Media

Whoopi Goldberg visits ‘The View’ as she battles pneumonia

by Michael Burke - 03/14/19 1:02 PM ET

Whoopi Goldberg, who is recovering from pneumonia, visited the set of “The View” on Thursday, surprising her co-hosts and the audience.

Goldberg, who has been absent since early February, said she isn’t fully recovered yet but added that the “only way it’s going to get better is if I begin.”

“So this is my beginning. I still have a cough, and that’s the last thing to go apparently. But over the next week and a half I will start to be here more often. I wanted the first foray to be to come see y’all, because I really kind of missed y’all,” she said.

Goldberg was met with a standing ovation by the audience and her arrival prompted her co-hosts to greet her with hugs.

Whoopi Goldberg returns to “The View” to rousing applause and chants from the audience as she surprises her fellow co-hosts after an extended absence due to pneumonia battle.

“The only way it’s going to get better is if I begin, so this is my beginning.” https://t.co/mgZzS6NRvT pic.twitter.com/CKtHG99EAw

— ABC News (@ABC) March 14, 2019

Goldberg has said she almost died from her illness.

“The scariest moment was my doctor saying to me, ‘You do realize how close to death you were?’ That was like, ‘Uh, no.’ I actually hadn’t thought of it,” Goldberg also said Thursday, according to ABC News.

Goldberg added that she hopes her situation will serve as a “cautionary tale,” ABC reported.

“You must really take care of yourself because there’s little tiny stuff out there that will kill you that you never think of,” she said.

Meghan McCain, another co-host of “The View,” wrote Thursday on Twitter that Goldberg “is the First Lady” of the show “and the heart of the show.”