Whoopi Goldberg admits she spread ashes at Disneyland. She didn’t get banned obviously… here’s what she had to say!
After the death of her mother in 2010, actress and talk show host Whoopi Goldberg spread her ashes in “the happiest place on Earth:” Disneyland.
Retelling the experience, which she also detailed in her new memoir, Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother and Me, Goldberg was on Late Night With Seth Meyers last week to discuss the moment. Apparently, Goldberg’s mother, Emma Harris, was a devoted fan of Disneyland attraction “It’s a Small World,” where her ashes were sprinkled.
“No one should do this. Don’t do it,” Goldberg, 68, playfully warned the audience around the 5-minute mark of the video below.
“She loved Small World. So, in the Small World ride, periodically, I’d scoop some of her up and I’d do this poof, and I said, ‘My God, this cold is getting worse and worse!’ And then we got over to the flowers where it says, ‘Disneyland’ and I was like, ‘Oh, look at that! Poof.'”
While Goldberg faked a sneezing fit while visiting the park with her brother, Clyde K. Johnson, who died in 2015, she later fessed up about what she had done to park officials. Disney parks (including Walt Disney World in Florida) have long banned the spread of human remains, threatening to remove guests from the premises, temporarily closing affected attractions, along with taking legal action. But this hasn’t stopped guests from honoring the last wishes of their deceased loved ones, and Goldberg might’ve gone home with a slap on the wrist.
“I told them I did it. I wanted to make sure, actually, that I hadn’t done something that was dangerous, because it hadn’t occurred to me. But there’s a reason they don’t want ashes just floating around,” she said.
In Bits and Pieces, Goldberg wrote about sneaking her mother’s ashes onto Small World and why Harris chose the ride as her final resting place.
“It was her vision of what human beings should be, these children of the world: all colors, religions, and cultures together. Disney had made it seem possible that all the kids of the world would hold hands in unity,” Goldberg wrote.
“The day Clyde and I took her ashes to Disneyland, it’s possible a lot of her went into the Small World ride, her favorite. We were subtle about it, kind of sneezing Ma out here and there when no one was looking,” she continued. “We didn’t get caught, but I confessed it later to a park employee. They weren’t surprised, and they certainly were not happy about it.”
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Michele also contributes theme park news for Fox 35 Orlando 11pm news and on the radio on WDBO.
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