If you Google Robin Roberts' name right now, at least a dozen links pop up about her recent Facebook message on her Good Morning America anchor page. National publications such as USA Today, local newspapers and broadcast stations have covered her message of gratitude. Parade magazine named her "Manners Hero of the Week," and many have come out to support and thank her.
The story started about five years ago when Roberts beat breast cancer. In 2012, her doctor diagnosed her with myelodysplastic syndrome, a disease that affects the production of certain blood cells. She began chemotherapy as a pre-treatment for the disease and underwent a bone-marrow transplant in 2012. The Good Morning America host posted a message Dec. 29 on her GMA anchor Facebook page to mark the one-year anniversary of her bone-marrow transplant. She listed the things she was most grateful for, including God, her doctors and nurses, and her family.
But the message really grabbed headlines due to Roberts thanking her long-time girlfriend Amber Laign, a San Francisco-based massage therapist. It represents Roberts' first public acknowledgement of her sexuality.
Roberts, 53, was born in Alabama Nov. 23, 1960, but grew up in Pass Christian, Miss. She received a degree in communications from Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, La., and went on to work in sportscasting, reporting, and even a little radio broadcasting in Mississippi, Georgia and Tennessee, before landing a job as a sportscaster for ESPN in 1990. She began to report for ABC News in 1995 and became a co-anchor for Good Morning America in 2005.
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