Former “GMA3” co-hosts Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes have broken their silence this week, one year after they became the subjects of a media frenzy when news of their romantic relationship was made public.
Robach and Holmes discussed their relationship, and their subsequent exit from ABC News, during the first episode of their new podcast, “Amy & T.J.,” which premiered on Tuesday.
Steve Granitz via Getty Images
In the beginning of the episode, the couple opened up about being in love and the intensity of the past year. The two were both married to other people when their involvement was revealed publicly in November 2022.
Robach was married to actor Andrew Shue. She has two daughters from her first marriage to Tim McIntosh.
Holmes reached a divorce settlement with attorney Marilee Fiebig in October. He has one daughter with Fiebig, and two children with his first wife, Amy Ferson.
Holmes and Robach both insisted in the podcast episode that they were both in the middle of divorcing their then-spouses when they were photographed out and about together. The Daily Mail had published photos of the pair having drinks and staying at a cottage in upstate New York.
“On Nov. 30, 2022 was the day that we were — and this is very important — we were outed,” Holmes said.
Robach chimed in, “We were not caught.”
“We were outed by a publication that outed us,” Holmes continued. “And so to be clear, we were outed as being in a relationship. But everyone else thought we were being outed as adulterers. Being outed as cheating on our spouses, and it wasn’t the case.”
Robach said that Shue had moved out of their home three months prior to the day she and Holmes were unknowingly photographed. She added that she had taken her wedding ring off in August. Holmes said elsewhere in the episode that he had been living by himself in an apartment since the summer of 2022.
Noam Galai via Getty Images
But Robach and Holmes both later admitted that they could have better handled the way they began their new relationship.
Neither of them had told their own children and families about their new romance when the Daily Mail photos were published, the couple said. Holmes said he had yet to tell his mother that he was even getting a divorce at the time.
“We shouldn’t have allowed, I can say that in hindsight, for folks to find out about our relationship before they found out about our divorces,” Holmes said.
He said that he wanted to take some time to reveal his new relationship to the 10-year-old daughter he shares with Fiebig, since Robach has known the child since the girl was 1.
Robach and Holmes also discussed how their relationship evolved over the years, saying they were initially only co-workers and best friends for eight years. They said colleagues at ABC had previously speculated they were romantically involved, but that their relationship only began after they left their marriages.
Discussing their exit from “GMA3,” the pair said that they had planned to reveal their relationship to management in January, when they assumed their respective divorces would be finalized.
Holmes and Robach were taken off the air in December 2022, before a spokesperson for ABC News announced in January that they would be leaving the network.
“In Amy & T.J.,” Robach reflected on receiving the phone call that they were getting temporarily pulled from the air, saying that she had pleaded with higher-ups to reverse the decision.
“I did ask, I said, ’If you’re gonna make an announcement to the rest of our colleagues, can you please at least acknowledge that we have not violated company policy?” she said. “That was the compromise that I reached.”
Elsewhere in the episode, Robach shared that Holmes was in a “pretty dark space” shortly after the Daily Mail photos published.
She said she grew concerned after Holmes, who was alone at his home, sent her text messages that were framed in the “past tense,” and that she “panicked” once he stopped answering her calls and texts.
Robach said she then went to his apartment and found him “splayed out” on his bed.
“I remember, it was the most awful thing, having to touch your body to see if you were warm,” she said to Holmes.
Holmes said he was “pounding vodka” for several hours.
“I took who knows how many weed edibles and that’s how I ended up in the state I was in,” he said.
Robach, a breast cancer survivor, also discussed the toll the media frenzy took on her, comparing the experience to the year she was diagnosed with cancer.
The former “GMA3” co-host said that when she was going through treatments for cancer in 2013, she was “fighting to live” and had a lot of support from people around her.
“But this year, I wanted to die,” she said. “There were days where I wanted to die. And that was something that I had never experienced before in my life. I just didn’t want to get up. I didn’t want to see what new headline was going to be out there.”
Robach later said that it felt “cathartic” and “incredible” to speak out about the scandal.
Both Robach and Holmes have celebrated their relationship on Instagram in recent months.
In October, Holmes shared a photo that showed Robach standing in front of him as he hugs her from behind.
If you or someone you know needs help, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org for mental health support. Additionally, you can find local mental health and crisis resources at dontcallthepolice.com. Outside of the U.S., please visit the International Association for Suicide Prevention.