Whoopi Goldberg Recalls Why Her Mom Chose Not to Attend Oscars the Year She Won

Whoopi Goldberg is recalling the real reason her mom chose not to attend the Oscars the night she won.

While discussing Kathy Bates' recent realization about thanking her mother during her Academy Award acceptance speech on The View's Monday, Oct. 7 episode, Goldberg, 68, reflected on her own experience winning.

The actress was first nominated for Best Actress for 1985's The Color Purple, but Geraldine Page ended up claiming the category for The Trip to Bountiful. Six years later, Goldberg won Best Supporting Actress for Ghost.

"My mother didn't come when I won. She came when I was nominated for Color Purple, but she didn't wanna be there in case I didn't win again," said Goldberg.

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Looking back at the year she lost to Page, Goldberg said she and her mother, Emma Harris, were still excited since the acclaimed actress lived in their neighborhood in New York City.

"No, [my mom] didn't have 'angry face' because the woman who won was from our neighborhood, was from Chelsea. And so we were really, the neighborhood was represented, you know?" said Goldberg.

"So her winning ... she'd been nominated [seven] times. She'd never won. She won for that and then she passed [a year later in 1987]. So I'm really glad she got her due."

In her 1991 Oscar acceptance speech, Goldberg said onstage, "Ever since I was a little kid I wanted this." She added, "My brother's sittin' there, he says, 'Thank God we don't have to listen to any more. You can do it now.' My mom's home, everybody's watching...."

Later, she added, "I want to thank everybody who makes movies. I come from New York. As a little kid I lived in the projects, and you're the people I watched. You're the people [who] made me want to be an actor. I'm so proud to be here. I'm proud to be an actor and I'm gonna keep on acting. And thank you so much."

Goldberg's mom died in 2010, and her brother Clyde died in 2015. The star wrote about the night she won an Oscar in her recent bestselling memoir, titled
Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me.

"My mother wasn’t at the ceremony because she didn’t want to show disappointment if I lost. My daughter Alex and my brother Clyde came with me, everyone looking like two-million bucks," she wrote, also adding that she and her mom "were both Oscars fanatics."