Whoopi Goldberg Offers On-Air Apology to Elon Musk for Her 'Apartheid' Remark — As ABC Wars With Trump Administration Over Free Speech

Whoopi Goldberg offered Elon Musk an unexpected on-air apology on The View after accusing him of being "okay" with apartheid in South Africa, RadarOnline.com can reveal.

On the Thursday, May 14, installment of the popular mid-morning show, the panel was discussing conservatives on social media "freaking out" over rumored casting choices in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey.

"OK, so you remember I said, ‘Just sit tight for this last one,’ sit even tighter for this," Goldberg, 70, told the audience. "Elon Musk, you know, the man from South Africa who was okay with apartheid, is still railing against Lupita Nyong’o playing the fabled, most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Troy."

She also noted that television personalities on Newsmax were "losing it" over rumors that Achilles was going to be played by Elliot Page, who is a transman – despite the fact that "nobody knows" who has been cast yet.

Goldberg then played footage of conservative political commentators criticizing the alleged casting choices, calling it "rewriting history," even though Helen of Troy is considered a mythical figure, rather than a historical one.

However, once the clips concluded, Goldberg swiftly backtracked on her allegations about the tech billionaire.

"Let me just say this first because I know (it) will have upset people. I don’t know that he was an apartheid apologist," she explained her prior comments. "I don’t know anything about him, except that I’m not a fan, so I take it back."

Joy Behar chimed in, "Well, he was there during that time," seemingly referring to Musk being born in South Africa in 1971 and living there for some years before apartheid was dismantled in the '90s.

But Goldberg held firm on her apology.

"I’m not saying he was there. I don’t know that he was there. I wasn’t there," she replied. "I don’t know if he was there. So I’m saying, ‘OK.'"

Sunny Hostin also added that "scholars have debated for decades the extent to which Greek mythology and civilization were influenced by ancient Egypt and North Africa."

"This idea was also explored in a book called Black Athena, I think people should read it, which argues that classical Greek culture is heavily indebted to Afro, Asiatic, and Near-Eastern roots," she continued. "I actually taught Greek mythology to eighth graders, and so I covered this. So people that are saying that Helen of Troy could not possibly be played by a Black woman don’t know."

This comes after Trump-appointed Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr opened up an investigation into ABC's broadcast license and questioned whether The View had violated "equal time" rules regarding political content.

Back in 2002, the FCC ruled that the talk show was a "bona fide news interview program," and thus, it was exempt from the rule. Still, Carr is apparently reexamining that decision.

But ABC hit back, saying the agency's actions "threaten to upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech," and makes it appear that there is "viewpoint discrimination and retaliatory targeting" taking place, as the co-hosts regularly get into conversations critical of President Donald Trump.

"Some may dislike certain – or even most – of the viewpoints expressed on The View or similar shows," the network said in a statement. "Such dislike, however, cannot justify using regulatory processes to restrict those views."