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Robin Roberts: ‘I’m a black, gay woman. You’ve got to think differently and things are going to be difficult’

Robin Roberts, co-anchor of ABC’s Good Morning America, says she has never let her gender or sexuality stand in the way of achieving her goals.

‘I’m a black, gay woman. You’ve got to think differently and things are going to be difficult,’ Roberts tells Entertainment Weekly.

‘I’m not crying about it and I’m not whining about it. I acknowledge and say to myself … find a way and I think that’s what I’ve done all my life I’ve found a way to achieve goals that I’ve set for myself.’

Roberts, 54, did not come out publicly as a lesbian until December 2013 as she was recovering from myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a disease of the bone marrow.

But she had long been out to most co-workers and credits former GMA anchors Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson for being supportive of her as went from correspondent to news anchor to main anchor.

‘One of the best things that could’ve happened to get me where I’m sitting in this [GMA] chair was Diane Sawyer and Charlie Gibson,’ Roberts says. ‘I was coming from the sports world, I was the sidekick, and they were extremely generous, loving and supportive and really helped me. It was sink or swim back then and they threw me a life preserver and I’m grateful to them.’

Prior to GMA, Roberts spent many years as an anchor at ESPN and it was another famous lesbian who helped her to make the decision to shift to news.

‘It was a really big deal for me to leap from sports to news and Billie Jean King helped me make that decision,’ she says. ‘She was the one who really encouraged me that this is a wonderful platform and I [can] still talk about sports.’

FILE UNDER: News Personalities

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