Good Morning America’s Sam Champion Comes Out At Thomas Roberts’ Wedding

Sam Champion, co-anchor of ABC’s “Good Morning America,” announced at MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts’ wedding that he and his fiancé, Rubem Robierb, are getting married New Years Eve. Champion, who is 51 and a Kentucky native, has worked for ABC, first at a local New York City station, since 1988.

“Mr. Champion is the first co-host of a network morning television show to publicly identify as gay. He is expected to talk about his upcoming wedding on Monday’s ‘GMA’,” the New York Times reported:

Mr. Champion’s sexual orientation was no secret to the staff of “GMA,” nor to his colleagues and competitors in the media industry. He exuberantly showed off his engagement ring to colleagues the day after becoming engaged and brought Mr. Robierb to parties with fellow co-hosts. But he didn’t speak publicly about it.

That changed last weekend when Mr. Champion and Mr. Robierb attended the wedding of Thomas Roberts, an MSNBC anchor who is also gay. Jacob Bernstein wrote the following in a Sunday Styles section story about the wedding, published online on Friday afternoon:

Among the 170 or so guests at the reception was Sam Champion, the weather anchor at ABC’s “Good Morning America.” He took a turn on the dance floor with his partner, the photographer Rubem Robierb.

“We’re getting married New Year’s Eve in Miami,” Mr. Champion said in the spirit of the moment.

Mr. Robierb corrected him: “We’ll do it here officially, and then have a party in Miami.”

Offering him congratulations and “Good luck with the wedding planning,” Daily Beast writer Andrew Sullivan notes that Champion “comes out in the new low-key, AC360 way in a vows column for another gay couple’s wedding in NYC.”