Whoopi Goldberg Opens Up About Her Struggles With Addiction During Debate About Charlie Sheen On ‘The View’: “Sometimes You Don’t Have Any Other Choice”

Whoopi Goldberg shut down a tense debate on The View Wednesday after some of the ladies passionately disagreed with Martin Sheen‘s decision to turn his son Charlie Sheen in for violating his probation at the height of his addiction in the ’90s.

The debate left the Hot Topics table divided, but Goldberg opened up about her own struggles as “an addict” to defend the Sheens.

In his new Netflix documentary aka Charlie Sheen, the actor admitted that he initially saw it as the “biggest betrayal” when his father turned him in, which Joy Behar vehemently agreed with on The View.

“My view as an Italian mother is you do not turn your children in, especially if they have a drug problem or a mental health problem. You send them to a shrink or a hospital. You don’t call the police. Martin Sheen made a big mistake,” she said.

Alyssa Farah Griffin disagreed, noting that in her own experience with her sister who is now 12 years sober, “tough love” is sometimes necessary.

Goldberg then proceeded to announve she was going to “shut this down” as the debate became increasingly tense, prompting Behar to joke she was “scared now.”

“Well you should be. Because if you don’t think they did everything, when I tell you, they did everything to get him straight. This was the last straw because there was nothing left,” Goldberg said.

She continued, “What they didn’t want – and thank god it didn’t happen – is they didn’t want him to die in the street. That’s why that went down. But you know, every family has to handle this differently because very addiction is different.”

Hostin then speculated that Goldberg likely had a better understanding of Charlie’s situation because she personally “knew them.” But Goldberg denied that was all.

“[I’m] closer to this because having been an addict, I understand an addict’s way of thinking,” she said.

“We can B.S. you like nobody’s business. ‘I’m gonna get clean, I’m never gonna do this again,’ and next thing you know, you’re in it again and your parent or the person that loves you is like, ‘Oh my god what am I gonna do?’” Goldberg told her co-hosts. She added, “Money doesn’t always help.”

Goldberg opened up about her struggles with cocaine addiction in her 2024 memoir Bits and Pieces in which she described herself as “a very high-functioning addict,” per Salon.

Goldberg then turned to Behar to address her perspective as a mother.

“Joy, if I was your child I would appreciate that you didn’t turn me in. But then you’d be pissed off at me because I’d go behind your back and do something dumb because that’s what addicts do,” she stated.

The View airs on weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.