After three marriages - and subsequent divorces - Goldberg understood that she was "never really in love" with any of them.
Whoopi Goldberg is part of the very small group of celebrities who've achieved the EGOT status by winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award. She is also a comedian, actress, human rights advocate, and longtime daytime talkshow host The View.
But did you know that she was also a bride, not one but three times? In 1973, an 18-year-old Goldberg married her first husband, Alvin Martin, and became a mother to her daughter, Alex, in the same year. However, Martin and she got separated in 1979, according to Closer Weekly.
She then tied the knot with cinematographer David Claessen in 1986. They soon decided to part ways within two years of marriage in 1988. Goldberg walked down the aisle for the third and the last time in 1994 with actor and ITSE union organizer Lyle Trachtenberg. Just a year later, they called it quits in 1995.
Talking candidly about her failed marriages, the actress took the blame and revealed, “It took me some time but I realized that trying to turn myself into something I wasn’t ready for, for a man. Wasn’t his fault. It was mine.” She told New York Times Magazine, as cited by Celebrity 9. Admitting to being the "common denominator" in her failed marriages, she added, "My commitment was never that strong. I can say now that I was never really in love.”
But with the acceptance, also came the realization of what she really wanted. The Oprah magazine reported her saying that it was the expectations of the people around her that led her to get hitched. She said, "Look, people expect you to have a boyfriend... get married. So I kept trying to do that, but I didn’t want to share information with somebody else."
She added, "I didn’t want anybody asking me why I was doing what I was doing, or to have to make the other person feel better. But if you’re in a relationship, you have to do those things, and it took me a while to figure out that I didn’t want to."
She also said that her will to "feel normal" was another factor for her to marry. "It seemed to me that if I was married I’d have a much more normal life,” she said and added, “Clearly that’s not the case. That’s not a good reason to get married. You have to actually want a life with someone through ups and downs. I just discovered that wasn’t for me.”
After a lot of self-interpretation, she concluded that she had to answer to nobody in life but herself. She explained, "One day I thought: I don’t have to do this. I don’t have to conform. I tried marriage, and it wasn’t for me. You can’t be in marriage because everybody’s expecting you to."
The TV host confessed to Pierce Morgan once that she did fall in love with one man but refused to reveal the name, reported Fabiosa. But that doesn't mean that she would marry the guy!
During an episode of Loose Women, Goldberg revealed to the host that she just has one condition if things come to marriage - the man has to be in another country, as per Cheat Sheet. The Sister Act actress who adores her privacy, said, “The only way I could be married to anybody ever again is if they lived in another country." She continued, “They could come and visit, it would be like ‘Oh, my goodness, I haven’t seen you in so long. Come here!'"
Goldberg said that she values her freedom a lot and doesn't want "anyone asking me … I don’t want them expecting me to be anywhere.” But that also doesn't mean that she doesn't believe in love at first sight.
You might think Goldberg is a really confident woman but is she happy? Apparently, she is. "I’m much happier on my own," she told New York Times Magazine. She continued, "I can spend as much time with somebody as I want to spend, but I’m not looking to be with somebody forever or live with someone. I don’t want somebody in my house.”
Well, more power to you Whoopi!
References:
https://www.closerweekly.com/posts/whoopi-goldberg-husbands-meet-the-view-cohosts-3-spouses/
https://www.oprahmag.com/entertainment/a28337562/whoopi-goldberg-husband-marriage-wasnt-for-me/
