Whoopi Goldberg Gets Candid About Why Marriage Isn't For Her

Whoopi Goldberg may be single nowadays, but "The View" co-host has three ex-husbands in her rearview mirror. She and her first husband, Alvin Martin, divorced in 1979, but not before bearing one daughter, Alex Martin, per Us Weekly. In 1986, she married cinematographer David Claessen, only to divorce two years later. Goldberg tried again in 1994, marrying actor Lyle Trachtenberg, only for that union to dissolve the following year. 

"I tried marriage, and it wasn't for me," Goldberg told The New York Times in 2019, explaining her resistance to bowing to societal pressures. For a long time, Goldberg assumed the problem was her inability to feel content in marriage as she's been told. As she related to the Times, "One day I thought ... You can't be in a marriage because everybody's expecting you to." The "Sister Act" star described herself as "the round peg, and marriage is the square hole." Goldberg also told Piers Morgan in 2011 that viewing marriage as a path to "a normal life" was "not a good reason to get married" for her (per Us Weekly). "You have to actually want a life with someone through ups and downs," she elaborated.

Given that the divorce rate in the U.S. is still high at 50%, Goldberg will likely have plenty more to say in the years to come. Recently, she shared on "The View" what she wished someone had told her about marriage in her youth.

Whoopi Goldberg dropped more personal insight on the institution of marriage on the December 13 episode of "The View." As she told her co-hosts during a discussion of marriage's hardships, "It's not for everybody." Goldberg revealed that she walked down the aisle "a couple of times" because "the mores of our nation say, 'Well, you should be married.'" The actor and comedian, however, wishes someone had warned her earlier, "'unless it's not for you.'" As Goldberg shared candidly, "What I was doing that was wrong was not admitting to the fact that I didn't want to be married to anybody."

Goldberg is also quite opinionated in other facets of romantic pursuits. During an October 2021 episode of "The View," per People, Goldberg's co-host Sara Haines asked if the "Ghost" star skewed "younger or older" concerning the dating pool. Replying that "it depends on my mood," Goldberg elaborated, "Sometimes you meet somebody who is younger than you and ... look, it would be perfect if everybody was well matched and well put together, but ... you find it where you find it." Goldberg, however, forewarned that dating younger also meant taking on a mentor-like role in the relationship. Quite frankly, Goldberg sounded done with that, as well. "There's a lot of information that you have to impart," she explained. "And sometimes it's tiring."