Robin Roberts’s Path From SportsCenter to Surviving Two Diseases

Robin Roberts has spent more than three decades in broadcast journalism, but two of the biggest stories of her career weren’t ones she reported—they were her own. Twice, she’s faced a life-threatening illness in front of a national audience, and twice, she’s returned to the anchor desk at “Good Morning America” that has defined the back half of her career.

From a Tuskegee Airman’s Daughter to a College Basketball Star

Robin René Roberts was born November 23, 1960, in Tuskegee, Alabama, and raised in Pass Christian, Mississippi, in a disciplined military household — her father, Lawrence Roberts, was one of the Tuskegee Airmen, the pioneering Black military pilots of World War II. She excelled at basketball growing up, following her older sister, Sally-Ann Roberts, who’d go on to become a local news anchor herself. Robin earned a basketball scholarship to Southeastern Louisiana University, where she became one of the school’s all-time leading scorers and rebounders, graduating cum laude in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts in communications. She was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012, recognition of a college career that predates her broadcasting fame entirely.

Fifteen Years at ESPN

Roberts began her career in local radio and television in Mississippi before joining ESPN in 1990, where she spent 15 years as a sportscaster and became the first woman to co-host “NFL PrimeTime.” Her ESPN tenure helped open doors for women in sports broadcasting more broadly, establishing her as one of the network’s most respected on-air personalities well before she made the jump to morning news.

Becoming the Face of Good Morning America

Roberts began contributing to “Good Morning America” in June 1995 while still at ESPN, and was named full-time co-anchor in May 2005. She and George Stephanopoulos have anchored together since 2009, making them the longest-running anchor duo in morning television history. Under her tenure, the broadcast has won multiple consecutive Emmy Awards for Outstanding Morning Program and a 2017 People’s Choice Award for Favorite Daytime TV Hosting Team. Her interview list over the years has included Barack Obama discussing his support for gay marriage, Michelle Obama, Mark Zuckerberg, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and NBA star LeBron James on his decision to join the Miami Heat.

Surviving Breast Cancer, on the Air

In 2007, Roberts told viewers directly that she had breast cancer, choosing to share her diagnosis and treatment publicly rather than step away quietly. She underwent treatment and returned to the anchor desk, turning her own recovery into a source of public health awareness for viewers navigating similar diagnoses.

A Second Diagnosis, and a Sister’s Bone Marrow

In 2012, complications from that earlier cancer treatment led to a second, more serious diagnosis: myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a rare and life-threatening blood disorder. Roberts took a leave of absence from GMA that August to undergo a bone marrow transplant, with her sister, Sally-Ann, serving as her donor. She returned to the anchor desk on February 20, 2013, and GMA’s coverage of her treatment and recovery earned a Peabody Award. She later received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2013 ESPYs, recognizing the strength she’d shown across both health battles, and has since dedicated significant time to raising awareness about bone marrow donation and the work of Be The Match, a nonprofit that helped increase its registered donor pool around the time of her own transplant.

Roberts’s sister and donor, Sally-Ann Roberts, died in August 2019 following a battle with cancer of her own — a loss that came after Sally-Ann had literally saved Robin’s life years earlier, adding a difficult, personal coda to the two sisters’ shared story.

Coming Out and Marrying Amber Laign

In December 2013, Roberts publicly came out, sharing that she was gay. She’d been in a long-term relationship with massage therapist Amber Laign since 2005, and the couple married in September 2023, marking a milestone in a relationship that had spanned nearly two decades by that point. Laign herself was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022, a diagnosis Roberts has spoken about publicly as the couple navigated treatment together—an echo of Roberts’s own cancer battle 15 years earlier, this time from the other side of it.

Quick Facts

FAQ

What illnesses has Robin Roberts survived? She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007 and, in 2012, with myelodysplastic syndrome, a rare blood disorder requiring a bone marrow transplant from her sister, Sally-Ann.

Who is Robin Roberts married to? Massage therapist Amber Laign, her partner since 2005, whom she married in September 2023.

Did Robin Roberts work at ESPN? Yes. She spent 15 years there as a sportscaster, becoming the first woman to co-host “NFL PrimeTime,” before joining “Good Morning America” full-time in 2005.

What happened to Robin Roberts’s sister? Sally-Ann Roberts, who donated her bone marrow for Robin’s 2012 transplant, died in August 2019 after her own battle with cancer.

What awards has Robin Roberts won? She’s received a Peabody Award for GMA’s coverage of her health battle, the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2013 ESPYs, and was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012.

A Career Defined by Openness

Robin Roberts’s three decades in broadcasting would be a significant career on the strength of her journalism alone — but what’s made her a genuinely singular figure in American media is her decision, twice, to let her own health crises play out publicly rather than privately. That openness, paired with the loss of the sister who helped save her life, has given her story a depth that goes well beyond the anchor desk she’s held for two decades.