Whoopi Goldberg’s granddaughter could be a successor
Being Hollywood royalty could be paying off royally.
For Amara Skye, who is competing on the new series “Claim to Flame,” where relatives of celebrities battle for a $100,000 prize, getting her grandmother Whoopi Goldberg’s opinion is important.
“Her approval always matters to me,” the New Jerseyan told The Post in her first interview ever.
So when casting directors first reached out to the 32-year-old artist via a DM on Instagram, she conferred with grandma, who was skeptical at first.
“In the beginning, she didn’t understand sliding in the DMs and how people do stuff now,” she explained. “She kind of thought it was a fake thing and told me to be careful.”
However, once the paperwork arrived, “The View” co-host was on board, and Skye pursued “the opportunity of a lifetime.”
On the ABC show, which premiered July 11 and airs its third episode Monday night, cast members withhold their identity and costars have to guess which A-lister is their kin. If they name the correct one, the person whose identity is revealed is eliminated.
On the first episode, Skye — the oldest of the three children of Alex Martin, Goldberg’s only offspring, who she had with her ex-husband Alvin Martin — had to offer up a clue about her famous relative. (Skye’s identity was given up to the audience only in episode one.)
The fledgling TV star used the impressive fact that Goldberg, 66, is an EGOT winner — meaning she has earned an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.
The Berkeley, California native remembers being able to play with the statues as a child.
“Yes, I could see them all the time,” she said. “She put them up higher now, so now I can’t reach them, but yes, I did get to play with them … I’d go and find them.”
She also remembers visiting her grandma’s movie sets, her favorite being “Sister Act 2.”
“I was probably 4 or 5 … I remember being around the cast and them all embracing me like a little mascot,” she said. “And I also remember being there for all the singing rehearsals.”
Now, the tables have turned, and Goldberg is there to watch her granddaughter’s career blossom. “She’s pretty supportive in anything that I do,” Skye gushed.
The budding artist began painting only after she realized its therapeutic value. “I didn’t do it because I was like, ‘Let me show and display everything.’ I was painting because I was going through traumas and stuff like that.”
However, when guests at her home saw her original pieces hanging up and encouraged her to share them, she began to take her work more seriously.
On July 30, she is hosting her first solo art show on St. Nicholas Avenue in Brooklyn. “My style is more abstract and poetic,” she said. “I like a little Basquiat, Banksy-type stuff.”
This year, Skye moved to New Jersey and lives near hands-on grandmother.
“I see her every day. If I don’t see her, it’s definitely a call or text. I’m always in her sight and in her mind,” she said, laughing.
And Goldberg even makes the time to babysit her first great-grandchild, Skye’s 8-year-old daughter, Charli Rose. “She definitely helps me out. We’re a very close-knit family … You know how they say, ‘It takes a village?’ We are the village.”
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