Whoopi Goldberg Scolds Sunny Hostin for Body Shaming Singers on ‘The View’

The View was discussing Rebel Wilson’s recent struggle to lose weight when Sunny Hostin sent things flying out of control this morning. Wilson, who opened up about her producers discouraging her weight loss over the fact that she’d lose roles, inspired a larger discussion about celebs varying appearance. While the other co-hosts said weight change shouldn’t affect any performer’s career, Hostin had a bit of a contrasting opinion.

She agreed that when it comes to comedians like Wilson, no, weight change doesn’t — or rather, shouldn’t — matter. The same, Hostin agreed, should go for actors: “Your mojo shouldn’t come in your pant size,” as co-host Sara Haines said. But there was one group of celebs that Hostin wasn’t so sure about, when it comes to weight change.

“I do think, sometimes, when there’s a singer that loses weight, sometimes they lose their voice,” Hostin said after Haines mentioned Adele.

“That is not true,” Whoopi Goldberg shut her down, earning a shocked reaction from the audience.

“I don’t know,” Hostin cut in. “Adele hasn’t, but sometimes it happens.”

Goldberg continued to repeat “That’s not true” over and over again, completely in shock by Hostin’s bizarre claim.

“Sometimes, there are other factors,” Goldberg tried to explain. “Sometimes, people—”

Hostin wasn’t ready to hear Goldberg’s argument, turning to the audience to support her instead.

“Nobody agrees with me?” she interrupted.

While she earned a small handful of claps from the audience, Goldberg was angered even more by her co-host’s actions.

“I’m sorry! You’re going to take her word for it?” Goldberg said as the other co-hosts erupted in laughter. “I like her too! I love that jacket. But you’re wrong, and let me explain why. Sometimes, people are asked to lose weight because they have nodes. They have to be able to get down there and get ahold of the nodes.”

She continued to slam-dunk on Hostin: “People lose their voice for many reasons. It is never, as far as I’ve been around for a hundred thousand years, maybe ten years less than my friend Joy.”

She might have lost Behar, who gave a teasing look of disapproval, but Goldberg was still not ready to go down without a fight. Hostin continued to scrape for approval.

“You’ve never heard that?” Hostin pleaded.

“Well, I don’t think that people lose weight in their lungs,” Behar reasoned.

“It doesn’t change your voice!” Goldberg agreed.

“The voice is more robust when they’re—” Hostin began, before finishing her sentence.

Goldberg rounded out her argument with a few examples to really drive home her point.

“When opera singers lose weight, they don’t lose their ability to sing,” she said.

“A lot of Black singers are robust,” Hostin said, drawing a connection that felt completely out of the blue. “They are.”

That was enough for Goldberg.

“They’re what?” she said, completely befuddled. “Oh my gosh. You know what — we’re going to break.”

The View airs weekdays on ABC at 11/10c.

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