Though Whoopi Goldberg shares a lot about her personal life on The View, there’s one topic that seems to be off limits — her pal Elizabeth Taylor’s love life.
Prior to Taylor’s death on March 23, 2011, at age 79, she and Whoopi, 68, had a close bond. But when Whoopi was prompted with questions about the late icon on The View recently, she played coy.
The tense conversation started during a Monday, September 16, episode of The View where the cohosts were talking about how Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck were recently spotted out together after she filed for divorce. Sunny Hostin said that she “thought true love was dead” during the conversation, as they pondered whether or not Jennifer, 55, and Ben, 52, would ever reconcile. Of course, Hollywood has certainly seen their fair share of couples who have broken up and gotten back together.
Ana Navarro then turned to Whoopi to ask about Taylor’s two marriages to Richard Burton. The Cleopatra costars were married from 1964 to 1974 and again from 1975 to 1976.
“You were very good friends with Elizabeth Taylor, right?” Ana, 52, asked the EGOT winner. “She and Richard Burton got married and divorced twice. Did she ever get over Richard Burton? Wasn’t that flame always kind of lit until he died?”
Sara Haines was also curious about Taylor’s relationship with Burton and whether or not she ever opened up to Whoopi about her love life.
“Did she share it with you?” Sara, 46, asked, to which Whoopi replied, “Yes, she did. But I’m not going to share it with you.”
Her candid reaction earned some cackles from the crowd. Alyssa Farah Griffin chimed in to say, “In what world would Whoopi tell us?”
Whoopi Goldberg Dodges Question About Elizabeth Taylor on The View
After Taylor’s death, Whoopi opened up on The View about their friendship and how much the National Velvet actress meant to her.
“She was a big part of my life. It was because of her that I learned about collecting things. This is day one when we met. She said to me, ‘Careers go up and down, so you need to get them [movie executives] to get you a present,’” Whoopi recalled.
“She said, ‘I know Sandy [Whoopi’s manager], I’ll help you work this out’, because you must always know, when your career [dwindles], you can look around and see the things that you got that your agent didn’t commission, that just is yours, so you can see your career, like mementos,” she added.
Whoopi called Taylor a “mentor” and loved her sense of humor.
“She was just a magnificent woman,” the TV personality said. “She was a great broad and a good friend and she said things in good times and in bad. She was just great.”
In an April 2021 interview with Variety, Whoopi remembered the advice Taylor gave her about her acting career.
“You and I know you can do anything, but you are Black, so it’s going to be harder for folks to believe,” Whoopi recalled. “It’s going to be up and down. If you have a way to see where you were, it will allow you to not give up in tough times.”
Whoopi ended up choosing art as her “present” in each project she worked on after Taylor’s words of encouragement.
“I was able to look and see that piece of art and think, ‘OK, you’re going to carry me through now,’” she said.
