Whoopi Goldberg details serious cocaine addiction in new memoir
Whoopi Goldberg has shared her serious addiction to cocaine – and the mortifying encounter in a New York hotel that made her quit.
Books
Don't miss out on the headlines from Books. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Whoopi Goldberg admits in her upcoming memoir that she had a serious addiction to cocaine.
In the US actor’ soon-to-be-released book, Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me, Goldberg also shared her mortifying encounter in a New York hotel that prompted her quit.
“I had stayed pretty far away from drugs, except for pot, after getting cleaned up in the early ’70s,” the Oscar winner, who went to rehab before she was famous, writes in her tome.
Goldberg, 68, went on to explain how Hollywood and New York redefined the meaning of “recreational drug use” in the ’80s.
“I was invited to parties where I was greeted at the door with a bowl of Quaaludes (sedatives) from which I could pick what I wanted,” the Sister Act star recalls.
“Lines of cocaine were laid across tables and bathroom counters for the taking.”
Goldberg explains that partygoers knew cops were never going to raid the home of a “big-time producer or actor”, so the attitude was allegedly “very relaxed” and “everyone partook”.
The EGOT winner also admits to believing she could “handle” cocaine as it didn’t appear “dangerous” and it seemed like everyone had access to it at the time.
Goldberg writes that everything was OK for about a year. She claims she was able to hide her drug use and continue working, even showing up to set on time with no issues.
Not soon long after, however, she felt like cocaine “started to kick (her) ass”.
Things got so bad that Goldberg recalls hallucinating. At one point she believed she saw a dangerous creature lurking under her bed that would try to attack her if she got up.
“So I didn’t move out of bed for 24 hours,” the Ghost star writes. “That kind of s**t doesn’t end pretty. There’s only so long a person can hold their bladder.”
Finally, Goldberg had what she calls a “slap in the face moment” when she was staying in a ritzy Manhattan hotel. She was sitting in the closet, doing the drug, when a housekeeper came in, opened the closet door and screamed.
Goldberg leapt up and explained it was her room but then caught sight of her face in a mirror, which was smeared with cocaine.
The Star Trek alum considers herself lucky, writing that she was “able to stop using drugs quickly”, even though she knew going cold turkey wouldn’t be easy.
“I knew I’d have to change out my friends and turn down invitations but I could do that,” she recalls. “I didn’t want to die.”
Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me hits bookshelves on May 7.
This story originally appeared on New York Post and was reproduced with permission
More Coverage
Originally published as Whoopi Goldberg details serious cocaine addiction in new memoir
Inside the head of ‘killer king’
For centuries, the mystery of the Princes in the Tower has chilled and enthralled. Amid debate around a fascinating new theory, a book goes inside the mind of the boys’ alleged murderer.
‘Taboo topic’ drove me to booze
Devastating loss in an area few people understand or talk about led Mitch Jennings to the realisation that people don’t always respond to life’s challenges the way we might hope.