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"&lt;strong&gt;&lt;img alt=\"1230_Robin-Roberts\" src=\"http://ll-media.tmz.com/2013/12/30/1230-robin-roberts-1.jpg\" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Robin Roberts&lt;/strong&gt; -- &lt;a href=\"http://www.tmz.com/2013/12/29/robin-roberts-gay-girlfriend/\"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;who came out yesterday&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; -- has been open about her sexuality for years ... she just didn't feel the need to go public until now.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sources close to Robin tell TMZ ... everyone in her life -- both personally and professionally -- knew she was gay and in a 10-year relationship with &lt;strong&gt;Amber Laign&lt;/strong&gt;.&amp;#160; The 2 of them met in San Francisco through mutual friends.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Amber is a massage therapist who specializes in helping people with injuries.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As for their relationship ... our sources say Amber was utterly devoted to Robin when she went through both of her illnesses -- breast cancer in 2007 and Myelodysplastic Syndrome in 2012.&amp;#160; Robin was extremely ill and we're told Amber was her rock.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img alt=\"1230-robin-roberts-espn2\" src=\"http://ll-media.tmz.com/2013/12/30/1230-robin-roberts-espn2-2.jpg\" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As for why Robin came out yesterday ... we're told she never felt the need to tell the world, but at the end of such a difficult year she wanted to acknowledge what Amber did for her.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We're told the illnesses strengthened an already strong bond."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.tmz.com/2013/12/30/robin-roberts-amber-laign-gay/1/>