Whoopi Goldberg has returned to hit US morning TV show The View after her two-week suspension for controversial comments and subsequent apologies about the Holocaust.
The TV personality was heavily criticised last month on the daytime talk show after claiming the Holocaust was not about race and was instead about man’s inhumanity to man.
Goldberg sparked outrage last month when she claimed the Nazi genocide of six million Jews before and during World War II involved “two white groups of people”.
It drew condemnation from Jewish leaders around the world and prompted her immediate suspension by ABC News.
“Yes, I am back,” Goldberg said as she opened Monday’s episode of The View alongside her co-hosts again.
“There is something kind of marvellous about being on a show like this because we are The View and this is what we do,” she said.
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“Sometimes we don’t do it as elegantly as we could, but it’s five minutes to get in important information about topics. And that’s what we try to do every day, and I want to thank everybody who reached out while I was away.”
The 66-year-old Oscar-winning actress said she “listened to everything everybody had to say” and that she was very grateful.
Goldberg did not mention her suspension directly or outline exactly who she had listened to during it.
She added that she and her co-hosts were going to continue to keep having “tough conversations”.
“It’s not always pretty, as I said, and it’s not always as other people like to hear,” Goldberg sidetracked.
“But it is an honour to sit at this table and be able to have these conversations because they’re important. They’re important to us as a nation, and to us more so as a human entity.”
Goldberg is estimated to earn up to $US6 million ($8.5 million) annually for her role on the hit talk show.
She had already apologised on Twitter for her earlier remarks, saying she was sorry “for the hurt I caused”.
But it wasn’t enough to keep her in the host’s chair. ABC News president Kim Godwin suspended her for two weeks, “effective immediately”.
“I’ve asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments,” she said.
