Power Of Leaving Nothing Unsaid

Whoopi Goldberg knows the importance of leaving nothing unsaid with the people you love. It's a philosophy that the co-host of "The View" recently realized played a crucial role in how she has grieved her mother, Emma Johnson, who passed away 14 years ago after suffering a stroke. This perspective has also shaped Goldberg's understanding of why it took her some time to fully grasp the weight of her loss.

Initially, Goldberg felt she wasn’t “responding correctly” to the death of her mother, she shared with Anderson Cooper during an emotional conversation on his podcast, "All There Is." Though there’s no “right” or “wrong” way to grieve, Goldberg felt her process was unique. 

“I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t more devastated,” she admitted. But shortly before her conversation with Cooper, she had a revelation.

“There was nothing left unsaid between us, so there was no unresolved angst,” Goldberg said, reflecting on her relationship with her mother. “That thing you see in movies, where people have regrets—I didn’t have that. My experience was, ‘You know I adored and loved you, and you were the center of my life.’ The same with my brother. We said it all the time.”

Goldberg’s brother, Clyde Johnson, passed away five years after their mother, leaving her as the last living member of her immediate family.

“I don’t think anything can prepare you for actually being on your own,” she shared.

This realization ties back to a lesson Goldberg learned as a child. Her mother, a strong and independent woman, spent two years in New York's Bellevue Hospital seeking mental health treatment. When she first returned home, she didn’t recognize Goldberg or her brother. This experience profoundly shaped Goldberg’s understanding of life.

Her mother’s hospitalization, she said, “was probably the best thing that could have happened for me because I understood instantly that nothing is forever. It helped me develop my thinking.”

Even with this perspective, navigating life without her mother and brother hasn’t been easy. Despite being a mother and grandmother herself, Goldberg confessed that her brother's death left her feeling deeply alone. She questioned why she had been left behind, a thought that haunted her as she grappled with her grief.

At one point, Goldberg revealed she “flirted with the idea” of leaving too, but thoughts of her own daughter stopped her. 

Now, she’s in a stage of grief where she’s determined to “find the joy in all of this.”

A part of that joy is keeping her mother’s memory alive. “If I can be half the person she was, I’ll feel like I’ve honored her the way I’d like to,” Goldberg said. “She truly was a beacon of light.”