A GMSK receiver with interference cancellation includes a linear equalizer configured to be coupled to a received signal from a first antenna and to provide first soft bits, an adaptive estimator, e.g., adaptive MLSE coupled to the first soft bits and configured to provide second soft bits; a quality assessor coupled to the first soft bits and configured to provide a quality indication; and a switching function coupled to the linear equalizer and the adaptive MLSE and controlled in accordance with the quality indication to provide output soft bits corresponding to at least one of the first soft bits and the second soft bits. The GMSK receiver can be extended to multiple antennas and corresponding methods for interference cancellation in a GMSK signal are discussed.