Whoopi Goldberg has responded to Barbara Corcoran’s body-shaming joke that she made about the EGOT-winning Hollywood veteran on last week’s The View.
When TMZ caught up with Goldberg, she made clear that she took no offense to Corcoran’s fat joke.
The spicy interaction started off innocently enough as everyone discussed Good American CEO Emma Grede becoming the first Black woman to be a guest shark on Shark Tank.
After they praised Grede for promoting size-inclusive jeans and body positivity in the fashion industry, head chair Goldberg playfully inquired, “Will they fit this COVID [butt]?”
Co-hosts Sunny Hostin and Ana Navarro both assured the 65-year-old that the jeans would definitely fit her. Corcoran quipped, “And when you get finished with those jeans, and decide you don’t like them, give them to me. I’m gonna make two pairs!”
Goldberg and everyone else on camera were visibly taken aback by Corcoran stating she would make two pairs out of Goldberg’s jeans. Navarro was quick to come to Goldberg’s defense by taking a dig at what Corcoran was wearing during her appearance on the show.
“Whoopi, let me just tell you something,” she began before pointing to the 72-year-old Shark Tank judge, “Both Sara Haines and Jill Biden wore that dress already on TV.”
Corcoran apologized on social media for taking aim at Goldberg. After the taping, she posted a video message on Twitter, captioned “Love ya Whoopi!”
“I just came back from The View and saw my old friend Whoopi,” she said. “She has a phenomenal sense of humor, and I’ve known Whoopi for years. I made a joke at Whoopi’s expense, which I now realize wasn’t funny. For anyone who I may have offended unintentionally, I just wanted to say I really am very sorry.”
When a TMZ cameraperson caught up with Goldberg in New York City and asked her about Corcoran’s fat joke, she said there are no hard feelings, especially after Corcoran apologized.
Watch the moment via the YouTube clip below.
Goldberg will remain on The View for at least four more years, through season 28 of the panel talk show, now in its 25th season. Sources say she signed a “sizable new deal,” but ABC has declined to comment, according to Variety.
The Academy Award-winning actress — currently on a panel that includes Joy Behar, Sara Haines, and Sunny Hostin — has been a hostess on The View since 2007. Conservative and sometimes controversial co-host Meghan McCain departed in August.
Goldberg recently opened up about cancel culture, noting that there was a time, for five years, when she found it hard to find work after a joke she told about then-President George Bush backfired. According to her, The View revived her career.
“I would describe that situation as a lot of people covering their backsides because the joke was never about him,” Goldberg explained. “But no one ever stood up and said, ‘Hey, here’s what actually happened.’ And they put it in the newspaper. And you notice, they’d never seen what I exactly said, or what I said at all. But all somebody has to do is say you said it. I feel like the truth doesn’t seem to matter as much these days.”
“Lucky for me,” Goldberg asserted, “Barbara Walters offered me a job and said, ‘Hey, would you like to do this?’ And I was like, ‘You know, I’m not in favor of the general public.’ She said, ‘You’ll be perfect.’”
This article contains additional reporting from theGRIO’s Blue Telusma.
Have you subscribed to theGrio’s “Dear Culture” podcast? Download our newest episodes now!
TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Roku. Download theGrio.com today!