T.J. Holmes regrets recording his tense argument with Amy Robach, citing backlash created by racial stigmas.
“I flat out said to both [Amy and our producer] right there on the phone at 4:30 in the morning that I don’t want to put this out because this is going to I fear be viewed as a Black man beating up on a white woman,” Holmes, 46, said on the Thursday, January 25, episode the “Amy and T.J.” podcast. “Now, if anybody took their time and listened to that podcast, obviously I was not yelling, screaming. I wasn’t doing anything. Now, we are a couple who’s having a disagreement, so obviously neither one of us are having our best moments.”
Holmes pointed out that the Tuesday, January 23, episode was recorded in their apartment instead of their studio because they wanted to offer an authentic look into their issues, which included Robach crying at various points in the conversation.
Robach acknowledged that after listening to the episode, which documented their fight about their communication styles, her emotional reaction was in sharp contrast to Holmes’ more calm approach.
“That would never have crossed my mind. Race, the fact that you’re Black and I’m white, would never have crossed my mind, and that’s kind of to your point,” she explained on Thursday. “You have to think about things that I don’t have to think about. And honestly, it took me a second to kind of wrap my head around it. Once you explained it — and once we’ve seen the reaction, a lightbulb went off for me, in a way. And it’s just a constant learning curve. But, and I’ve said this the whole time, I don’t know what I don’t know, and every day I learn more about what I don’t know.”
Robach also slammed concerns from listeners that claimed she and Holmes are in an “unhealthy” relationship, saying, “I have never had more respectful disagreements with anyone in my life than I have with you.”
The pair launched their podcast in December 2023, one year after they made headlines for getting cozy outside of the office on numerous occasions. At the time, Robach had been married to Andrew Shue since 2010, and Holmes had been married to Marilee Fiebig since 2010. They both filed for divorce after their relationship was exposed in November 2022.
“To be clear, we were outed as being in a relationship, but everyone else thought we were being outed as adulterers — being outed as cheating on our spouses — and it wasn’t the case because the odd thing is, the day those pictures were taken and the day that article was released, we both at that point were in divorce proceedings,” Holmes said during the debut episode of his and Robach’s podcast in December 2023.
Holmes and Robach have since been using their platform to offer a candid look into their personal lives. After their recent on-air argument made headlines, Holmes and Robach confirmed that they were able to work on their differences.
“We just wanted to check in and let you know that, despite what you’ve been hearing, we are still together,” Holmes said in an Instagram video, which was uploaded on Tuesday. “We’re hearing from a lot of you all on our latest episode of the podcast. It was something we really struggled and debated about whether or not we should even put out there — but at this point I’m glad we did.”
Robach defended their decision to air out their issues, saying, “Our larger goal in putting out our latest episode was to show that, yes, we like to show pictures of us smiling like everyone else and laughing on social media, but if we want to be real and we want to be transparent, we wanted to show all the sides of us and I would say most relationships. So we hope that all you get something out of it and we hope you keep coming back.”
