Author Bio
• Birth—November 23, 1960
• Raised—Pass Christian, Mississippi, USA
• Education—B.A., Southeastern Louisiana University
• Awards—Peabody Award; Arthur Ashe Courage Award
• Currently—lives in New York City, New York
Robin Rene Roberts is an American television broadcaster, most widely known as the anchor of ABC's morning show Good Morning America. Previously, Roberts was a sports anchor for local TV and radio stations and a sportscaster on ESPN for 15 years (1990–2005). She became co-anchor on Good Morning America in 2005. She has been treated for breast cancer and for myelodysplastic syndrome.
Early life
Though born in Alabama, Roberts grew up in Pass Christian, Mississippi. She is the youngest of four children of Lucimarian Tolliver and Colonel Lawrence E. Roberts. Her father was a pilot with the Tuskegee Airmen. In a 2006 presentation to the assembled student body at Abilene Christian University, Roberts credited her parents as cultivating the "three Ds: Discipline, Determination, and 'De Lord.'"
She attended Pass Christian High School, where she played basketball and tennis, among other sports, and graduated in 1979 as the class salutatorian. She attended Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana, graduating cum laude in 1983 with a degree in communication.
In the January 13, 2007, edition of Costas on the Radio, she said she had been offered a scholarship to play basketball at Louisiana State University but thought the school was too big and impersonal after visiting the campus. On her way back to Pass Christian from that visit, she saw a road sign for Southeastern Louisiana University, stopped to visit and decided to enroll. The only scholarship left was a tennis scholarship, and she was promised that there would be a journalism scholarship by the time she would graduate.
She went on to become a standout performer on the women's basketball team, ending her career as the school's third all-time leading scorer (1,446 points) and rebounder (1,034). She is one of the only three Lady Lions to score 1,000 career points and grab 1,000 career rebounds.
During her senior season, she averaged a career-high 15.2 points per game. On February 5, 2011, Southeastern hosted a ceremony to retire Roberts' number 21 jersey.
Radio
Roberts began her career in 1983 as a sports anchor and reporter for WDAM-TV in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. In 1984, she moved to WLOX-TV in Biloxi, Mississippi. In 1986, she was sports anchor and reporter for WSMV-TV in Nashville, Tennessee. She was also a sports anchor and reporter at WAGA-TV in Atlanta, Georgia, from 1988 to 1990, as well as a radio host for radio station V-103 while in Atlanta.
Broadcasting
She joined ESPN as a sportscaster in February 1990, where she stayed until 2005. She became well known on Sportscenter for her catchphrase, "Go on with your bad self!" Roberts began to work for ABC News, specifically as a featured reporter, for Good Morning America in June 1995. In 2001, Roberts received the Mel Greenberg Media Award, presented by the WBCA.
For many years, Roberts worked at both ESPN and Good Morning America, contributing to both programs. During that time, she served primarily as the news anchor at GMA. In 2005, Roberts was promoted to co-anchor of Good Morning America. In December 2009, Roberts was joined by George Stephanopoulos as co-anchor of GMA after Diane Sawyer left to anchor ABC World News. Under their partnership, the Roberts-Stephanopoulos team led Good Morning America back to the top of the ratings; the program became the number-one morning show again in April 2012, beating NBC's Today, which had held the top spot for the previous 16 years.
In the fall of 2005, Roberts anchored a series of emotional reports from the Mississippi Gulf Coast after it was devastated by Hurricane Katrina; her hometown of Pass Christian was especially hard hit, with her old high school reduced to rubble. On February 22, 2009, Roberts hosted the Academy Awards preshow for ABC, and did so again in 2011.
In 2010, Roberts guest starred on Disney Channel's Hannah Montana, appearing in season 4, episode 10, "Can You See the Real Me?" Miley Stewart (Miley Cyrus) is interviewed by Roberts after revealing she is Hannah Montana. Miley discusses her double life and relives some of her most memorable moments about her friends, her family, her dating life, and how she was able to manage two lives. On May 30, 2010, Roberts drove the Pace Car for the 2010 Indianapolis 500.
In 20912, Roberts was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame for her contributions to and impact on the game of women's basketball through her broadcasting work and play.
Personal life
Roberts is a practicing Christian. In 2007, she was diagnosed with an early form of breast cancer, undergoing surgery on August 3; by January 2008 she had completed eight chemotherapy treatments, followed by 6 weeks of radiation treatment.
In 2012, she was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a disease of the bone marrow. Be the Match Registry, a nonprofit organization run by the National Marrow Donor Program, experienced a 1,800% spike in donors the day Roberts went public with her illness.
She took a leave from GMA to get a bone marrow transplant, and went home in October 2012, returning to GMA on February 20, 2013. She received a 2012 Peabody Award for the program. The Peabody citation credits her for "allowing her network to document and build a public service campaign around her battle with rare disease" and "inspir[ing] hundreds of potential bone marrow donors to register and heighten[ing] awareness of the need for even more donors." ESPN awarded its Arthur Ashe Courage Award to Roberts at the 2013 ESPYs.
On December 29, 2013, Roberts posted a photo on Facebook with a caption that read:
At this moment I am at peace and filled with joy and gratitude. I am grateful to God, my doctors and nurses for my restored good health...I am grateful for my entire family, my long time girlfriend, Amber, and friends as we prepare to celebrate a glorious new year together.
The post was a reflection of the past year and noted her health, the status of her bone marrow transplant, and her sexual orientation. Roberts and Amber Laign, a massage therapist, have been together for 10 years. Though friends and co-workers have known about her same-sex relationships, this was the first time Roberts publicly acknowledged her sexual orientation.
In 2014 Roberts published a memoir, Everybody's Got Something, detailing her illness, surgiers and recoveries. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 4/19/2014.)