Amy Robach
American broadcast journalist Amy Robach became co-anchor of ABC News’ ’20/20′ in 2018 and contributes as a breaking news anchor at ‘Good Morning America.’
Who Is Amy Robach?
Born February 6, 1973 in Lansing, Michigan, Robach is an American television reporter, journalist and anchor. She worked for NBC News from 2003 to 2012 — first as an MSNBC anchor from 2003 to 2007 and then as a Saturday Today show anchor and national news correspondent from 2007 to 2012. She joined ABC News in 2012 as a correspondent and became Good Morning America’s news anchor in 2014 and co-anchor of 20/20 in 2018. After learning she had breast cancer as a result of an on-air mammogram in 2013, Robach wrote the New York Times best-selling book, Better: How I Let Go of Control, Held On to Hope, and Found Joy in My Darkest Hour. She’s married to former Melrose Place actor Andrew Shue.
Cancer Diagnosis
When Robach was 40, Good Morning America producers asked her to do her first mammogram live on television in October 2013. “For one of the first times in my life, I said no,” she recalled in 2015. “That was just too scary and way too personal.” But she said that GMA anchor and breast cancer survivor Robin Roberts told her, “If you say yes, Amy, you will save a life… your physical and mental discomfort will be worth it.”
To Robach’s surprise, the life she would save was her own. It turned out she had two malignant tumors and the cancer had already spread to her lymph nodes.
She finished her treatment on April 24, 2014 and the following year, Robach published a book about her journey called Better: How I Let Go of Control, Held On to Hope, and Found Joy in My Darkest Hour.
Personal Life
Robach married former Melrose Place star and Do Something founder Andrew Shue in February 2010 at the The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers in New York City. “It was the most beautiful night in every way,” the couple told People. “Despite snow, high winds, flight and train delays, every guest made it to the night to share in our new beginning.”
She has two daughters, Ava, 15, and Annalise, 12, with ex-husband Tim McIntosh, and is stepmom to Shue’s children from his previous marriage to Jennifer Hageney: Nate, 21, Aidan, 19, and Wyatt, 14. This is a second marriage for both.
What Is Amy Robach’s Net Worth?
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Robach is valued at $1.5 million.
Early Career
After graduating with a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication in 1995 with honors, Robach sent her resume reel to every television station within a six-hour radius of Athens, Georgia. She landed her first job as a general assignment reporter at WCBD in Charleston, South Carolina. “I was making my age. I was 22 and making $22 [thousand],” she said while giving her university’s commencement speech in 2015. “The truth is, I would have done it for free.”
That same year, she won the Miss Gwinnett County pageant and was a runner-up for Miss Georgia — the state competition that would have led to Miss America.
In 1999 she joined Washington, D.C.’s WTTG as the noon anchor and the morning news and traffic reporter for the station’s helicopter, SkyFox. By the end of her tenure, she was the early-morning and noon news anchor.
National News
Robach joined NBC News as an MSNBC anchor from 2003 to 2007 and then moved to the Saturday edition of the Today show in 2007, co-hosting with Lester Holt. She reported news stories including President Ronald Reagan’s death and Hurricane Katrina, but also covered light-hearted features, like playing tennis with Pete Sampras, getting a cameo in the Broadway musical Curtains and taking her daughters to the American Girl store for the first time. Her last episode was on May 19, 2012.
Days later, it was announced that she was joining ABC News as a news anchor. After covering stories like Prince George’s birth and the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, she took over Josh Elliott’s place as news anchor on Good Morning America in 2014. Her notable coverage included the Belgium and Manchester terrorists attacks and Pulse nightclub shootings, as well as interviewing Malala Yousafzai in Nigeria, where the teen was advocating for the freedom of schoolgirls held by Boko Haram on her 17th birthday.
In May 2018, she became 20/20 co-anchor with David Muir, replacing longtime anchor Elizabeth Vargas.
Controversy
In August 2016, while discussing the casting of actress Zendaya in the role of Mary Jane in Spider-Man, she used the outdated term “colored people” on air.
“We all know Hollywood has received recent and quite a bit of criticism for casting white actors in what one might assume should be a role reserved for colored people,” she said during the segment.
She later issued an apology, saying she meant to say “people of color” and it was “a mistake” and “not at all a reflection of how I feel or speak in my everyday life.”
Inspiration
In 2014 Robach received Komen Greater New York City’s Surviving with Impact Award for sharing her breast cancer journey. She was also inducted into the Grady Fellowship class in 2017 at her alma mater.
“Your words can change just one person’s lives and that can change the world,” she has said of her impact as a journalist. “So choose your words carefully because they are our best weapons against ignorance and hate.”
As for her own life’s mantra, every day, she says to herself: “Say what you mean, mean what you say.” Why? “Turns out when you’re authentic and true to yourself, it’s extreme calming,” Robach says.
Childhood
Growing up, Robach was a gymnast for seven years, competing in meets in Missouri and Georgia in the 1980s. “When I was 14, I finally came to the realization I wasn’t Olympic material, I was too tall,” she said on the Today show. “But I never regretted my years in the gym.”
She was a cheerleader at Brookwood High School in Snellville, Georgia, but gave that up to dedicate more time to the theater program, where she was in a production of Evita.
