Whoopi Goldberg Apologizes For Using Offensive Word On ‘The View’: ‘I’m Really, Really Sorry’

Whoopi Goldberg in the front rowFenty Puma by Rihanna show, Front Row, Spring Summer 2018, New York Fashion Week, USA - 10 Sep 2017 — Image Credit: Gregory Pace/Shutterstock

Whoopi Goldberg released a video apologizing for using an offensive slur against the Romani people on The View on Wednesday, March 15. After the show aired, The View posted a short clip of the moderator, 67, explaining that she should’ve thought more about the language she was using during a “Hot Topic” discussion during the live broadcast.

During a discussion about former President Donald Trump’s alleged relationship with adult star Stormy Daniels, co-host Alyssa Farah-Griffin said that the alleged affair didn’t bother many of the former president’s supporters. Whoopi also spoke about how she didn’t think a possible indictment would deter Trump’s base, which was when she used the slur. “The people who still believe he got gy***d somehow in the election will still believe he cared enough about his wife to… pay that money from his personal thing,” she said.

The word that Whoopi used has sparked much controversy over the years, and it has been considered to be offensive by the Roma people, per NPR. The Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of the term also classifies it as “informal” and “offensive.”

In the video clip shared from the show’s Twitter account, Whoopi explained that she had remembered the word from her past, but used it without thinking. “When you’re a certain age, you use words that you know from when you were a kid or you remember saying, and that’s what I did today, and I shouldn’t have. I should have thought about it a little longer before I said it, but I didn’t,” she said. “I should’ve said ‘cheated,’ and I used another word, and I’m really, really sorry.”

Whoopi apologized in a short clip after ‘The View.’ (Gregory Pace/Shutterstock)

This hasn’t been the first time that Whoopi has apologized for using offensive language on the show. She was given a two-week suspension from the show after a comment about the Holocaust in January 2022. The comedian was criticized when she said that the Holocaust was “not about race” during a discussion about the graphic memoir Maus. After much backlash, she tweeted an apology and clarified her statement. “On today’s show, I said the Holocaust ‘is not about race, but about man’s inhumanity to man.’ I should have said it is about both,” she wrote. “I stand corrected. The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never waiver. I’m sorry for the hurt I have caused.”