Whoopi Goldberg, 67, MISSES ‘The View’ season premiere after testing positive for COVID for THIRD time – but co-host Joy Behar insists she is ‘on the mend’ and at ‘the end’ of her illness is

Whoopi Goldberg had to miss Tuesday’s season 27 premiere of “The View” after contracting COVID for the third time.

When the ABC show returned to the air after a four-week summer hiatus, Joy Behar stepped in as host while Whoopi, 67, was noticeably absent after testing positive for the coronavirus.

Joy, 80, was joined by Ana Navarro, Sara Haines, Sunny Hostin and Alyssa Farah Griffin as she opened the show, seated at a brand new desk and looking as glamorous as ever.

‘As you can see Whoopi is not here, she has Covid,’ Joy proclaimed when the live studio audience reacted, leading her to add, ‘Yeah.’ It’s back, it’s back.’

Joy continued, “But she’s on the mend, she’s broken.” “I’m sorry for those who were looking forward to seeing her.”

Whoopi Goldberg was forced to miss Tuesday’s The View after falling ill with COVID

The popular ABC show The View is back for a 27th season full of debate and hot topics

During the four-week summer break, Whoopi has been very quiet on social media and hasn’t posted anything on Instagram since July 27.

The ‘Sister Act’ star was also conspicuously absent from an event in late August celebrating her latest career project.

On Monday, August 28, Whoopi’s daughter Alex Martin and her children – Amara Skye Dean, Mason Dean and Jerzey Dean – attended the Bella Flora Celebrity Golf Tournament in Laguna Beach, California, but Whoopi was nowhere to be seen.

Her family were present to support the cover of their Cannabis Cactus magazine as the magazine was the event’s media partner.

It’s not certain Whoopi was absent because she had already tested positive for COVID.

This isn’t the first time the actress has fallen ill with the coronavirus, as she was forced to pause the show in early 2022 after showing symptoms between Christmas 2021 and New Year’s Eve.

Whoopi said at the time that she was unwell after Christmas and only had mild symptoms. So she took a test and then rang in the new year by resting in bed, listening to audiobooks and watching the ball drop.

This is the third time Whoopi has been forced to take time off from The View due to COVID

“It was a shock because I’ve been triple vaccinated, I’ve been nowhere, I’ve done nothing,” she said in a statement.

“It’s one of those things where you think I’ve done everything I should do… Yeah, that doesn’t stop Omicron.”

“I don’t know how much more evidence people need to see that vaccination — while not necessarily preventing it from happening again, it’s not happening at the same rate as before,” she added.

Whoopi contracted COVID again in November 2022 and took another break from work, missing the show for the third time due to the virus.

After returning to work in November 2022, she told the panel: “You can have a resurgence within an inch of your life and the next thing you have is Covid again.” But I don’t have it now and that’s why I’m back at the table. “

She continued, “I’m telling you, we’re used to people being like, ‘Oh [Covid] isn’t that bad 1693929964″But that was a difficult question.”

Viewers tuning in Tuesday responded to the news on Twitter, with one person posting, ‘Whoopi has contracted COVID so many times.’ Gosh #TheView.’

Another joked: “Whoopi having Covid and missing the season 27 premiere seems like a hate crime to me #TheView.”

Returning to work after contracting COVID-19 in 2022, Whoopi said it was a “difficult proposition.”

A third fan admitted: “Wait a minute #Whoopi has #Covid and is not on #TheView. “I really don’t like it when Whoopi isn’t around.”

A fourth person added, “Having Whoopi not here in the first episode of the season feels like a personal attack on me. ‘#The View.’