Whoopi Goldberg's only daughter, Alex Martin, is not just her child but her best friend. Born in 1973 to Goldberg and her then-husband Alvin Martin, a drug counsellor from England, Alex arrived years before her mother's rise to fame with classics such as The Color Purple and Sister Act.
In a 2015 interview with TheGrio.com, Alex recalled their early struggles: 'I know what it’s like with the food stamps, because my mom has her Welfare cards framed. I remember that. I remember we had the one room space and we slept in the bed together. I remember when we wanted to travel we would drive across the country in broken down bugs. We didn’t have the money to go to movies.' Despite the hardships, their bond remained unbreakable.
When Alex appeared on The View in 2016 for Mother's Day, Goldberg introduced her by saying: 'I'm proud to call her my best friend. She is one of the most trustworthy and loyal people I know. She is somebody who makes me laugh, like 'bwuahaha' laugh. We can talk to each other any time during the day or night. I just like her a lot.'
Alex is a mother of three—daughters Amara and Jerzey, and son Mason—with her husband Bernard Dean, whom she married and divorced twice before tying the knot for the third and final time in 2011. In 2014, Amara gave birth to daughter Charli, making Alex a grandmother and Goldberg a great-grandmother. Most recently, mother and daughter attended the 2025 Oscars together, continuing their tradition of support and companionship.
