Good Morning America anchor
Robin Roberts spoke to Entertainment Weekly about her decision
to shift from sports to news.
The 54-year-old Roberts left ESPN to
work at ABC News, and credits out tennis legend Billie Jean King with
helping her with that decision.
“It was a really big deal for me to
leap from sports to news and Billie Jean King helped me make that
decision,” Roberts
said. “She was the one who really encouraged me that this is a
wonderful platform and I [can] still talk about sports. One of the
best things that could’ve happened to get me where I’m sitting in
this [GMA] chair was Diane Sawyer and Charlie Gibson. I was coming
from the sports world, I was the sidekick, and they were extremely
generous, loving and supportive and really helped me. It was sink or
swim back then and they threw me a life preserver and I’m grateful
to them.”
Roberts, who came out gay in 2013, also
talked about the challenges she's faced in her path to success.
“I'm a black, gay woman. You've got
to think differently and things are going to be difficult. I'm not
crying about it and I'm not whining about it. I acknowledge and say
to myself … find a way and I think that's what I've done all my
life, I've found a way to achieve goals that I've set for myself,”
she said.