In a recent interview, Whoopi Goldberg shared what she did with her mother’s ashes.
The talk show host and actress claimed she scattered her mother’s ashes in “the happiest place on earth, #Disneyland,” after she passed away in 2010.
She covered it in length in her most recent memoir, Bits and Pieces where Whoopi writes about smuggling her mother’s ashes into Small World and the reason Harris decided to use the ride for her last resting place.
“It was her idea of what humanity ought to be: these global children: people of all races, faiths, and cultures together. Disney had made it seem possible that all the kids of the world would hold hands in unity. 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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Whoopi discussed the incident and retold what happened during her appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers last week.
It turns out that Emma Harris, Whoopi’s mother, loved the Disneyland attraction, which is where her ashes were scattered.
While out at the park with her late brother, Clyde K. Johnson, who passed away in 2015. Whoopi would pretend to sneeze and say,
“My God, this cold is getting worse and worse,” during the Small World ride, and periodically scoop some of the ashes up.
“…Then we got over to the flowers where it says, ‘Disneyland’ and I was like, ‘Oh, look at that! Poof.'”
Although Whoopi is not the first to do this, it was a long-standing cultural practice that led Disney parks, such as Walt Disney World in Florida, to outlaw the spreading of human remains.
They also threatened to have guests removed from the property, temporarily closed the infected attractions, and filed lawsuits in response.
However, this hasn’t stopped visitors from carrying out their departed loved ones’ final requests, and Whoopi may have left with a slap on the wrist.
“I told them I’d succeeded. Since it hadn’t occurred to me, I really wanted to make sure that I hadn’t done anything risky.
However, she added, “There’s a reason why they don’t want ashes to be floating around.”
As a sign of caution, the 68-year-old said, “No one should do this. Don’t do it.”
