Whoopi Goldberg has lived hundreds of lives.
Since the Hollywood veteran’s entry into acting in the 1980s, the actress is one of 19 people to receive the EGOT and the first Black woman to win all four awards. Despite the success, in Goldberg’s new memoir, “Bits and Pieces” which was released on May 7, she details years of trials and personal challenges like her years-long battle with addiction.
According to US Weekly, Goldberg revealed that she was dependent on drugs at 16 years old. She said she became sober because of a youth center that became a refuge for young people to “come together and keep themselves from falling into bad things.”
But in the 1980s, Goldberg wrote that she had relapsed when she was invited to parties with Quaaludes and “lines of cocaine.” Goldberg called herself “a very high-functioning addict.”
“I thought I could handle the cocaine thing. It didn’t seem dangerous. Everybody seemed to have access to it, even on TV and movie sets,” Goldberg said. However, she said the addiction began to “kick my ass” and affected her work.
“Finally, I had one of those slap-in-the-face moments that make you see pretty f**king clearly that you’ve hit bottom,” she said.
On a lighter note, the memoir also details how later she and the late Marlon Brando became friends when he broke into her house and played her piano. When Brando died in 2004, he left Goldberg “a parcel of land on his Fiji island,” which said threw her “for a loop.” Goldberg gave the share of the island back to his family.