We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

A former ABC News anchor has revealed that he tried to take his own life after experiencing years of toxicity at work.

Kendis Gibson, previously the anchor of ABC News’s “World News Now,” revealed all this in his upcoming memoir, “Five Trips: An Investigative Journey into Mental Health, Psychedelic Healing and Saving a Life.”

The book “chronicles his nearly five-year journey experimenting with illegal drugs to combat mental health issues, including depression, panic attacks, and suicidal ideation, which he claims was amplified while working at ABC,” as exclusively reported by Page Six.

The journey started in 2014 when Gibson accepted his dream job as an ABC News correspondent and was graciously welcomed aboard by the network’s top talent, including Robin Roberts.

“Roberts welcomed him on-air as ‘the newest member of the ‘Good Morning America’ family,’ he writes in the book,” Page Six notes. “Gibson described the moment as his ‘official anointing by the queen of the show,’ adding, ‘she couldn’t have been nicer and more genuine on and off camera.’”

But later when off-air, an unnamed fellow black correspondent told him, “Welcome to Mickey’s plantation,” referencing the fact that ABC News is owned by Disney.

When Gibson inquired as to what the correspondent had meant by “plantation,” they replied, “You’ll find out.”

“The sense I got from them was that it was in reference to veiled racism, and there was some truth to what was behind it,” Gibson later recalled in his book.

There was lots of truth in the statement as he’d soon find out once he was eventually upgraded to the host of ABC’s “World News Now,” a grueling post known for its revolving door of anchors.

While there was already “an underlying depression” in his life when he accepted the gig, it reportedly progressively got worse afterward. And it didn’t help that his bosses ignored his pleas for him to be pulled off the desk, even when he was forced into taking Ambien for his insomnia and anxiety.

Thus he remained on the gig, “trying to perform at the top of the game… at an overnight show [and] during the day. It was just a lot, and the network was not listening to me at all,” he wrote in his book.

He also allegedly experienced racism, such as when a boss lectured him about wearing jeans on-air.

“You’re doing television news now, not attending a rap concert,” the boss allegedly said. “Don’t ever wear jeans again.”

“I was so naïve… I had rose-colored glasses on. I didn’t think there was racism taking place. I didn’t see all the indications,” Gibson recalled.

He also suspects that the same superior/boss retaliated against him after he helped to create a “Diversity Task Force” within ABC News dedicated to encouraging management to hire more blacks.

“He claims his appearances on ‘GMA’ [Good Morning America] went from 212 hits within his first two years before the task force was created, down to eight, two years after the first meeting with management,” Page Six notes.

Things got even worse as his producers reportedly passed on exclusives he’d pitch for “GMA,” including even rare, behind-the-scenes interviews with Formula 1 champ Lewis Hamilton and Columbian singer Maluma.

His GMA rejections hurt his spirit.

“If you’re not on ‘GMA,’ you’re not earning your keep,” he told the Post. “[It feels like] there’s something wrong with you. It was screwing with my psyche.”

Gibson hit his breaking point in October of 2018.

“After returning home from anchoring the overnight newscast, he chased two Ambien with two glasses of Chardonnay, and cried himself to sleep,” Page Six notes. “He woke up hours later, after his then-partner had left for work, resigned to killing himself.”

“Gibson texted his former partner his goodbye, approached the window in his kitchen, and prepared to jump. Ironically, the Ambien and booze he consumed to numb himself earlier kicked in, and sent him backward onto the kitchen floor,” according to Page Six.

He woke up to find his close friend Mike Woods, who his “partner” had texted earlier, looking over him. Woods reportedly carried him to his bed and later held an intervention with him and his closest friends.

Gibson subsequently returned to work but also started seeing a therapist and taking depression/anxiety medications.

“I didn’t like therapy,” he recalled to Page Six. “I had a love-hate relationship with SSRIs [antidepressant medication]. It allowed me to function a little bit, but it felt more like it was suppressing, and didn’t treat it.”

By this time, only a few more months remained until his ABC News contract expired. The network for its part offered him a one-year extension with a $10,000 raise, but he wasn’t interested in the “pittance” of a raise.

“[I] didn’t think it was worth my time and health to sacrifice another year working that difficult schedule,” he wrote in his book.

Afterward, he wound up at MSNBC. But about a year and a half into his job at MSNBC, a scandal erupted at ABC News.

“His former boss was given the boot for alleged insensitive racial comments she’d made about talent at the network, including Sunny Hostin, Roberts, and Gibson,” Page Six notes.

It turns out it was the same boss who’d scolded him years earlier and has also reportedly claimed he, Gibson, was worth less than toilet paper. That latter remark stuck with him for years, leading to him crying in the fetal position on his bathroom floor.

“I went into such a dark place on that bathroom floor,” he wrote in his book. “It was such a tough moment for me. It was clear that I wasn’t fully healed.”

After the job at MSNBC, he spent six months anchoring the news and then moved on to get some healing.

“He decided to fully lean into his psychedelic road to recovery,” Page Six reports. “He spent the next two years learning from BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and people of color] plant medicine experts while penning ‘Five Trips.’”

“I set out to write a book about my depression, and one thing led to another, and it just evolved into how different psychedelics helped me,” he said. “I’m not pushing anybody into psychedelics, but hopefully it opens up a conversation and encourages people to explore alternatives.”

Vivek Saxena
Latest posts by Vivek Saxena (see all)

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.