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Whoopi Goldberg on How She's Been Able to Stay Sober and Her Emotional New Memoir (Exclusive)

The EGOT winner's new book, 'Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother and Me,' is out now.

Speaking to ET's Rachel Smith at her sold-out Barnes & Noble 5th Avenue live reading event in New York City on Tuesday, Goldberg was succinct in expressing how she's been able to remain sober all these years after a serious cocaine addiction, and it was truly a matter of life and death. At that point, the 68-year-old's career was seeing monumental success on the heels of The Color Purple in 1985 and then landing Ghost just a few years later, followed by Sister Act in 1992. Goldberg didn't shy away from sharing some of the more deeply personal stories in her life, like when her mother suffered a nervous breakdown when she was only a child.

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