On a new podcast, the couple is speaking out on the scandal that cost them their jobs.
Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes are setting the record straight, explaining the timeline of their relationship and the explosive scandal that cost them their jobs at Good Morning America's GMA3.
The couple and former co-anchors launched their tell-all iHeartRadio podcast, Amy & T.J., on Tuesday, detailing their side of their romance and public fallout in late 2022. In a full-circle moment, the pair dropped their first episode on Dec. 5, the one-year anniversary of the day they were suspended from their roles on the ABC morning show.
"Nov. 30, 2022 was the day that we were, and this is very important, we were outed," Holmes explained on the podcast.
"We were not caught," Robach echoed.
"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," Holmes said.
At the time, the couple's private romance was leaked while they were still legally married but privately separated from their respective spouses. Robach finalized her divorce from Andrew Shue in March, and Holmes settled his divorce from Marilee Fiebig in October.
Robach shares two daughters with her ex-husband, Tim McIntosh, whom she divorced in 2009. Holmes shares Sabine with Fiebig.
"We had attorneys, mediators, we were in the middle of divorces," Robach shared on the podcast.
The pair said that they were unknowingly followed by a photographer with the first images being taken on Nov. 10, 2022 outside Holmes' New York City apartment.
"That home is where I reside by myself, and I have been residing by myself since last summer," Holmes explained. "So the picture that shows me that they're saying, 'These two are cheating,' the picture actually confirms I was out of my marriage because I'm coming out of a building which is not where I shared a home with my ex-wife."
For her part, Robach said that her ex-husband had moved out of their house "months before" news of the relationship broke and that she was in the process of moving into a new apartment with her 16-year-old daughter at the time.
While Holmes and Robach have long been close friends and colleagues, they insist that their relationship did not turn romantic until after their respective splits and that they expected to bring their relationship public after the ink was dry on their divorce papers.
"We had a plan," Robach shared. "Once we became a couple and we were in a relationship, and I want to point out that happened after we left our marriages, we had a plan to get our divorces finalized, to get them agreed upon and signed and filed, and we thought the timeline was going to be around the end of the year."
She continued, "So we thought in January, we're gonna go and walk in and explain to management that we are a couple and how should we figure this out."
Robach and Holmes said that they considered bringing the relationship to light sooner, but were attempting to protect their children and families while navigating a new normal.
"I was still trying to get [daughter Sabine] adjusted to her new reality of her parents not being together, and I'd been working on that for the last three or four months," Holmes said. "So I didn't want to spring on her that early that, 'Oh, yeah, by the way, you know that Amy Robach? Who, actually, you've known her since you were one? That's actually a part of the -- well, I'm dating her now.' I didn't want to do that to her at the time."
While Robach said that her personal friends and acquaintances were well aware of her own divorce -- and that she had stopped wearing her wedding ring in public -- Holmes had kept the news of his separation more closely guarded.
"I hadn't even told my mom about the divorce," Holmes admitted. "So why the hell am I thinking about telling an executive at the network about it?"
Robach did say that, even today, she is "still apologizing" to her own daughters for allowing them to learn about the situation through tabloid coverage rather than discussing it with them earlier.
Tuesday's podcast marks the first time Holmes and Robach have spoken publicly about their circumstances. In retrospect, there are things they say they could have handled differently amid the public crisis.
"We were trying to make the best call we could but we shouldn't have allowed, I can say that in hindsight, for folks to find out about our relationship before they found out about our divorces," Holmes said. "If people would have heard earlier that, 'They're out of their relationship, now they're dating,' maybe an eyebrow would have been raised or something, but it wouldn't have become what it became."
He added that they "failed at being good crisis managers" and at "understanding some level of celebrity that neither one of us thought we had."
In the wake of their ouster from GMA, Robach said that -- aside from Holmes -- there's been just one former co-worker who has consistently kept in touch with her as a pillar of support.
"One of the people who just started texting and wouldn't stop texting me, even when I didn't respond -- Sara Haines," Robach acknowledged. "She was an absolute pleasure, she said, 'I'm gonna keep texting you. I'm gonna keep checking in on you no matter what.'"
Robach was deeply grateful for the gesture from her longtime friend, whom she has been close with for 15 years.
"Honestly, someone who still works at the network to keep checking in, to keep calling, to actually be seen in public with me, that is a statement," she continued. "That is something. That does show incredible support."
After dropping their podcast, a source tells ET that the Holmes and Robach have an eye on the future while putting the past to rest.
"Amy and T.J. aired everything out on their first episode in the hope they can finally reveal their side of the story, and set the record straight once and for all," the source said. "And they did so, in the best way they know how to, through storytelling. The two are ready to put the past in the past and look forward to their futures together both romantically and professionally."
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