Former GMA3 stars Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes have finally explained what happened earlier this year after the two were fired by ABC after their romantic affair was leaked to the press.
The lovebirds broke down the saga on Tuesday in the inaugural episode of Amy & T.J., their new podcast on iHeartMedia. Robach confessed that the pair had gone through “a year of hell” since photos of the them getting cozy appeared in the Daily Mail, but Holmes said it was a worthy price to pay for love.
“The best way to sum us up, Amy and T.J., is that we’re the folks who lost the jobs we love because we love each other,” Holmes said.
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Robach and Holmes outlined how they had planned to inform ABC brass about their relationship after they settled their respective divorces, but their timetable was accelerated by the tabloid photos. “We had every intention of doing it and we didn’t believe, and I don't think we still do believe, we were doing anything technically wrong,” Robach said.
“If we’d have put out statements about divorces, and then people found out we were dating, they would raise some eyebrows and go, ‘Oh, okay, that’s still an interesting topic,’” Holmes said. “But doing it this way, the story became mainstream when they’re able to say ‘Morning Show Stars Suspended.’ That’s now a major story given the brand we were attached to. That’s a big, big deal, and we knew that that was going to be a big deal.”
ABC first suspended the hosts after photos of their weekend getaway were published in the Daily Mail last year, though the network later negotiated an exit for both hosts following a multi-week international news cycle. “After several productive conversations with Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes about different options, we all agreed it’s best for everyone that they move on from ABC News,” an ABC spokesperson told The Daily Beast at the time.
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“We each got a phone call from our bosses saying that they had made the decision—and they made it again a point to say we hadn't violated any company policy—but because we had become a distraction that they thought it would be best if they temporarily took us off the air to let things quiet down,” Robach recalled.
“That was the morning we knew we would not be going back to that network,” Holmes said. “We knew that phone call sealed it, because you can’t come back from that.”
The two later retreated from public life up until the podcast’s announcement last month. iHeartMedia promised the two would “get behind the microphone to explore meaningful conversations about current events, pop culture, and everything in between,” according to the announcement. “Nothing is off limits.”
The two hoped the story would eventually dissipate, but they realized in hindsight that their jobs with ABC News and Good Morning America—and the headlines their romance would generate—would make the news go mainstream.
“In that world, affiliated with the show we were affiliated, that’s just a sexy freakin’ story,” Holmes said.
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