"All of her kids are power people" — Whoopi Goldberg speaks about her mother and her struggles with mental health in upcoming memoir

Whoopi Goldberg is set to release her memoir Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me on May 7, 2024. In it, she talks about her childhood and her mother's struggles with mental health. However, the actress does note that her mother was "really something."

"They’re power people now. All of her kids are power people,” Goldberg says. “But they loved being with her because she was like a big kid. She wanted to know. She would say, ‘Let’s find out together.’ … She was really something. She really was.”

Whoopi's mother, Emma Harris, was a teacher who graduated from New York University with a master's degree in early childhood education. However, she had struggled with mental illness.

My Talk 1071 reported that Whoopi recalled in the book how she arrived home from school one day to find her mother talking incoherently and looking unkempt.

“They gave her electroshock treatments that were approved by my mother’s father, my grandfather, and my dad okayed it. They okayed that my mother get the shock treatment for two years,” Whoopi said.

---

Whoopi Goldberg recalls childhood struggles in her upcoming memoir Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me

Whoopi Goldberg's new book is all set to release (Image via Instagram/@whoopigoldberg)

Whoopi Goldberg is an American actress, comedian, writer, and television personality who has received many honors. She is also one of 19 performers who have won an EGOT, Emmy, Grammy, Tony, or Academy Award.

Her memoir, Bits and Pieces, which will be available on May 7, includes incredibly intimate details from her past. This includes her mother's two-year hospital stay after experiencing electroshock therapy for a mental breakdown that resulted in memory loss.

While talking about the same during a recent interview with The People Magazine, Whoopi Goldberg disclosed that her mother had a mental breakdown when she was in elementary school. Goldberg went on to say that her mother experienced a breakdown that required a two-year stay in the hospital.

When Goldberg was barely eight years old, her mother attempted to take her own life. As a result, she was sent to the Bellevue psychiatric institution in New York City. This was a pivotal time in Goldberg's early years that greatly influenced her outlook on life.

After her hospital stay, Emma Harris didn't recall either Whoopi or her late brother Clyde. Harris didn't tell her kid about this upsetting secret until 40 years later.

Goldberg also spoke about how the experience affected her and how she felt about it. The Oscar-winning actress claimed that not having her mother around for two years because "children were not allowed at the hospital" forced her to confront life in a way that many of her classmates did not have to at such a young age.

“I watched as she went over to the oven, turned it on, and put her head in there. I was old enough to know this was really bad news. I ran over and grabbed her around the waist and pulled her out,” she recalled.

---

The book also discusses Ms. Harris' death, which occurred in August 2010 following a stroke, and Whoopi's brother Clyde, who died in 2015 from a brain aneurysm. Furthermore, this biography honors Whoopi Goldberg's family's path of overcoming hardship and the love ties that kept them together.

Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me will be released on May 5.