‘Amy and TJ’ Podcast Recap: Amy Robach’s Daughters Learned About Her Relationship With T.J. Holmes Online
Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes vehemently deny that they had an affair, but that doesn't mean they don't have regrets about how they handled their relationship.
The former GMA3 coanchors released the first episode of their podcast, "Amy and T.J.," on Tuesday, December 5, exactly one year after ABC pulled them from the air as their romance made headlines. According to Robach and Holmes, they were both separated from their respective spouses, Andrew Shue and Marilee Fiebig, when they started seeing each other. The twosome didn't, however, inform ABC — or their families — that they were dating.
"My daughter, I mean, she's 10, I was still trying to get her adjusted to her new reality of her parents not being together. And I'd been working on that for the past three, four months," Holmes said of daughter Sabine, whom he shares with Fiebig. "So I didn't want to spring on her that early, 'Oh yeah, by the way, you know that Amy Robach, who you've known since you were 1?' ... Well, I'm dating her now.'"
Holmes said that he "hadn't even told my mom about the divorce" from Fiebig as of November 2022. "So why the hell am I thinking about telling an executive at the network about it? So that's just where our heads were," he said. "And hindsight, sure. Maybe we screwed up, but in the immediate crisis of it all, and I have it in my phone — still saved as a draft from November 30th, the day this happened — our draft[ed] statements that have never been released. ... You made a statement about where you were in your marriage. I made a statement about my divorce proceedings, and those statements were never released."
Robach noted that she "also felt awful" that her family found out about their relationship online. "We thought we were protecting our children and our families, and we thought we had time," she said. "And we thought we had a right to privacy. And maybe that was foolish and silly."
Robach was giving a speech in Washington, D.C. when the Daily Mail published pictures of her and Holmes getting cozy outside of the office. She immediately heard from her parents and daughters Ava, 21, and Annie, 17.
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"I'm still saying I'm sorry [to my daughters]," Robach said. "It's one thing for us to deal with the press and to deal with the headlines and, honestly, the paparazzi that have become as much a part of our lives as anything. They're there all the time. And so when I'm with my children, when I'm with my daughters, they're there and their pictures are being taken. ... I just try to put myself in their shoes. It's their family, and they're so young, they don't have the tools or the life experience to even really be able to put it into perspective. And it's just been a really hard, hard journey that will continue. We're all in therapy."
Keep scrolling for more from "Amy and T.J.":
When Amy and T.J. Split From Andrew and Marilee
According to Robach, she and Shue split during summer 2022. "Everyone in my tight circle knew I was getting divorced. I took my ring off [in] early August," she said. "It was very clear to anyone who knew me that I was in the middle of a divorce. T.J. is a much more private person than me and just chose to keep that to himself. But it was hard because anyone who was a viewer or anyone outside of a very small circle didn't know that either one of us were getting divorced."
Holmes noted that the "pictures that outed us" were taken of him leaving the apartment he moved to after he split from Fiebig. "I [had] been residing by myself since last summer. So the picture that shows me that they're saying these two are cheating, the picture actually confirms that I was out of my marriage because I'm coming out of a building, which is not where I shared a home with my ex-wife now," he said.
Amy and T.J. Were Like Siblings Before Their Romance
Robach and Holmes started working together at ABC in 2014, teaming up for the third hour of GMA in 2020.
"They used to call us brother, sister. ... Peas in the pod and all this stuff," Holmes said. "When they would make any kind of joke about, 'What's going on with you two,' we would almost go, 'Ew. It's like my sister.' But even now, I catch you, every once in a while you'll say, 'Honey,' or something [and I'll say], 'That's just so weird,' because we were friends for so long. I mean, truly, genuinely friends for a long, long time. ... I've gone through some troubles, personal trouble over the past several years that you helped me out of that."
Welfare Check
Robach feared for Holmes when she got a text from him on December 1, 2022, which read, "You were the love of my life. I’m so sorry this has happened.”
“I texted back and I said, ‘You’re scaring me. Please tell me you’re OK.’ No response. I call. He doesn’t answer. I FaceTime him. He doesn’t answer his FaceTime," she recalled. "He’s not answering anybody.”
When Robach did a "wellness check" on Holmes, she learned he had been "pounding vodka" and took “who knows how many weed edibles."
"I remember going down the hall, opening the door … and I saw you and you were just splayed out on your bed,” she explained. “I said, ‘T.J.’ and you didn’t move. And I remember it was the most awful thing having to touch your body to see if you were warm. I was so afraid. You were just incoherent.”
Why Amy and T.J. Originally Went Back to Work
GMA3 viewers may recall Robach was off the day the scandal broke (November 30, 2022), but she reunited with Holmes on air on December 1, 2022, and December 2, 2022. On the podcast, they recalled spending that weekend talking to reporters off record to share their side of the story. While they thought they were successful in burying the news, ABC called them on December 5, 2022, to inform them that they were temporarily pulling them from the air.
"I said, 'Oh, please, no, please,'" Robach said. "I mean, I was begging, [saying], 'If you do this, this is going to create a whole new round of articles. ... Please don't do this.' And I did ask, I said, 'If you're going to make an announcement to the rest of our colleagues, can you please at least acknowledge that we have not violated company policy?' And that was the compromise that I reached. But I was sick to my stomach because we knew what was coming once that announcement was made."
Robach and Holmes never returned to GMA3, with the network announcing their official exit that January.
"We lost those dream jobs. And how in the hell can I sit here and a year later say I'm in a better place than I was? That seems impossible, but it's the truth," Holmes concluded.
