Whoopi Goldberg has never been one to shy away from a candid conversation, and when the topic of relationships came up on a recent episode of The View, the EGOT winner made her position abundantly clear. She is single, she is happy about it, and she has no intention of changing that anytime soon.
The discussion was sparked by a Cosmopolitan essay in which a woman in a committed long-term relationship admitted to missing the freedom of her single years, including the spontaneity that comes with casual romance. For Goldberg, it was a topic she could speak to firsthand. The 70-year-old said she currently enjoys the flexibility of casual encounters on her own schedule, with no obligations and no one to answer to. She described her romantic life as something she engages with when the mood strikes, entirely on her own terms.
Three marriages and a clear lesson learned
Goldberg has been married three times, to Alvin Martin, David Claessen and Lyle Trachtenberg. She shares a daughter, Alexandrea Martin, with her first husband. Despite those relationships ending, she has spoken warmly about maintaining respectful friendships with all of her former partners, noting that shared history does not have to end in bitterness.
What those marriages ultimately taught her, she has said, is that not everyone is built for traditional partnership. In a recent interview with Interview Magazine, she reflected on recognizing over the past 25 years that some people simply are not suited for long-term romantic commitment, and that there is nothing wrong with that realization. For Goldberg, the insight was liberating rather than discouraging.
She has also been direct about the specific dynamics of cohabitation that she finds unappealing. Living with a partner, she has explained, requires a level of emotional investment in another person’s daily experience that she genuinely does not want. She loves the people in her life deeply but prefers to keep those bonds from crossing into domestic entanglement.
A full life that looks different from the outside
What Goldberg pushes back against is the assumption that her lifestyle reflects a lack of love or connection. She has spoken at length about being deeply invested in her daughter, her grandchildren, her son-in-law and her friendships. Those relationships, she has said, already demand the kind of sustained emotional energy that a romantic partnership would require, and she has chosen to channel that energy into the bonds she values most.
Her philosophy around sex and intimacy fits neatly into that framework. During a 2025 episode of The View, she reflected on her past marriages with characteristic humor, noting that physical satisfaction was never the issue. The problem, she suggested, was the emotional weight that came with everything surrounding it.
That perspective has been consistent over the years. In a 2024 appearance on another television program, she laughed while describing what she sees as the fundamental incompatibility between her personality and the demands of married life. Being a good partner, she explained, requires genuine investment in how the other person feels on a given day. That kind of sustained attentiveness, she freely admitted, is simply not something she is built to provide.
Single and settled in it
What makes Goldberg’s candor so striking is not the content of what she shares but the complete absence of apology attached to it. At 70, after three marriages and decades of public life, she appears genuinely settled in who she is and what she wants.
She maintains warmth toward everyone she has been close to, keeps her life full of people she loves and engages with romance on the terms that suit her best. By most measures, that sounds less like a consolation and a whole lot more like contentment.
