The actress and The View host is a grandmother and great-grandmother already

Whoopi Goldberg has a built-in best friend (and mini-me!) in her daughter Alex Martin.

In addition to being an Oscar winner, an actress, comedian, singer, and talk show host, the The View star has been a doting mom to Alex, 51, since 1973.

The Sister Act actress welcomed her first and only child with ex-husband Alvin Martin, a drug counsellor from England, to whom she was married from 1973 until 1979.

Alex was born some years before her mom made it big with classics such as The Color Purple and Sister Act, and previously remembered those times speaking with TheGrio.com in 2015. “I know what it’s like with the food stamps, because my mom has her [Welfare] cards framed,” she said, adding: “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 [the] movies.”

Through it all however, she and Whoopi have always been by each other’s sides, and consider themselves more than mother and daughter, best friends.

When Alex stopped by The View in 2016 in honor of Mother’s Day, Whoopi, introducing her, gushed: “I’m proud to call her my best friend,” noting: “She is one of the most trustworthy and loyal people I know.”

“She is somebody who makes me laugh, like ‘bwuahaha’ laugh,” she went on, adding: “We can talk to each other any time during the day or night. I just like her a lot.”

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Whoopi and Alex at the 2025 Academy Awards

Moreover, thanks to Alex, Whoopi is not only a doting mom but also a doting grandmother to her three children, and a great-grandmother!

Alex shares three kids, daughters Amara and Jerzey and son Mason, with her husband Bernard Dean — who she married and divorced twice before marrying a third and final time in 2011 — and in 2014, Amara made her a grandmother at 41 when she welcomed daughter Charli.

See photos of Whoopi and Alex through the years below.

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In the spotlight

Whoopi with her daughter and then-husband David Claessen at the 1986 Emmys.

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Suited up

At the 1st Annual Movie Awards in 1991.

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A third generation

Whoopi with her daughter and grandkids in 2004.

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Taking after mom

Alex on The View in 2014.

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All glammed up

The mother-daughter duo at the Oscars in 2016.

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Red carpet buddies

Whoopi and Alex’s most recent appearance together was at the 2025 Oscars.