Sam Champion: 'I Overachieved Because I Was Gay'

By
On Top Magazine Staff
| March 20, 2014

In a recent TV Guide interview, Sam Champion credited his sexual orientation and being overweight for turning him into an overachiever.

Champion, who first discussed his sexual orientation last year in announcing his engagement to his now husband, photographer Rubem Robierb, late last year resigned from his post as weather anchor of ABC's Good Morning America to head America's Morning Headquarters with Sam Champion, a three-hour weekday morning show on cabler the Weather Channel.

“I left GMA with one solid purpose, and that was an opportunity to build something new from the ground up in a place that is solely focused on weather,” the 52-year-old Champion said. “I need a project. I don't have a hobby.”

“I discovered I overachieved because I was fat, I was gay, and I was bullied as a kid,” Champion added. “All my life I worked extra hard to have people see past what they saw on the outside.”

“I like people, and I was a person who really wanted to be liked,” he added. “That for me was a driving desire.”