Whoopi Goldberg Struggles To Introduce ‘The View’ Topic As She Emotionally Recalls Friendship With Christopher Reeve: “I’m Verklempt”

Whoopi Goldberg was overcome with emotion while speaking to the late Christopher Reeve‘s children on this morning’s episode of The View.

William Reeve, Matthew Reeve and Alexandra Reeve sat down at the Hot Topics table to promote the upcoming documentary about their father, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, which will be released in theaters this week.

Reeve, who famously played the original Superman, also happened to be a friend of Goldberg’s — and even directed her in the 1997 film In the Gloaming, which was one of his first projects after a horse accident left him paralyzed.

While attempting to introduce the next part of The View’s segment with the actor’s family, Goldberg struggled to hold back her emotions. “I’m verklempt,” she said, allowing Sunny Hostin to take over the introduction.

Looking back on her time working with Reeve, Goldberg admitted she was “shocked” when he asked her to be in his movie.

“I was like, ‘Are you sure?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, I want you.’ I was like, ‘OK.’ He was like, ‘Don’t you want to know what it is?’ I said, ‘No. I don’t want to know. Whatever you want,'” the longtime moderator recalled.

She continued, “I was lucky enough to have Robin [Williams] and Christopher in my life. And so to me those two men were rocks. They were rocks for me. I didn’t see them all the time but they were never far from my soul because they taught us how to actually move forward. And I had the greatest time. I was lucky.”

Another full-circle moment involving the Reeve family is William’s highly anticipated cameo in James Gunn’s upcoming Superman movie.

“I know nothing else,” he told the co-hosts. “The script they sent me was one page. Everything was redacted except the one thing I was supposed to say.”

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