Whoopi Goldberg’s Biggest Controversies Over the Years: Holocaust Comments, Defending Bill Cosby and More

Credit: ABC/Lou Rocco

Whoopi Goldberg's Biggest Controversies Over the Years: Holocaust Comments, Defending Bill Cosby and More

Whoopi Goldberg has made headlines for her controversial remarks just as often as she has for her storied, EGOT-winning career. The View cohost found herself in hot water throughout 2022 after making antisemitic comments about the Holocaust that led to a two-week suspension from the long-running ABC talk show in February. The Ghost star, who previously shared that she identified as Jewish, faced extreme backlash after alleging on the January 31, 2022, episode of The View that the Holocaust — which killed more than 6 million Jewish people — is “not about race. It’s about man’s inhumanity to man.” “Effective immediately, I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks for her wrong and hurtful comments,” ABC News president Kim Godwin said in a statement on February 1, 2022. “While Whoopi has apologized, I’ve asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments. The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities.” Though Goldberg apologized for her comments at the time, she doubled down on her stance in December 2022. “My best friend said, ‘Not for nothing is there no box on the census for the Jewish race. So that leads me to believe that we’re probably not a race,” she told the Sunday Times. “Remember who they were killing first. They were not killing racial; they were killing physical. They were killing people they considered to be mentally defective. And then they made this decision.” [jwplayer wlPIVFYQ-zhNYySv2] Goldberg continued: “It doesn’t change the fact that you could not tell a Jew on a street. You could find me. You couldn’t find them. That was the point I was making. But you would have thought that I’d taken a big old stinky dump on the table, butt naked.” Days later, the Thoroughly Modern Millie alum apologized for her comments to the Sunday Times. “Recently while doing press in London, I was asked about my comments from earlier this year. I tried to convey to the reporter what I had said and why, and attempted to recount that time,” she told E! News. “It was never my intention to appear as if I was doubling down on hurtful comments, especially after talking with and hearing people like rabbis and old and new friends weighing in. I’m still learning a lot and believe me, I heard everything everyone said to me.” The actress’ offensive remarks about World War II were far from the only time she has caused a stir over the years. In July 2015, she defended Bill Cosby amid multiple accusations of sexual assault against him, declaring the disgraced comedian “innocent until proven guilty.” (In 2018, the Cosby Show alum was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, though his conviction was later overturned and he was released from prison after serving three years.) After backlash, Goldberg changed her stance during an appearance on ABC News later that month. Keep scrolling to read more of Goldberg’s controversial moments over the years, including her defense of then-partner Ted Danson’s use of Blackface during her 1990 Friar’s Club Roast and more:

Credit: ABC/Lou Rocco

Whoopi Goldberg's Biggest Controversies Over the Years: Holocaust Comments, Defending Bill Cosby and More

Whoopi Goldberg has made headlines for her controversial remarks just as often as she has for her storied, EGOT-winning career. The View cohost found herself in hot water throughout 2022 after making antisemitic comments about the Holocaust that led to a two-week suspension from the long-running ABC talk show in February. The Ghost star, who previously shared that she identified as Jewish, faced extreme backlash after alleging on the January 31, 2022, episode of The View that the Holocaust — which killed more than 6 million Jewish people — is “not about race. It’s about man’s inhumanity to man.” “Effective immediately, I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks for her wrong and hurtful comments,” ABC News president Kim Godwin said in a statement on February 1, 2022. “While Whoopi has apologized, I’ve asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments. The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities.” Though Goldberg apologized for her comments at the time, she doubled down on her stance in December 2022. “My best friend said, ‘Not for nothing is there no box on the census for the Jewish race. So that leads me to believe that we’re probably not a race,” she told the Sunday Times. “Remember who they were killing first. They were not killing racial; they were killing physical. They were killing people they considered to be mentally defective. And then they made this decision.” [jwplayer wlPIVFYQ-zhNYySv2] Goldberg continued: “It doesn’t change the fact that you could not tell a Jew on a street. You could find me. You couldn’t find them. That was the point I was making. But you would have thought that I’d taken a big old stinky dump on the table, butt naked.” Days later, the Thoroughly Modern Millie alum apologized for her comments to the Sunday Times. “Recently while doing press in London, I was asked about my comments from earlier this year. I tried to convey to the reporter what I had said and why, and attempted to recount that time,” she told E! News. “It was never my intention to appear as if I was doubling down on hurtful comments, especially after talking with and hearing people like rabbis and old and new friends weighing in. I’m still learning a lot and believe me, I heard everything everyone said to me.” The actress’ offensive remarks about World War II were far from the only time she has caused a stir over the years. In July 2015, she defended Bill Cosby amid multiple accusations of sexual assault against him, declaring the disgraced comedian “innocent until proven guilty.” (In 2018, the Cosby Show alum was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, though his conviction was later overturned and he was released from prison after serving three years.) After backlash, Goldberg changed her stance during an appearance on ABC News later that month. Keep scrolling to read more of Goldberg’s controversial moments over the years, including her defense of then-partner Ted Danson’s use of Blackface during her 1990 Friar’s Club Roast and more:

Credit: Andy Kropa/Invision/AP/Shutterstock

Apology Over Romani Slur

After unintentionally using a derogatory term for the Romani travelers during a March 2023 episode of The View, Goldberg issued an apology.

“You know, when you’re a certain age, you use words that are from, you know, when you’re a kid or you remember saying,” the Sister Act star said in a video message shared via The View’s Twitter account. “And that’s what I did today, and I shouldn’t have. I should have thought about it a little longer before I said it, but I didn’t. And I should have said ‘cheated,’ [but] I used another word and I’m really, really sorry."

Credit: Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock

Holocaust Comments

Despite apologizing for her January 2022 remarks on The View that the Holocaust was “not about race,” Goldberg doubled down on her comments later that year.

“It doesn’t change the fact that you could not tell a Jew on a street. You could find me. You couldn’t find them,” she told the Sunday Times in December 2022. “That was the point I was making.”

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Defending Bill Cosby

Goldberg defended Cosby on The View in July 2015, claiming that he was “innocent until proven guilty” — despite the evidence stacked against him.

However, later that month, the Color Purple star changed her tune. “It looks bad, Bill,” she told ABC’s Chief Legal Affairs anchor Dan Abrams, addressing the disgraced actor through the camera. “Either speak up or shut up, because people know now that there’s a lot more out there than they thought.”

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The #OscarsSoWhite Controversy

The #OscarsSoWhite Controversy After the January 2020 discourse about the Oscars severely underrepresenting people of color, Goldberg shared her belief that the awards show was not about race — using her 1991 best supporting actress Oscar win as proof. (She won for her role in Ghost.)

“The issue is not the Academy,” Goldberg said on The View at the time. “Even if you fill the Academy with Black and Latino and Asian members, if there’s no one on the screen to vote for, you’re not going to get the outcome that you want.”

She added: “I won once. So it can’t be that racist.”

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Ray Rice Domestic Abuse Scandal

Goldberg admittedly caught “a lot of hell” after sharing her views on Ray Rice’s 2014 domestic violence scandal, during which he was seen brutally abusing his wife, Janay Palmer, on video.

“Don’t be surprised if you hit a man, he hits you back,” the Till star said on The View at the time. “I know I’m going to catch a lot of hell, and I don’t care. But you have to teach women, do not live with this idea that men have this chivalry thing still with them, don’t assume that that is still in place.”

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Defending Ted Danson's Use of Blackface

Goldberg dated the Cheers star for a year and a half in the early ‘90s — during which he infamously came out in Blackface during her Friar’s Club Roast in 1993. The Mr. Mayor star’s appearance and jokes were so offensive that multiple people left during his set, according to the Associated Press’ coverage at the time.

Goldberg — who was reportedly aware that her then-boyfriend was going to don the racist getup — approved of Danson’s appearance. “It takes a whole lot of (courage) to come out in Blackface,” she said at the time, per the AP. “I don’t care if you don’t like it. I do.″