Something was noticeably different about Whoopi Goldberg’s appearance during Monday’s episode of “The View.”
Goldberg, who has been wearing eyeglasses for 28 years, hosted without them, explaining in the course of the “Hot Topics” segment that she had undergone eye surgery over the weekend.
“I had an operation, and so they replaced the lens and the lens they replaced it with is form of like my eyeglass lens,” the 67-year-old announced.
Co-host Sunny Hostin then interjected, excitedly declaring that Goldberg could now see.
Goldberg explained that, “Two weeks ago, when we had a show with the oldsters from ‘Picard,’ I used to be attempting to read the prompter without my actual glasses, and I couldn’t do it, so I ended up having to wear them [my glasses].”
The “Sister Act” star revealed that the procedure was to treat a condition called presbyopia. She explained that she had “teeny tiny” cataracts on the lens of her eye, which is why they were replaced it.
Presbyopia is a “refractive error” that makes it hard for people to see objects up close, in keeping with the National Eye Institute. It’s a traditional a part of aging, and occurs since the lens in your eye “stops focusing light appropriately on the retina,” the NEI notes.
Throughout the segment, Goldberg urged viewers to get their eyes checked in the event that they were experiencing any issues with their vision.
“The bionic times have arrived,” she joked.
Goldberg’s announcement comes on the heels of her recent controversy on the talk show. During last Wednesday’s episode of “The View,” Goldberg used what is taken into account an ethnic slur toward the Romani people.
She referred to “individuals who still consider that he got gy—d one way or the other within the election” while discussing Donald Trump and Stormy Daniels.
The term is derived from the word “Gypsy” and is taken into account derogatory.
Lower than one hour later, she issued an apology for using the word, via a video that was posted to the show’s official Twitter account.
“You already know, while you’re a certain age you employ the words that you realize from while you were a child otherwise you remember saying, and that’s what I did today — and I shouldn’t have,” Goldberg said within the short clip.
She continued, “I must have thought of it just a little longer before I said it but I didn’t. I must have said ‘cheated’ and I used one other word and I’m really, really sorry.”
The hosts were also slammed last week by fans for failing to ask Hugh Grant about his viral Oscars 2023 interview with Ashley Graham. He appeared on the show Thursday.