Whoopi Goldberg Faces Backlash for Defending Roman Polanski in Resurfaced ‘The View’ Clip

Whoopi Goldberg is on the hotseat again after a resurfaced clip of The View showed her apparently defending disgraced director Roman Polanski for allegedly raping a 13-year-old girl.

In 1977, the then-43-year-old Chinatown director, who was charged with drugging and raping barely teenaged Samantha Geimer, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of unlawful sex with a minor and then fled to Europe to escape possible jail time.

But in a shocking 2009 View clip that recently appeared on X, Whoopi seemed to defend Polanski, now 92 and living in France, to then cohost Sherri Shepherd.

“I know it wasn’t rape rape,” the Sister Act actress blurted back then, according to Daily Mail. “I think it was something else, but I don’t believe that it was rape rape.”

Whoopi then noted they needed more information and added: “All I’m trying to get you to understand is we’re talking about what someone did and what they were charged with.

“We have to say what it actually was, not what we thought it was.”

But Sherri wasn’t letting Polanski off the hook, saying: “He gave her quaaludes, he gave her champagne, she was drugged, she was 13 years old.”

Still, Whoopi countered: “They were having sex beforehand, Sherri.” Sherri then fired back: “That’s what I’m saying — you’re 13 years old! She was still a child.”

The director, who has always denied wrongdoing, spent 42 days in the clink after confessing to the lesser charge, but fled to France, which doesn’t extradite its citizens, when it appeared a judge was reconsidering his release.

In 2023, grown-up Geimer defended Polanski and took a photo with him.

The director was also accused by The Golden Child actress Charlotte Lewis, now 58, of raping her when she was 16 in the early 1980s.

Polanski insisted Lewis had lied about the sexual assault and was later acquitted of defaming her in a 2024 trial, according to Daily Mail.