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Sunny Hostin is many things! The 51-year-old’s achievements range from mother to a 13-year-old daughter, co-host of The View, journalist and author. However, while all of those aspects of her life are easy to identify, her heritage is the one thing that typically comes into question. Black History Month gives the multihyphenate the opportunity to unapologetically celebrate who she is, a proud Afro-Latina. “For me, it’s just always who I am, and who I’ve been. I’m just happy that finally, there’s a name for it,” Sunny, who is Puerto Rican and black tells HOLA! USA. “You know, Latinx, Afro-Latina. I always called myself a Black-Tina. It’s unfortunate that growing up, people often asked me, ‘What are you?’ And I got tired of trying to explain it.”
Sunny says that although she proudly represents who she is, people still question her identity. “I get tweets, I get comments, ‘Are you black; are you Puerto Rican?’ You know I get it often, and you know the answer is I’m both,” the New York native shares. “It’s never been hard for me to be both. It’s just simply who I am.”
And she never gets tired of sharing her response. “I answer! I say I’m both. Should I deny my father or deny my mother? I would never do that.” Sunny is doing the work and telling the stories.
This year, the Truth About Murder host will release both fiction and non-fiction works and work on projects that tell stories about women just like her. “I have two books coming out. I have a book coming out on June 16 called Summer on the Bluffs. It’s a fictional book. It’s set in Martha’s Vineyard, and it’s a story of four women and all of them have secrets. It’s dishy, and it’s beautiful, and it’s about relationships and love. It’s a little dark in some places, but I think people will love it,” she shares. “Then my memoir, my story is coming out in the fall. I’m working on a documentary. I’m working on something with 21st Century, a story of four black women friends in their 40s. I’ve got a lot of irons in the fire.”