Whoopi Goldberg Says People ‘Would Be Shocked’ by Her Salary for ‘The View’

Whoopi Goldberg is in it for the money.

The comedian, 70, revealed the reason she joined The View during an appearance on the Tuesday, August 4, episode of the Baby, This Is Keke Palmer podcast. “I needed a job. Barbara [Walters] offered me a job,” she explained, noting that being an EGOT winner “doesn’t always translate” into being able to pay her mortgage.

Since becoming a cohost in 2007, she added, “It’s like I’ve been crazy glued to that chair.”

When host Keke Palmer asked what she loves about it, Goldberg had a quick response. “The check,” the Ghost actress stated bluntly. “I love the check.”

“I can only imagine what that check is,” the Nope star responded.

“No, no, you can’t [imagine],” Goldberg said. “Trust me. You can’t. You would be shocked. As soon as they showed you that check, you’d be like, ‘What the!?'”

In July 2026, Page Six reported that the Sister Act star had taken a pay cut ahead of the season 29 premiere in 2025, but still earns the highest salary — in the mid-seven figures — of the group.

Still, the talk show wasn’t even her biggest payday, she told Palmer.

“The truth of the matter is, very few of us are actually making the kind of money you’re reading about,” Goldberg cautioned. “That’s just the way it is. People always do, ‘wink-wink,’ and I’m like, ‘No wink-wink!’ Because if I had that kind of money, and I love my job, I don’t know that I’d still be doing … the show. But a girl’s gotta eat and you know I never married well.”

She echoed that sentiment last year, telling Entertainment Tonight that she couldn’t “afford” to retire. “If you don’t marry well, you’ve got to keep working,” Goldberg lamented. “I’ve got to keep paying those bills, baby.”