Whoopi Goldberg, 70, showed off her extensive — and unpredictable — shoe collection in a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, shared on May 9.
“The View” co-host welcomed ET’s Emily Curl to her home in West Orange, New Jersey, where she took Curl through her closet and home office filled with designer and custom-made shoes.
While her closet holds what seems to be hundreds of shoes and heels, Goldberg highlighted several eye-catching picks. One of which was a pair of black Alexander McQueen heeled booties with cheetah-printed bottoms. “It’s all about shoes that are comfortable, you know? They can look heavy. But as long as you can pick them up and they’re not heavy, then they’re good to wear.”
At one point, the “Sister Act” star allowed Curl to try on what she described as “the most comfortable shoe.” As Curl sat down to try on the red heels, she went to take her socks off. Goldberg, known to wear socks with any — and all — pairs of shoes, whether open-toed or not, quickly stopped Curl before she could slide her bare feet into the unique set of heels.
Whoopi Goldberg Reveals Why Pope Leo Is the 1 Person’s Shoes She’d Like to Fill
Curl joked that Goldberg started the socks-with-shoes trend, prompting the New York City native to agree, “Yes, I probably did . . . And people were probably annoyed with me.”
One of her most uncommon pairs of shoes in Goldberg’s closet was a heeled white croc. Goldberg shared that someone she knew had worn an original pair on Broadway before the colleague had a pair customly made for her, gifting the shoes to her while on “The View.”
While perusing her shoe closet, Curl candidly asked Goldberg whose shoes she would walk in for one day if given the opportunity.
“Pope Leo,” Goldberg shared without hesitation.
“I’d like to walk in Leo’s shoes, an exceptional human being,” she added. “I feel like when you walk in other people’s shoes, you’re giving them support. So I like to be supportive.”
When discussing where her “love of shoes” began, Goldberg told Curl that she started dressing up her feet after seeing how consistent her co-hosts of “The View” were with their fun footwear.
“I started doing that because all the women on ‘The View’ were very well dressed . . . I thought well, ‘Maybe I should look like I’m making an effort [and] I’ll start with some shoes,’” Goldberg said. “And it just took off. And then I had, like, hundreds of shoes! Hundreds of shoes!
“I started giving them to the kids at the show and giving them to charities and stuff, and that was that. [The] last two months, I just got into a mood and started doing shoes again,” she added.
Whoopi Goldberg Working on New Documentary About Her Life
Later in the office and closet tour, Goldberg opened up about her 2024 memoir “Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me.”
As she reminisced on writing her memoir — which she is now turning into a documentary — Goldberg gently held back tears.
“I’ve been Whoopi for a long time, and if you are as old as I am or close to it, you know, you know a lot of stuff about me . . . There’s a lot about me that people know — now they know a little bit more,” Goldberg said.
Despite Goldberg feeling that creating her documentary was “the scariest thing” she’s ever done, she told Curl that because she knows what happens, she won’t be watching the finished production.
Goldberg’s documentary is currently in the works and being directed by award-winning Indian-American documentary filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir.
