Whoopi Goldberg opens up about her sexuality after Raven-Symoné says she gives ‘lesbian vibes’

Hollywood legend Whoopi Goldberg has addressed her sexuality after fellow actor Raven-Symoné said the star of classic films such as Ghost and Sister Act gave off “lesbian vibes”. 

Goldberg, who co-hosted The View alongside Raven-Symoné in 2015 and 2016, was appearing on the latest episode of iHeartMedia’s The Best Podcast Ever with Raven and Miranda, which Raven-Symoné hosts alongside her wife, Miranda Maday-Pearman.

During the podcast, Raven-Symoné told Goldberg that she was keen to “dig into your business a little bit”.

“You give me lesbian vibes, you give me stud vibes,” the former Disney Channel star said.

Maday-Pearman then chimed in: “This is a secret fantasy of Raven. I think she just wants everybody to be gay and she’s just really hoping you’ll come out right here, right now.”

Raven-Symoné added coyly: “So, if you want to tell us anything, Whoops, you’re more than welcome to.”

In response, Goldberg, who has played LGBTQ+ characters in films such as 1985’s The Color Purple and 1995’s Boys on the Side, said women have been “asking her this as long as I have been around”. 

She went on: “I am not a lesbian but I know lots of them, and I’ve played them on television. I have always had lesbian friends because they’re just my friends,” the EGOT winner added. 

Discussing her boundaries with her lesbian friends, Goldberg said she tells them: “’I’m not gonna kiss you, but I’ll kiss you over here, I’ll do this but I’m not going to do this… And they’re like, ‘OK!'”

Raven-Symoné went on to praise Goldberg for embracing the “duality” of both her masculinity and femininity, stating that “there is something beautiful about a woman being able to embrace their masculine and feminine at the same time and wear it so well, like you do.”

The host continued: “It’s fantastic, you’re not either one or the other, you’re just a human living in your body and doesn’t really correlate to sexual orientation or any of that. 

“It’s just the way you present and it’s so warming. You live in this duality so well, and I just want to applaud you for that.”

In response, Goldberg, who recently stood up for trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney amid conservative backlash to a sponsored post for Bud Light, made a beautiful statement about how “God created us in duality” and “God does not make mistakes”. 

“You know, when people say ‘oh, you know, it’s this or it’s that’ it isn’t this or that: It just is,” she said.