ABCRobin Roberts had a tough year, but she's glad to back, healthy and happy, in the Good Morning America anchor chair.
And while the 52-year-old thrived on the support from fans throughout her battle with myelodysplastic syndrome, she told the Hollywood Reporter chronicling her fight with the disease made her feel "vulnerable," which wasn't exactly easy.
"It was difficult to show my low points. It was difficult to admit that I had moments of feeling defeated, and really being honest with feeling that I was slipping away, because I'm always seen as an upbeat person, and I am, I'm optimistic, but it was difficult," she said. "I don't know of anyone who has done that, in the position I'm in, you're very vulnerable when you show yourself like that. But in the end I thought it was best to do that, to be honest about it."
The GMA anchor said the support she received "was just incredible" and "it became like an online community, people helping and sharing ideas. It was extremely comforting."
While she was away from GMA, Roberts watched as a series of guest hosts sat in for her on the morning show. "It was fun to watch from home," she said.
One of her most memorable subs was none other than Oprah Winfrey, who told Roberts she was "stepping in the gap."
"She said, 'I'm not replacing you, I'm not filling in for you, I'm just stepping in the gap that you've created by not being there," Roberts recalled. "And I loved when she was on the set and she said that she loved being with my GMA family."
When Roberts was asked her "proudest moment" from the past year, she had a humble, poignant response. "The proudest moment... to be alive!" she said. "I'm very happy to be alive a year later. Of course I'm thrilled that our program is No. 1. It's not something that we take for granted or talk about at all, and I'm really proud at how our audience responded to me personally, and to the issue that I was facing, and to know that tens of thousands of people have registered to be a bone marrow donor, hundreds of thousands of dollars have been raised in less than a year, I'm very proud of our audience for responding as they have."