"I remember we had the one room space, and we slept in the bed together," Goldberg's daughter Alex recalled.
Editor's note: This article was originally published on March 24, 2023. It has since been updated.
Whoopi Goldberg was a teenage mother taking care of her only child, Alexandrea Martin before she became a prominent co-host on The View. In 1973, she gave birth to Alex at the age of 18 with her previous drug counselor, Alvin Martin. Goldberg had been dealing with a heroin problem, for which she met Martin, but ended up falling in love with him, per Good Housekeeping.
Goldberg moved to California with her daughter, now 49, in the middle of the 1970s so that she could follow her dreams of acting and stand-up comedy. She said in an interview that she took any job she could to pay her expenses whether it was working as a bricklayer or a mortuary cosmetologist, she did it all as a single mom fending for bills.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG with her daughter at the Oscars.
— WRITER KOLA BOOF (@KolaBoof3) April 14, 2020
Whoopi had been a teen mother. Whoopi also said that she was on "Food Stamps" the year that COLOR PURPLE came out. She had also starred in a one woman comedy show and won the TONY Award. The WHOOPSTER was a bad bish. pic.twitter.com/qobyEIJ24F
Goldberg also depended on food stamps for sustenance, her daughter revealed. “I know what it’s like with the food stamps because my mom has her [Welfare] cards framed," Alex said. "Seriously … I remember that. I remember we had a one-room space, and we slept in the bed together. I remember when we wanted to travel we would drive across the country in broken-down bugs. We didn’t have the money to go to the movies," she recalled.
Goldberg and her daughter eventually pulled through. As an EGOT winner, Goldberg's success is definitely unparalleled, but her daughter managed to walk in her footsteps too, becoming an actor, and a producer. She is well-known for her work on Sensitive Men, Descendants, Strange as Angels, Call Me Claus, American Intellectuals, and Quest of the Delta Knights.
Along with having the same talent for acting, the mother and daughter also have a lovely relationship. In 2015, while Alex was promoting their reality show According to Alex, she said to Wendy Williams that she and her mother "talk multiple times a day." She also said that since they are so close, there are no restrictions on what they can discuss.
On The View, the Corrina, Corrina actress referred to Alex as her "best friend." She asserted that "she's one of the most trustworthy and loyal people," per US Weekly. Goldberg continued, "she's somebody who makes me laugh like 'bwaha!' laugh, and we can talk to each other at any time of the day or night." In a moving speech about her daughter at her 40th birthday celebration in 2014, Goldberg opened up about the successful mother that Alex is, and reportedly said, per PageSix, "Alex is a better mother to her three kids than I ever was."
References:
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/a26669544/whoopi-goldberg-daughter/
https://pagesix.com/2014/05/15/whoopi-goldberg-my-daughter-is-a-better-mom-than-i-ever-was/
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Kevork Djansezian
