A former ABC anchor said he attempted suicide after facing harassment, bullying and racism at the US news giant, prompting an unnamed black correspondent to welcome him to “Mickey’s Plantation” – a comparison channel owner Disney has made to a slave-owning estate in the old American South.

“The feeling I got from them was that it was racism in disguise and that there was some truth to it,” Kendis Gibson told Page Six, a celebrity news and gossip site run by the Murdoch-owned New York Post.

Gibson was promoting his memoir titled “Five Trips: An Investigative Journey into Mental Health, Psychedelic Healing, and Saving a Life,” which he describes as a “whimsical, emotional” story told “through five literal and physical psychedelic journeys.” .

Gibson joined ABC News in Washington DC in 2014 and soon moved to New York, where he hosted a nighttime show. Network stars like Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos welcomed him, he said, but his grueling hours contributed to “an underlying depression that was already present.”

Bosses wouldn’t listen to his pleas to switch to more social hours, Gibson said, so he turned to the drug Ambien to deal with insomnia and anxiety.

Gibson said he also struggled with covert racism, such as when he wore jeans on the show and was told by an unnamed manager, “You’re doing TV news now and not going to a rap concert. “Don’t ever wear jeans again.”

“I was so naive,” Gibson said, claiming that bosses also turned against him after he helped lead a diversity task force designed to encourage the hiring of more black employees in management positions.

“I had rose-colored glasses on,” Gibson said. “I didn’t think racism existed. I didn’t see all the signs.”

Gibson told Page Six that his appearances on Good Morning America, ABC News’ flagship program, increased from 212 in two years before the task force to eight in two years after. He also said he rejected strong pitches that “messed up my psyche.”

In October 2018, Gibson said, he reached his breaking point. After an overnight show, he took Ambien, drank wine, and then fell asleep. When he woke up, he texted his then-partner to say goodbye. Gibson told the outlet that he was unable to carry out his plan due to the drugs and alcohol in his system.

Friends helped him recover, he said, and got him back on the air and into therapy that same day. After being offered an overnight one-year extension and a $10,000 raise, which he described as a “hero’s award,” Gibson moved to MSNBC.

But at ABC, the executive who reprimanded Gibson for wearing jeans also reportedly noted that the network “spent more on toilet paper for Gibson than we ever would.”

That, according to Page Six, left Gibson “screaming and crying in a fetal position.”

“I went to such a dark place on the bathroom floor,” Gibson said. “It was a tough moment for me. It was clear I wasn’t fully healed.”

According to HuffPost in 2020, the executive also reportedly said of Roberts, the ABC star anchor who is black and who asked for a raise, “It wasn’t like the network asked her to pick cotton.”

Gibson moved to Miami to present local news. Then, according to Page Six, he “spent two years learning from Bipoc (Black, Indigenous and people of color) plant medicine experts.”

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

This year, Gibson returned to news as afternoon anchor for PIX11 in New York.

“I’m in a different environment,” he said. “It’s the first time I’ve been in a place where I’m not looking for the next job, and I feel comfortable in my own skin… It’s not an early shift. I’m still not trying to test myself with these lessons.”

ABC declined to comment.