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Whoopi Goldberg shut down a discussion about Martin Sheen’s decision to turn in his son Charlie Sheen for a probation violation after a drug overdose in the late ’90s
“I’m closer to it because having been an addict, I understand an addict’s way of thinking,” Goldberg admitted while discussing Charlie Sheen’s past drug use
Sheen previously called his father’s decision “the biggest betrayal you could possibly endure”
Whoopi Goldberg put a stop to a heated discussion over Charlie Sheen on The View.
On the Sept. 10 episode of the ABC talk show, the co-hosts — including Goldberg, Joy Behar, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Sunny Hostin and Sara Haines — didn’t see eye to eye while discussing the actor’s father Martin Sheen’s decision to turn in his son for a probation violation after a drug overdose in the late ’90s. During an interview on Good Morning America earlier this week, Charlie said it was “the biggest betrayal you could possibly endure,” but added that he saw it “as love eventually.”
After showing a clip from the interview, Goldberg, 69, noted, “In his condition, of course he saw it as a betrayal” before asking her cohosts, “Would you think of it as a betrayal?”
Behar, 82, agreed that it was a betrayal, explaining, “In my view, as an Italian mother, you do not turn your children in — especially if they have a drug problem or a mental health problem, you send them to a shrink or the hospital. You don’t call the police. Martin Sheen made a big mistake. Your child is suffering, they have an illness, you do not send them to [jail]. Sorry!”
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From left: Martin Sheen and Charlie Sheen attend AARP’s Movies For Grown Ups Film Festival screening of “The Way” at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on September 23, 2011 in Los Angeles, California.
However, Griffin, 36, saw the issue differently due to her own experience with her sister, who struggled with addiction, saying, “I respectfully, totally disagree. My sister’s a recovering addict, which I’ve shared before. She’s 12 years clean now. But the most loving thing a parent can do is tough love and get you off the streets and get you the health that you need. You are a danger to yourself.”
She explained that being behind bars “ultimately led to my sister getting sober, as she was forced off the streets for long enough. She then went into a long-term program after she got out of jail. But it’s sometimes the one thing that will get people clean.”
Haines, 47, also shared her belief that addicts “have a single fix” they’re looking for, adding of Charlie, “You’re not thinking clearly, you’re not reasoning. Like he said, ‘I eventually saw it as love.’ It took him time, cleaning up, getting out of it to actually be able to look at it.”
“But I don’t call it tough love, I call it love love,” she continued. “I think sometimes parents bury the bodies, don’t turn the kid in, enable the child…”
“You don’t send your children to jail, you call the doctor!” Behar responded and Hostin, 56, chimed in, “I’m with you, Joy. Sorry, I’m with you. This AfroLatin mother would never!”
Haines responded, “When you enable a child for decades, you are part of the problem that ends up living in your house, incapable of employment, not being able to support a family or see a life that you saw for that kid because you helped do it.”
ABC/LOU ROCCO/Getty
From left: Joy Behar, Sara Haines, Whoopi Goldbeerg, Alyssa Farah Griffin and Sunny Hostin
After Goldberg clarified that Charlie was not living with Martin at the time of the incident, Hostin doubled down on her earlier comments.
“Addiction is not something that a parent gives to a child,” she said. “Addiction is not something that a parent enables. I agree with you, Joy. I think someone like Martin Sheen who has resources — there are people who have resources and have to call the police — but someone like Martin Sheen who has money, who had resources? You get your kid into a hospital.”
Goldberg then put a stop to the conversation, saying, “I’m sorry, I’m going to shut this down right now. I’m going to shut this down!”
“Uh oh, I’m scared now!” Behar jokingly replied, to which Goldberg said, “Well, you should be! Because if you don’t think they did everything? When I tell you, they did everything to get him straight.”
“This was the last straw,” she explained of Charlie and his dad. “Because there was nothing left. And what they didn’t want, and thank God it didn’t happen, is they didn’t want him to die on the street. So that’s why that went down. But you know, every family has to handle this differently because every addiction is different.”
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty
Whoopi Goldberg attends the “Billy Joel: And So It Goes” Opening Night Premiere at Beacon Theatre on June 4, 2025 in New York City.
Hostin noted that Goldberg was “closer to this” because she knew that family.
However, Goldberg added, “Well, I’m closer to it because having been an addict, I understand an addict’s way of thinking. We can B.S. you like nobody’s business. ‘I’m going to get clean, I’m never going to do this again.’ And the next thing you know, your parent or the person that loves you is like, ‘Oh my God, what am I going to do.’”
“So sometimes you don’t have any other choice,” she added. “We all like to think if we just had the money, we could make stuff better.”
“Money doesn’t always help. … And Joy, if I was your child, I would appreciate that you didn’t turn me in. But then you would be pissed at me because I would go behind your back and do something dumb. Because that’s what addicts do,” she concluded.
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The EGOT winner previously opened up about her experience with addiction in her 2024 memoir, Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me.
“I was letting something else run my life and take me over,” Goldberg wrote of her cocaine use. “I didn’t need my mom to be disappointed or pissed at me—I was pissed enough at myself.”
The actress also wrote that she wanted to get clean for her daughter, Alex, and “fix” her life. Goldberg eventually managed to stop using the drug, though she noted that “it wasn’t going to be easy for a long time.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
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