After being sidelined from her job at “The View” for a little more than a month, Whoopi Goldberg told fans on Friday that she almost died following a battle with pneumonia, but that she is recovering.
In a video message aired during the show, she addressed her health for the first time since her absence, saying: “Hey, yes, it’s me. I am here. I am up and moving around. Not as fast as I’d like to be, but I am OK, I’m not dead.”
She went on to explain she had pneumonia in both lungs and was septic, which means the infection had spread through her bloodstream.
“I came very, very close to leaving the Earth. Good news, I didn’t,” she said. “Thank you for all of your good wishes. All of the wonderful things that people have been saying. Even people who are not huge fans of mine have actually said nice things about me. We all know that’s going to change when I get back, but for right now, it’s brilliant.”
She added to her co-hosts, “And ladies, I cannot wait to see y’all. This has been interesting and I’ll tell you about it when we’re all at the table. To everybody, see you soon.”
Her co-host Abby Huntsman said, “I miss her humor, I miss just her wittiness.”
Goldberg did not give a specific date for her return.
In February, there were rumors she was absent from the show because she was secretly prepping to host the Oscars, but those rumors were quickly shut down by ABC and Joy Behar calling it a “conspiracy theory.”
