Amy Robach recalled a horrific tragedy that affected her years ago, resulting in the loss of a loved one’s life.
It left her feeling a “little nervous” about the Fourth of July holiday and celebrating its associated traditions.
Amy shared the details of her family’s past incident during a new podcast episode with her boyfriend, T.J. Holmes.
The couple regularly discusses personal topics about their lives and relationship ups and downs on the iHeartRadio podcast.
That included conversations about their former employer, ABC News, and their loss of jobs at the network after their secret relationship was outed.
In early July, they released their latest episode, which discussed the big holiday and what they remembered from their past celebrations.
Amy and T.J. discussed their different Fourth of July celebrations from the past
On Wednesday, a shorter Amy and T.J. podcast episode than usual arrived online. In it, the hosts discussed the upcoming holiday, various traditions, and memories.
T.J. said he’d never realized that people tried to bring red, white, and blue desserts to parties or gatherings. Since he wasn’t familiar with jello casserole, he also asked Amy what it was, and she described the sometimes hodgepodge dessert to him.
Discussing her earlier holiday celebrations, Amy recalled living on a cul-de-sac in a neighborhood in St. Louis, Missouri, where the entire street would get together for a barbecue.
She remembered how there was a “kiddie pool” or other water since it was hot and that her mother allowed her to drink “unlimited amounts of grape and orange soda.”
She said the main dishes included hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken, and drumsticks.
T.J. recalled how it was a “huge” holiday for his family since his granddad owned a barbecue restaurant.
However, he said he never remembered having any hamburgers or hot dogs.
“It was ribs, ribs, ribs, ribs, pork, full pork, full pork all the time,” he said, and Amy mentioned his family is full of “grill masters.”
Amy recalled a horrific incident from the Fourth of July when she was younger
“I’m about to Debbie Downer you,” Amy said at one point in the podcast, adding, “All of those traditions kind of fell off because of one Fourth of July.”
She shared that when she was 14, her parents and her uncle got struck by lightning during the holiday, and it “changed the Fourth of July” for her family.
Amy said, “It was a very traumatic thing,” which has left her “a little nervous” about the holiday and thunderstorms ever since.
She revealed that her mom spent weeks in the hospital, and her dad had to have CPR performed on him and was in the ICU.
She shared that her “uncle Jack ultimately died” as he’d been up against the tree that got struck by lightning, and he “just crumbled.”
“So yes, lightning kills, and Fourth of July is one of those holidays where everybody’s out and about, and it tends to be a thunderstorm-heavy holiday,” Amy said.
She indicated that she had not been in the country on the holiday for “many, many years” because she developed a habit of traveling for it each year.
Amy said that the tradition of traveling out of the country will continue with her daughters this year.
She shared that she would spend this year’s holiday with T.J. and his daughter, Sabine, in the country. The couple said that they were looking at watching a fireworks display in New York or elsewhere.
“We just want everyone to have a happy Fourth of July,” Amy said after discussing safety advice.