Here are 10 surprising things you probably never knew about the New York native.

She used to be a phone sex operator: Goldberg made the shocking confession about her past on The View in 2011, adding that the money was “great”. Before she was famous, she also worked as a bricklayer and was a makeup artist in a mortuary.

She has a fear of flying: According to IMDB , Goldberg was working at a cafe as a waitress in San Diego in 1978 when she saw a commercial airliner collide with a Cessna killing 144 people. Ever since then, she’s had a fear of flying and prefers to travel by bus instead.

She has no eyebrows: Have you ever noticed that before? No eyebrows at all. Zip. Zilch. Apparently she shaves them off.

She is dyslexic: Goldberg wasn’t diagnosed with the disorder until she was an adult. “When I was a kid they didn’t call it dyslexia,” Goldberg said according to the BBC . “They called it … you know, you were slow or retarded or whatever.”

Is an EGOT winner: Goldberg is one of only 11 people to have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award. She picked up her Oscar in 1991 for her role in Ghost, won a Grammy in 1985 for best comedy recording, won Emmies in 2002 and 2009 and was awarded a Tony in 2002 for the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie.

She smoked marijuana before accepting her Oscar award: Goldberg was as high a kite when she got up on stage to accept her Oscar for best supporting actress for Ghost. In a video obtained by TMZ , Goldberg admits to using the drug to help calm her nerves at the awards ceremony. “I thought, I’ve got to relax,” she said.

“So I smoked this wonderful joint that was the last of my home grown, and honey, I’m telling you when he said my name I popped up and I thought, ‘Oh f***’.”

Is a former drug addict: “I was young, homeless and addicted to heroin,” Goldberg told The Telegraph in 2009 about her troubled past. “I’d dropped out of high school and into drugs. Simple as that. I was a child of the Sixties so I ingested as many mind-altering substances as I could. It was a rite of passage. And when I got clean I was convinced I wanted to be an actor.”

Became a grandmother at 34: Goldberg’s daughter, Alex Martin, gave birth to a baby girl when she was just 16 years old. Whoopi was also a young mom, giving birth to Martin when she was 18.

Was the first woman to host the Academy Awards: Golberg has hosted Hollywood’s night of nights four times and was the first woman to do it solo in 1994.

She maintains she’s not rich despite a long and very successful career: Last year Goldberg produced a documentary about legendary comedian Moms Mabley. But she copped a lot of criticism by partially funding the film through Kickstarter, a website that asks for donations from the public to get projects completed.

“I ran out of money because it is some expensive s***,” Goldberg said to Zap2it . “There were a couple of nasty letters to me. I am sorry, do you know my financial life? Do you think I would open myself to this kind of bulls*** if I didn’t need the help? And you are just assuming that everyone who is an actor is a billionaire.”

Read more of the original article on http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/things-you-never-knew-about-whoopi-goldberg/story-fn907478-1226795749467