Why does it feel like this news story is going to become a TV series?
If you’re a fan of Good Morning America, then this has likely been a very busy month for you. News that two co-hosts of the famed morning show, Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes, are romantically involved has been making headlines and raising eyebrows. In fact, it’s caused such a stir that Holmes and Robach deleted their social media, and have now been taken off the air.
If you haven’t been keeping up with the reports, the near-daily updates may seem overwhelming. We’re here to break down what’s going on with the T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach scandal, including a timeline of their relationship.
What we know about Holmes and Robach’s off-screen relationship
Holmes and Robach have been working together as co-hosts of the show GMA3: What You Need to Know since fall 2020. For several years, they delighted their audience with their on-screen chemistry — and two years later, rumors of their off-screen chemistry began to set the internet ablaze.
According to Page Six, the two became closer on a personal level last March, when they began training together for the New York City half marathon. Over the following months, they were spotted together in numerous locations all over the city — but no one thought much of it, since they were coworkers and marathon training buddies.
These meetups happened for several months without much notice from the mainstream media, until the Daily Mail published an article in November offering up apparent evidence of an affair between the co-anchors, which included a number of pictures of the two that had accumulated over the months. These pictures included photographs of the anchors leaving and entering each other’s apartments, as well as them taking a weekend trip at a cabin…together…without anyone else.
At the time the bombshell allegations dropped, both Robach and Holmes were married to other people — Robach to her husband of 12 years, actor Andrew Shue, and Holmes to his wife of 12 years, lawyer Marilee Fiebig. But that may not be the full story.
TJ Holmes reportedly dated a producer before Amy Robach
Reports are now indicating that Robach was not the first coworker with whom Holmes had an affair. Page Six reports that, beginning in 2016 when he was a GMA correspondent, Holmes had an affair with a producer on the show who was also married at the time. In 2018, the producer took a job with a new show. Holmes reportedly ended the affair a year later when his wife found out and they attempted to reconcile.
Were TJ Holmes and Amy Robach having an affair?
Since the allegations of the off-screen romance between the GMA hosts broke, subsequent news reports have suggested that both officially split with their spouses earlier this year. A representative for Holmes and Robach said, “This relationship started over the past few months, after they separated from their respective spouses in August. They had not told anyone, even at ABC, because they were waiting until they both were divorced.”
This complicates the timeline of Robach and Holmes’s relationship even further. Could you call it an “affair,” or were the two simply dating after their marriages had privately ended?
Neither Robach nor Holmes has explicitly confirmed or denied the status of their relationship. However, Robach recently gave a Daily Mail reporter the most direct acknowledgment of the relationship she’s provided so far — which isn’t much.
“It’s been great,” she said when asked if she had anything to say about the Daily Mail report. “I’ve gotten a lot of support. And, you know, I appreciate everything, and I’m happy to be going to work.”
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Robach will be doing on-air work for the time being.
Why Amy Robach and TJ Holmes have been placed on hiatus
An alleged affair between coworkers is usually fodder for gossip — but when they happen to be some of the most famous news anchors working today, and when both are still technically married, the interest reaches another level.
It’s understandable that there’s so much curiosity about what’s taking place behind closed doors. What was initially less clear, though, was if the anchors actually broke a workplace rule by engaging in a relationship.
It seems that even the executives at ABC News are torn about how to answer this question.
Earlier this week, ABC News President Kimberly Godwin answered that question during meeting with employees. She said that no rule had been broken by the anchors, but did acknowledge that news of their relationship had “become an internal and an external distraction,” the Washington Post reports.
Because of this apparent distraction, Godwin said, ABC management had decided to take both anchors off the air and put them on indefinite hiatus.
According to a source who attended the meeting, Godwin explained, “These decisions are not easy, they’re not knee-jerk, but they are necessary for the brand and for our priority which, you guys know, are all of us — the people here at ABC.”
It appears that those sentiments have since changed. Now, ABC is conducting an investigation into Robach and Holme’s relationship to see if they did, in fact, violate any company policies. For example, if they pressured other coworkers to keep their relationship a secret, or if they used company cars or resources to visit one another in secret.
In the meantime, the anchors have been replaced by Stephanie Ramos and Gio Benitez — which some are saying is a less-than-smart move for ratings, seeing as how curious many Americans are to see Robach and Holmes interact with one another on screen. In fact, GMA3 saw a massive ratings jump after news of Robach and Holmes’ relationship started to spread. It’s not clear what’s going to happen to the anchors professionally. Godwin did not say how long Holmes and Robach would be off the air, whether they would lose pay, or if they’ll return.
Holmes and Robach haven’t commented on the situation directly, but late last week, they did appear to offer up some on-air commentary as the news of their reported relationship swirled. “It’s been a great week,” Holmes said the Friday after the Daily Mail photos were published. “I just want it to keep going, and going, and going. Just enjoy it.”
