‘Good Morning America’ host past and present

robin roberts

In 2005, Roberts was promoted from newsreader to co-anchor of Good Morning America.

“If anyone was listening, they could have heard my knee tapping under the desk, because[Sawyer and Gibson]are like the Mount Rushmore of television journalists,” Roberts told PEOPLE about joining the team, adding that they have been “very welcoming.”

Looking back on his time on the show, Roberts said “we shouldn’t underestimate” the fact that he and his co-anchors were able to say “good morning” to America.

“It’s a privilege,” she said. “There’s a familiarity to morning TV, as opposed to other news shows. People are getting dressed and starting their day and learning what’s going on. And they feel like we’re there to give them a hug or hold their hand and give them the right information.”

Roberts currently co-anchors Good Morning America. In her personal life, she is married to Amber Reign in September 2023.

george stephanopoulos

Stephanopoulos first appeared on the news program in 1992, but not as a host. He appeared on the show when he was Bill Clinton’s top adviser during his presidential campaign.

In 1997, he joined ABC as an analyst, but told PEOPLE he had no desire to become an anchor at the time.

“When they first came to me with the idea that I should bring Robin on board as a co-anchor, I said, ‘Are you kidding me? That’s not my job,'” Stephanopoulos recalled. “And I said, ‘No.’ We were living in Washington, D.C., at the time, and I didn’t think it was a good fit.”

After a third “heartfelt and very convincing pitch” by ABC News’ president, Stephanopoulos joined the team in 2009 and remains there today.

“This was one of the best professional decisions I’ve ever made,” Stephanopoulos tells PEOPLE.

Stephanopoulos has been married to Ali Wentworth since 2001 and they have two daughters.

michael strahan

Strahan, a former NFL player, joined Good Morning America in 2016 after leaving Live! With Kelly and Michael.

Like Stephanopoulos, Strahan wasn’t sure whether sitting in the anchor chair was the right thing to do for him.

“When they offered it to me, I said, ‘No, I don’t do news. What are you talking about?'” he recalled to People. “I almost realized I was going to quit out of fear instead of at least trying. So I’m so glad I did that. But yeah, when I first got the call, I literally thought I was on the wrong side.”

Strahan has four children, Tanita, Michael Jr., Isabella, and Sophia, with his two ex-wives, Wanda Hutchins and Jean Muggli.

lara spencer

Spencer has appeared on the news show off and on for more than a decade, and was named co-anchor in 2011.

Looking back on GMA’s 50th anniversary program on November 3rd, Spencer said that the episode was a big “pinch moment.”

“Turning to look at Diane, Charlie, Joan and Nancy was a trip down memory lane, not only for me as a member of the GMA family, but also because I grew up with GMA and watched it with my family before that,” she said.

Spencer married her husband Rick McVeigh in 2018.

ginger gee

Gee joined the news program in 2011 and was promoted to chief meteorologist in 2013.

After GMA’s 50th Anniversary Show, Gee talked about one of her favorite parts of the show: authenticity.

“There are a lot of mornings where there’s no sunshine and no rainbows, and I think Robin is doing a really great job with this. We just say it like it is and feel it like it is,” the meteorologist tells PEOPLE. “I don’t feel great every day in the studio, but that’s okay. That’s how life is. So I think that’s one of my favorite parts and a real part of life.”

Gee married her husband Ben Aaron in June 2014, and the couple have two sons.

charlie gibson

Mr. Gibson previously worked as a White House correspondent for ABC News and was appointed co-anchor of Good Morning America in 1987.

He anchored the show until 1998, when he took a short break from the show and returned to run the show with Sawyer from January 1999 to June 2006.

Gibson appeared on the show during some of the biggest news moments of the past few years, including the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

After leaving the show, she served as an anchor for ABC World News from 2006 to 2009.

According to the Boston Globe, Gibson and his wife Arlene have two daughters and five grandchildren.

Diane Sawyer

When Mr. Sawyer joined the desk in January 1999, he brought a hard-news approach to Good Morning America that added nearly 1 million viewers. During her time on the show, she interviewed several presidents, from Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama, and world leaders, including Cuba’s late Fidel Castro.

After broadcasting about 3,000 episodes and winning several honors, Sawyer left the newscast in December 2009. At the beginning of her last broadcast, she looked back on her time on the show and left a heartfelt message for the viewers.

“I’m going to put into practice the advice of the immortal philosopher Dr. Seuss, ‘Don’t cry because it’s over, laugh because it happened,’ and this morning I’m smiling at you,” she said, according to ABC News. “My heart is smiling and the privilege of sharing this morning with you is beyond words.”

She replaced Gibson as ABC World News anchor, but left in 2014. A year later, her husband, director Mike Nichols, died at the age of 83.

Joan Landen

Landen joined Good Morning America in 1980 as a co-host. About 17 years later, in 1997, she left the show because she wanted to spend the morning with her children, the Los Angeles Times reported.

However, years later, she opened up more about her departure in a December 2022 conversation with Yahoo!, revealing that her exit was allegedly due to age discrimination and sexism. However, she reportedly made an agreement with the network’s president that the official reason given to the world would be that she was “tired of working the morning shift.”

“We didn’t talk about it for a long time. I believe in hanging out with the class…not getting angry, what’s the point?” she said.

Lunden is the mother of seven children and has children with her ex-husband, producer Michael Kraus, and her husband Jeff Koenigsberg.

david hartman

Hartman was one of the first co-anchors of Good Morning America, which debuted on November 3, 1975. After more than a decade on the show, Hartman left the show in 1987.

Philip R. Bews, ABC’s vice president of early morning television, said in a statement at the time that Mr. Hartman “changed the face of morning television.”

“We will miss him, and so will the millions of Americans who look to him and ‘GMA’ every day for assurance that all is well with the world and their lives,” he said, according to UPI. “His contribution was enormous.”

Decades later, Hartman told ABC News on Nov. 3 that it’s “an absolute privilege” to be a part of what GMA has brought to the world.

“It was our goal to have the opportunity to try to bring information to our viewers, our viewers, who can take information from our program and use it in some kind of useful and productive way in their own personal lives,” he said.

According to Ad Week, Hartman was married to Maureen Downey until her death from cancer in 1997. He married Mary Putman in 2001.

Nancy Dussault

Along with Hartman, Dussault was one of the first to welcome viewers during Good Morning America’s premiere. Almost two years later, in April 1977, she was replaced by Sandy Hill.

Mr. Dussault returned to his desk for a special commemorative broadcast on Nov. 3, during which he looked back on the show’s early days.

“It was pretty shocking because I was used to staying up late from the theater,” said Dussault, who was a Tony Award-nominated actress before joining GMA. “We went on the air about 10 days after I was hired. David had already been hired.”

Dussault continued acting after Good Morning America, starring in 1979’s The In-Laws and 1997’s The Nurse.