Whoopi Goldberg says she once dated a man who was 40 years her senior.
The actress, 68, revealed that shocking nugget during the Thursday, March 7, episode of The View, as she and her fellow cohosts were discussing the upcoming movie The Idea of You. The film follows a 40-year-old woman, portrayed by Anne Hathaway, who pursues a romantic relationship with a 24-year-old singer (Nicholas Galitzine).
While the age gap in the film has become a point of controversy, Goldberg is unbothered.
“It’s a movie. If you don’t want to see the movie, don’t see the movie,” she said.
Adding some real life perspective, Goldberg, added, “I’ve gone up and down. I go from here to here, because your age is not what’s going to get me into your arms. It’s not your age that I’m concerned about — unless you’re under 18, in which case I can’t.”
Cohost Joy Behar opined that age gaps could sometimes be problematic, particularly as the couple gets older. She specified that a 60-year-old dating an 80-year-old could get “a little hairy.”
Goldberg disagreed, adding, “Actually, I’m just gonna say this to you. One of the last relationships I had, he was 40 years older than me.”
That led Behar, 81, to ask whether the unidentified man is still alive, to which Goldberg replied “Mm-hmm.”
Some quick math would indicate that Goldberg’s ex is at least 108 today — a far cry from her on-air partners Behar and Sunny Hostin, who both married younger men.
Goldberg has been married three times, most recently to Lyle Trachtenberg, whom she divorced in 1995. She has also had relationships with actors Frank Langella, Timothy Dalton and Ted Danson.
Though she didn’t reveal when this relationship took place or the man’s name, it fits with what her granddaughter Amara Skye revealed in 2022 on the reality series Claim to Fame. She said that in the 1990s, Goldberg dated “some white man named John, and he was, like, a billionaire.” She added that he “was, like, 90 years old, and she used to go hang out with him.”
While Goldberg was honest about her personal life, don’t expect her to remarry any time soon — whether her partner is a centenarian or not. In 2016, she famously told The New York Times Magazine that she was not looking to live with a partner, adding, “I don’t want somebody in my house.”
That wasn’t the only revelation from Goldberg on this episode of The View. She also admitted that she spent some time in jail before retracting the statement and saying, “I’m a humorist, OK?”
The View airs weekdays on ABC at 11 a.m. ET.
