It's been four months since "Good Morning America" anchor Robin Roberts publicly came out as a gay woman in a personal Facebook post. Now, the 53-year-old TV personality is opening up about the woman she said saved her life, according to People.
During an interview with Ellen DeGeneres on the "Ellen DeGeneres Show," Roberts opened up about her longtime girlfriend, Amber Laign, and their life together. Roberts thanked her partner for helping her through a bone marrow transplant. Roberts, who is currently recovery from myelodysplastic syndrome, met Laign on a blind date, nine years ago.
Referring to the Facebook post in which she publicly disclosed her relationship with Laign for the first time, Roberts said: "On my Facebook I had been thanking my doctors and nurses, my sister. So I asked her. I said, 'I really want to say thank you.'"
Roberts' medical condition forced her to take a medical leave of absence from GMA while she underwent a bone marrow transplant. She has been through chemotherapy and will continue with "maintenance treatment" for the next two years.
"In essence, you're sitting across from not quite a 2-year-old," she says. "In September I will be 2 years old. When you are in that kind of situation, your immune system is completely wiped out, and it's a rebirth. And I am just so incredibly thankful that I am doing as well as I am. I really am."
The morning anchor recently released her memoir, titled "Everybody's Got Something". In the book, she chronicles her road to recovery and details the ways in which her support system helped her through the hardest time of her life. Roberts also admitted experiencing rough patches in her relation with Laign.
"In the book, she takes the caregiver's point of view," Roberts said. "Sometimes we didn't see the same thing eye to eye, and I thought it was very powerful for people, because there's so many that care for their loved ones, and so to see her side of it and to see my side of it was pretty interesting."
Laign, a massage therapist, attended the taping, but preferred to stay out of the spotlight.
