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Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts
The Good Morning America anchor opened up about this and more in an interview on The Jamie Kern Lima Show.
Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts had fears about coming out as gay and almost declined an interview with Barack Obama because of it.
Roberts shared this and more on an episode of the podcast The Jamie Kern Lima Show.
In 2012, Roberts said, she was offered an interview with then-President Obama about changing his stance on marriage equality, which so far he had opposed. Not only was she going through a health crisis, but she was worried the interview would out her. Then she realized she was being selfish in thinking only about how it would affect her.
“I sat across from then-President Barack Obama, and I’ll never forget saying, ‘Do you change your stance on marriage equality,’ and he said yes, he did,” she recalled. His vice president, now-President Joe Biden, had come out for marriage equality just a few days earlier.
Roberts noted that when she came out publicly the following year, she worried about the effect on her show. “It’s not The Robin Roberts Show, it’s Good Morning America, and there are so many people whose livelihoods depend on the success of our show. … I didn’t want to do anything to hurt those people who I’ve been working with and absolutely adore,” she said.
“Part of it is because of my Christianity,” she added, as people “think you can’t be gay and a Christian. … I was afraid that I would be shunned.” But she got a supportive letter from the head of her church, the Presbyterian Church (USA).
“I can’t imagine now people not knowing everything about me,” Roberts said.
She also recalled meeting her wife, Amber Laign. Friends had been trying to set her and Roberts up on a blind date, and they both canceled for about a year, then agreed to meet for drinks on a double date with friends. Roberts told her friend she would kick him under the table if she wanted to invite Laign and her friend for dinner “A couple minutes in, I was kicking him under the table,” she said.
Roberts and Laign have now been together for 18 years, and they married last year.
The interview with Lima, posted Tuesday, was the first of two episodes featuring Roberts. Watch below.
Robin Roberts Reveals All: Make Your Mess Your Message, Step into Your Purpose and Love Who You Are!www.youtube.com
