During a public edition of their podcast, Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes opened up about their relationship, divorces, and the fallout.
The former Good Morning America and GMA3 stars indicated they dealt with “private shame” as part of the situation.
Their relationship became public in November 2022 as they were still working with ABC as co-hosts of the GMA3 program on weekdays.
However, there were constant headlines about what some deemed a scandalous affair between the coworkers.
ABC eventually terminated Robach and Holmes, but the headlines didn’t stop, and they still had divorces to settle or finalize.
The couple recently spoke to an audience about their experiences of embarrassment and shame during the drama associated with their situations.
Holmes and Robach talk about ‘private shame’ during their divorces
Robach and Holmes took their Amy & T.J. podcast public as they recently did a live event at Soho House in Lower Manhattan, New York.
Among the topics during their discussion was “falling in love” and still presenting a particular image of being married to other people as they worked at ABC and as GMA3 co-hosts.
“We weren’t exposed for being together, we were exposed, initially, for not actually living the lives we were portraying to the world,” Amy Robach said, adding, “Because we weren’t living those lives we were showing everyone, we weren’t able to actually expose our relationship.”
Holmes mentioned that he and Robach each have two failed marriages now and experienced “shame” during their most recent divorces.
“Between the two of us sitting on this stage, there are now four divorces,” Holmes shared during their June 10 podcast, adding, “This is where the private shame comes in. We had very perfect-looking families and perfect-looking lives, and we were guilty at times of putting out an image of our lives that we knew was not true.”
Robach and Holmes continued to present different images to the public about their lives
Ahead of their relationship becoming public, Robach and Holmes were both experiencing failed marriages and preparing for divorce. They’ve previously indicated that when their relationship became public, they were both in the process of getting divorced.
Holmes was in his second marriage to Marilee Fiebig, while Robach was in her second marriage to Andrew Shue.
Robach mentioned that despite being in a failed marriage, she still presented to the world that everything was going wonderful. However, she admitted that wasn’t true in her reality.
Robach said she became “afraid” when a friend texted her about not seeing many pictures of her with Andrew Shue, now her ex-husband. To keep the perception going that she was still happily married, she admitted she shared a photo from Greece in July 2022 to make it seem “like a rosy picture of a beautiful marriage.”
“I didn’t want anyone to think anything was wrong, so I posted that picture,” Robach admitted.
“The problem is, everything was wrong. When I posted that picture, I was almost sure my marriage was over. But I didn’t want anyone to know,” she said about her since-deleted Instagram image.
Holmes also revealed that he didn’t want anyone to know he had another failed marriage and continued wearing his wedding ring on TV to keep the image going.
However, they eventually had to face reality after things became public in November 2022, leading to the loss of their jobs and their attempts to stay out of the public eye amid continuing headlines.
They eventually launched their Amy & T.J. podcast with iHeartRadio in late 2023 to present their story to the world.
Robach and Holmes continue dating and parenting after their second divorces
Both Robach and Holmes have since finalized their second divorces. Robach and Shue’s divorce was finalized in March 2023, while Holmes and Fiebig’s divorce was finalized in October 2023.
Ironically, Shue and Fiebig began dating and have continued to do so after bonding through their shared experiences of failed marriages and getting divorced.
As Robach and Holmes continue dating, they each have several children from their previous marriages or relationships.
Amy is mother to daughters Ava and Annie from her first marriage to Tim McIntosh. Holmes shares daughter Sabine with Fiebig. He also has a daughter, Brianna, and a son, Jaiden, from his first marriage to Amy Ferson.
While Holmes said the “private shame is done,” he also admitted that he and Robach “still have some work to do” to deal with how they experience “public shaming” and feeling “hated” or “despised” when they’re out.