Whoopi Goldberg has made it clear she is not slowing down anytime soon, admitting she cannot afford to retire even after decades of success on stage and screen.
The View co-host, 69, addressed the subject during a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight. Asked if she thought about “slowing down” and enjoying life, Whoopi was candid. “Yeah, but who can afford to do that? You know if you don’t marry well, you gotta keep working.”
When the reporter suggested she could probably afford retirement, Whoopi laughed off the idea. “No, not by now. Not yet. I gotta keep paying those bills, baby.”
Goldberg reportedly earns $8 million per year for her role as co-host and moderator on The View, making her the highest-paid member of the panel. She joined the show in 2001, replacing Rosie O’Donnell, and her debut drew 3.4 million viewers.
Despite a reported net worth of $30 million, Goldberg insists her work on The View is about making a living. In 2024, she told audiences she stayed with the program because of financial necessity. “I appreciate that people are having a hard time,” she said. “Me, too. I work for a living. If I had all the money in the world, I would not be here, OK? So, I’m a working person, you know?”
In a 2019 interview with The New York Times, Goldberg described her hosting duties as “a job” rather than a reflection of her personal conversations. “In a way, I am playing a role. These are not conversations that I’m having with my friends. If they were, we’d be doing it differently. My friends and I can talk about things in-depth in a different way than you can on television.”
Her career achievements, however, speak for themselves. Goldberg has been nominated for more than 20 Emmy Awards for The View, winning the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Host in 2009.
She is one of the rare performers to achieve EGOT status, having earned an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. In 1990, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Ghost. Her film credits also include The Color Purple, Sister Act and its sequel, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Girl, Interrupted, and For Colored Girls.
Her Broadway debut, the one-woman show Whoopi Goldberg, ran for 156 performances in 1983 and launched a career that has spanned comedy, film, television, and writing. In 2001, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
For Goldberg, the accolades and wealth have not changed her perspective. She considers herself, above all, a working woman who still needs to “pay the bills.”
