Whoopi Goldberg spreads her mother’s ashes on Disneyland’s It’s a Small World ride
Families on trips to Disneyland may have unwittingly found themselves floating in the ashes of Whoopi Goldberg’s mother on the classic ride It’s a Small World.
Goldberg revealed that she and her late brother, Clyde, scattered their mother’s ashes inside the beloved Disney attraction shortly after her death in 2010.
“Nobody should do this. Don’t do this,” Goldberg, 68, warned during the July 10 episode of “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”
“She loved Small World. So on the Small World ride, periodically, I would grab a little bit of her and it would go poof, and I would be like, ‘Oh my gosh, this cold is getting worse and worse!’ And then we went over to the flowers that said, ‘Disneyland,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, look at that! Poof.’”
Goldberg later briefed park officials on his actions to ensure they were safe and appropriate.
“I told them I did it. I wanted to make sure, actually, that I hadn’t done something that was dangerous, because it hadn’t occurred to me. But there’s a reason they don’t want ashes just floating around,” she said.
The Oscar-winning actress previously described scattering her mother’s ashes in her memoir, “Bits and Pieces,” released in May.
“It was her vision of what human beings should be, these children of the world: all colors, religions and cultures together. Disney made it seem possible for all the children of the world to join hands in unity,” Goldberg wrote.
“The day Clyde and I took her ashes to Disneyland, it’s possible that a good portion of her ashes went on Small World, her favorite ride. We were subtle about it, kind of squirting Ma 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 weren’t happy about it.”
Walt Disney designed and built the ride for the 1964 World’s Fair before it was moved to a permanent structure at Disneyland in 1966.
The actress also acknowledged the health and cleanliness concerns associated with such actions, which reportedly occur frequently at Disney parks.
A recent incident involved a guest dumping a portion of ash inside the Star Wars-themed Rise of the Resistance attraction in March, according to Inside the Magic.
In July 2023, Goldberg shared her preference for cremation upon her death during an episode of “The View,” envisioning her remains as “dust in the wind.”
“I’m going to go around the world, I’m going to be everywhere. I might be in your backyard — I don’t know,” the moderator said. “I don’t want people to feel obligated to go to the cemetery. If you want to remember me, remember me.”
When co-host Joy Behar asked if she cared about how she would be portrayed after her death, Goldberg replied, “I don’t want to be a hologram. That’s been in my will for 15 years.”
“They don’t ask you, that’s it,” Behar, 81, replied. “They just do it, and then you say – ‘Hey, isn’t that Tupac? Wait a minute.’”
“I don’t want that. It’s a little bizarre, scary, yeah,” Goldberg declared.
Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin noted that holographic recordings of celebrities after their death are considered acceptable if allowed by their estates.
“My estate doesn’t want that,” Goldberg noted. “My estate wants to be left alone.”
In December 2023, Goldberg also revealed a provision in her will that prohibits unauthorized biographical films about her life and career unless her family gives permission.
