The Sad, Shocking Reason Whoopi Goldberg’s Mother Disappeared For Years During Her Childhood

Whoopi Goldberg is giving fans a glimpse into her life before stardom in her new memoir, “Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me,” which is set to drop on May 7.

In the book, the EGOT winner writes about growing up in New York City with her mother, Emma, and her older brother, Clyde. She was in awe of her mother for creating so many wonderful memories of happy holidays and adventures around the city for the family despite not having much money.

“The thing that she did always say to us is that she wanted us to be children as long as we could be. She wanted us to always be filled with wonder and magic and believe in things that everybody was going to tell me as an adult to stop believing in,” Goldberg told her co-hosts on the May 1 episode of “The View.”

But as Goldberg reveals in her book, there was also a dark side. The “Ghost” star opens up about her mother’s struggles, including the time she was sent to New York City’s Bellevue Hospital to receive electroshock therapy after what she described on The View as a “breakdown.” Goldberg, who was only eight years old at the time, says she didn’t know anything about her mother’s whereabouts for her entire two-year stay and was cared for by her cousin and her father.

“In those days, kids were told nothing, parents just disappeared, things happened,” Goldberg said.

Goldberg added that it was her father and grandfather who ultimately made the decision for her mother to be hospitalized and receive the treatment which left her unable to remember her own children. She then took the opportunity to remind the audience of the importance of remaining engaged during this election cycle.

‘So, here’s another reason why you must really pay attention to what’s going on politically because there was a time in this country where your husband, your brother, or any man involved in your life could make medical decisions for you,” she said.