How GMA hosts Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes’ romantic scandal happened
It may be the happiest problem that Bob Iger, newly-reinstated president of ABC’s parent company Disney, will face as he retakes the reins of the conglomerate and its top-rated cash cow “Good Morning America.”
Two of “GMA”‘s most dependable — and, until recently, very married to other people — star anchors, Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes, are drawing even more attention to the No. 1 morning show as a result of their bombshell secret romance.
Insider say the affair, revealed this past week in a series of photos showing the pair canoodling in a Lincoln Center-area bar and at a cozy rented cabin upstate, is translating into what one source called “ratings gold” for the show.
Word is that Robach and Holmes, both 49, who began co-hosting “GMA 3” together in 2020, won’t be disciplined for carrying on behind the scenes — at least so far. And they are not planning to end their relationship any time soon. TMZ reported Saturday that sources close to the couple said they are planning to continue with their relationship.
The drama could get messier though. Multiple sources told Page Six Friday that Holmes — who has been wed to Marilee Fiebig since 2010 — had an alleged three-year affair with a married producer at “GMA,” Natasha Singh beginning in 2016.
Holmes and the producer both confided in mutual friend Robach as they tried to figure out how to leave their spouses.
“Amy was the person they went to talk about their affair and marriages,” according to one insider.
As rumors swirled about Holmes and Robach, another source said, “Marilee never considered Amy because she was focused on Natasha. She never thought about [Holmes cheating] with Amy because they were friends. Amy’s daughter was their daughter’s babysitter.”
Holmes reportedly ended the affair and started working with Fiebig to reconcile their marriage throughout the pandemic. Robach remained friends with Singh and it angered Fiebig because “she would see photos of them on Instagram and she didn’t understand how their friend and her husband’s co-host could remain friends with the woman who tried to break up their marriage,” the first source said.
All that is apparently in the past for Holmes and Robach. The two came to work unapologetically last week after the news broke. They omitted any mention of the scandal during Thursday and Friday’s shows — privately proclaiming that the affair began after the two shed their respective spouses.
“They’re not ashamed. They’re two consenting adults who ended up loving each other,” one ABC source told Page Six.
In fact, the two giggled together on set Thursday prior to baking holiday cookies with chef Caroline Schiff, with Robach happily announcing, “It’s Friday eve!” Robach looked carefree when photographed returning to her Manhattan apartment solo after Friday’s show.
However, insiders say there has been collateral damage in the form of the spouses left behind. Robach married former “Melrose Place” star Andrew Shue in 2010, the same year T.J. Holmes tied the knot with immigration lawyer Fiebig.
A staffer at “GMA” told Page Six that Holmes and Fiebig had been separated for six months but were trying to “work things out” when news of his romance with Robach broke Wednesday.
“She’s devastated. She had no idea,” the source said. “They haven’t been together in [a while], but they were trying to work it out.
“They were just together for T.J.’s birthday,” which was Aug. 19.
The source notes that while Fiebig hasn’t been wearing her wedding ring, the now-estranged couple was attempting to reconcile.
Shue, for his part, wiped Robach off all his social media accounts.
Robach and Holmes reportedly may have been romantically intertwined since at least March, when they were training for the New York City marathon. Sources told The Post on Thursday that Robach and the “Melrose Place” alum’s divorce is nearly finalized.
“He moved out earlier this summer,” one source shared. “They’ve constantly had problems over the years, and they finally broke up.”
Just one year ago, though, in a joint December 2021 interview with Robach on “The View,” Shue gushed about his wife and the success of their marriage and mutual step-parenting. The appearance was pegged to a children’s book they authored, “Better Together.”
“This is our greatest achievement because it is not easy,” Shue said at the time about their marriage. “Anybody who’s blended a family knows that when you’re bringing together different parenting styles it is very hard.”
Robach has two daughters, Ava and Analise, with ex-husband Tim McIntosh, while Shue shares sons Nate, Aidan, and Wyatt with his ex-wife, Jennifer Hageney. Shue said blending their families was challenging but rewarding.
“I give Amy all the credit for really sticking with it because there were a lot of times where I was kind of the problem in figuring out how to create a playbook together,” he explained during the interview. “I resisted. It’s tough to have two playbooks. You have to have one playbook. And when you’re married for the first time, it’s obvious you have one playbook. And Amy has brought so much to my boys, discipline, and love. It’s really been a journey.”
Robach was equally rhapsodic about her then-husband in response.
“Andrew’s being very selfless there,” Robach said. “He brought so much love and structure and joy and heart to our family as well, and so the two of us made decisions to get on the same page. But it was not easy, and sometimes it still isn’t easy. It’s not that we’ve figured it out. We’re just trying to work together, that’s the whole point.”
Holmes and Robach have reportedly been very friendly since he joined the GMA team in 2014. Robach previously told People that she was thrilled when execs decided to pair them on “GMA 3.”
“[They] said, ‘Hey, we want to bring on a co-anchor. What do you think of T.J. Holmes?’ And I almost fell out of my chair,” Robach said.
“My God. You couldn’t have picked a better person to ask me what I thought of, because we’ve been trying to figure out a way to work together for literally the last five years.”
Robach also detailed to People how she and Shue double-dated in the early years with Holmes and Fiebig.
“The moment he started at ABC, I think we just clicked,” she said. “We’ve gone on tons of double dates with our spouses and my daughters babysit his daughters.”
The two couples’ closeness is slightly reminiscent of former CNN head Jeff Zucker’s once-secret affair with his then-colleague Allison Gollust, a 10-year relationship that began while Zucker and his wife and Gollust and her husband lived in the same Manhattan apartment building. It led to their respective divorces as well as their mutual downfall at CNN.
Meanwhile, Mika Brzezinski and her now-husband Joe Scarborough, the co-anchors of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” reportedly began an affair while they were both married to others but somehow escaped scandal.
“Everyone knew, I mean everyone,” a former NBC News staffer said of Brzezinski and Scarborough’s initially illicit romance. “But somehow it never turned into an issue.”‘
Robach has experience weathering storms both on and off camera. Born in Michigan and raised in Georgia, Robach began working at a local station in Charleston, SC and moved to WTTG in Washington before methodically moving up the ladder of cable and network news. A stint at MSNBC in 2003 led to the “Weekend Today” anchor job at NBC News. She left for “Good Morning America” in 2012.
In 2019 she was caught in a hot mic moment when complaining about how ABC allegedly “quashed” her exclusive coverage of the Jeffrey Epstein sex scandal before it exploded years later.
In 2013, she found out she had Stage 2 cancer in both breasts and lymph nodes. She underwent a double mastectomy and said at the time that doctors had caught the cancer.
Robach said last year that she credited a keto diet and intermittent fasting with maintaining her health. Her lookalike mother, Joanie, has a blog devoted to keto recipes called MyKetoHome that were inspired by her daughter’s illness.
As for her current paramour, Holmes, he has always sounded confident to tough out any scandal.
If his affair with Robach doesn’t work out, he probably won’t worry about finding someone new.
When his “GMA” co-host Sara Haines asked him in 2015 about what he uses for pickup lines, Holmes looked momentarily puzzled.
“I don’t need pickup lines, are you kidding me?” he said. “I say … ‘Hi.’ That’s my line.”
