Whoopi Goldberg says her estranged clergyman father Robert was gay but her mother didn't file for divorce because he was 'the love of her life'

Whoopi Goldberg has claimed that her late father was gay but her mother, Emma, chose not to divorce him, even after he walked out on them, because he was the 'love of her life.'

In her new memoir, Bits And Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, And Me, the 68-year-old actor recalls growing up with her hard-working mom and her older brother, Clyde, in the projects in 1960s New York City.

Referring to when her father left the family home, Whoopi reportedly writes: 'My mother didn't talk about the marriage ending because she stayed married to him until the day he passed, nor do I think she ever thought of it as a failure.'

According to The US Sun, she then adds: 'It turns out that my dad was gay. Which couldn't have been easy either,' and says that when she later asked her mom how she knew about his sexuality, she didn't reveal too much.

Whoopi Goldberg has reportedly claimed in her new memoir, Bits And Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, And Me, that her father was gay

Whoopi, pictured with her mother, Emma, in 1986, says she didn't divorce Robert even after he left the family home

The actor also writes about older brother Clyde in the book, who sadly died of a brain aneurysm in May 2015

Whoopi's father reportedly passed away in May 1993 and is believed to have worked as a clergyman, while Whoopi claims he also did various other jobs such as a diamond merchant and a postal worker.

The Sister Act star apparently claims that her mom tried to get him to pay child support once he left, but says that helping black women in the projects in New York in the 1960s was 'not high on the state court's priority list' and Emma simply couldn't afford to hire a lawyer. 

During Wednesday's episode of The View, Whoopi was interviewed by her cohosts about her new memoir and admitted that her dad 'showed up' and took care of her and Clyde when her mother was sent away to New York City's Bellevue psychiatric hospital.

Joy Behar brought up the topic and said to Whoopi: 'You write in the book that when you were a kid your mother had what they used to call a nervous breakdown? She had a difficult, difficult time and she taken to Bellevue, that's scary right there. 

'And you didn't really know what happened to her for two years, right? And then she came back and she didn't really remember the two of you? Who was taking care of you and Clyde?' she asked, referring to Whoopi's older brother, who was 14 at the time.

'Our cousin, Arlene, she took care of us, and my dad showed up and he took care of us, but in those days kids were told nothing, parents just disappeared, things happened,' Whoopi explained.

'And for me it was really kind of like, "Oh, so they've taken her to this hospital and no one's going to tell me anything and I can't go see her,"' the Oscar winner continued.

'They just never mentioned it because you didn't do that, but we didn't know any better, we didn't know that. Now we discuss everything with children and maybe that's not the greatest thing to be doing.'

In her new memoir, Whoopi also reveals how her mother, Emma, was sent away to a psychiatric hospital in the 1960s

Whoopi spoke about her childhood during Wednesday's episode of The View this week

The Oscar winner pictured with her daughter, Alexandrea Martin, in 2015

When Joy asked Whoopi what happened to her mom at Bellevue, the Ghost actor confirmed: 'They gave her electroshock treatments.'

Turning to the live studio audience, Whoopi then said: 'So, here's another reason why you must really pay attention to what's going on politically because there was a time in this country where your husband or your brother or any man involved in your life could make medical decisions for you.

'So my mother's father, my grandfather, and my dad okayed it. They okayed that my mother get the shock treatment for two years.'