As Amy Robach predicted, she and T.J. Holmes generated a new round of headlines Thursday after they talked on their podcast about being “heavy” drinkers, and Holmes admitted that he could easily consume 18 drinks in one day in the past year, following the backlash to their scandalous romance.
Holmes made this admission as the former “GMA3” hosts discussed their history of alcohol use, which both admitted had become quite “heavy” — per standard health guidelines — over the past decade or so. The purpose of Thursday’s “Amy and T.J. Podcast” episode, “On the Rocks,” was for each to share their efforts to stop drinking during Dry January, as Holmes admitted that he was trying to “re-examine” his relationship with alcohol.
While Robach and Holmes insisted they were being “honest” about their level of alcohol consumption, it’s hard to know whether they were being entirely forthcoming about whether their drinking had become an issue when they worked at ABC. The loved-up former co-anchors lost their high-profile jobs at the network when news broke that they had allegedly engaged in a secret affair while still married to other people.
Robach tried to make the point several times that neither she nor Holmes drank on the job. For example, Robach mentioned that they would go running and get beers after finishing their morning shifts at ABC, saying to Holmes, “You were responsible (at work) for being alert, and on your game. You obviously were not drinking… .”
It seemed that Robach was eager to put to rest allegations that they drank while working, allegations which surfaced in reports about their secret romance in late 2022 and early 2023. TMZ reported in January 2023 that Robach’s drinking became a factor when she and Holmes’ were in “contentious” talks with the network to negotiate their exit.
TMZ cited sources connected to ABC who said that Robach and Holmes were accused of “various forms of misconduct.” One accusation was that Robach had liquor in her dressing room, which was a violation of network policy, TMZ reported. Another is that Robach came to work “drunk” the day after she went to the College Football National Championship game the year before.
At the time, sources presumably speaking for Robach described these accusations as “ridiculous” and a “witch hunt,” TMZ said. A source said the liquor bottles in Robach’s dressing room were “sealed” and were gifts to on-air talent from network executives. A source also said Robach was simply “tired” the day she was accused of being drunk at work.
As for Holmes, his alcohol use was mentioned in reports about his alleged affairs with three other female colleagues at ABC after he began working at the network in 2014 and while he was married to attorney Marilee Fiebig. These women all held subordinate positions at the network. One of these woman, according to the Daily Mail, was a 24-year-old intern who began having sex with him in 2015, including in his office. As the Daily Mail reported, Holmes was drinking during his encounters with the young woman.
“Holmes was someone who would grab drinks and he and (the intern) started doing that,” a source told Daily Mail. The source, who also described Holmes as “a predator,” said these alleged sexual encounters took place in his office, with the source saying that Holmes would call her into his office, “where she saw him drinking liquor.”
Holmes engaged in “risky” and “incredibly reckless” behavior in other ways, the source said. On one occasion, the source said, Holmes and the intern were having drinks together when he “got handsy” in a very public place.
“He just didn’t seem to care,” the source said. “You know he’s wearing his ring. He has a wife, he has a relatively high-profile job, but he wasn’t acting like he was concerned about either of those things at the time.”
Neither Holmes nor a representative commented on this Daily Mail report at the time. Since he and Robach launched their podcast in early December, they have yet to address his other alleged workplace indiscretions. Thus far, their podcast has largely focused on giving fans their own insights into their relationship, including their sex life.
In their debut episode, Holmes briefly alluded to some personal “troubles” in recent years. But he said that discussions about those troubles, when he admitted he was in “bad shape,” would have to wait “for another episode.”
When discussing his drinking on Thursday’s episode, Holmes briefly delved into that period when he was in “bad shape.” He said he was diagnosed with mildly severe depression in 2015, failed to get proper treatment and coped by drinking. “It was the first time I started drinking to mask pain.” he said.
Holmes and Robach also said they wanted to be “honest” with their listeners about their drinking in order to encourage other people to rethink their alcohol use.
Robach said her drinking had become “heavy” over “the last decade for sure.” She revealed she was consuming “over 30 drinks per week,” a number she found “appalling.” According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heavy drinking is defined as consuming eight or more drinks per week. For men, it is typically defined as consuming 15 drinks or more per week.
Holmes admitted that he might tell his doctor that he was having “three to five drinks a day” but “that is such a lie.” Both described how their consumption grew during 2023, after they lost their high-profile TV gigs.
“I didn’t have a job to go to and I was away from a lot of friends and family. We were laying low. So what did I do? I drank a lot,” Robach explained. “A lot more than I ever have. I don’t think I have ever gone a full year where I drink every single day and that was 2023 for me.”
The former anchor noted that she wasn’t getting “wasted” or “drunk” every day but rather “keeping a buzz going all day or keeping a heightened state of mind during an anxious year.”
Holmes, meanwhile, explained how this downtime allowed him to consume up to 18 drinks per day. After Robach said that number seemed a bit high, Holmes explained how their running played a role in his heavy consumption. As Robach mentioned earlier, they would do “runs to fun,” where they would run several miles and end up “at a bar.”
“Now we will run at 8 or 9 in the morning …. and I come back and we have a beer,” Holmes explained, noting that due to the “runs to fun,” he would typically have “two drinks in” by lunchtime.
Then, during lunch, they would typically have at least two more drinks unless they had errands to run, he said. From there, Holmes said he could “easily have a drink in (his) hand from two in the afternoon until seven, eight, nine, ten at night.”
“So you do those numbers and that’s a drink an hour for another eight hours — or even less — but that is another eight hours of a drink in hand, plus the four I had during the day,” Holmes said.
In calculating his drinking, Holmes said he was following “official guidelines,” which say that one drink is one beer, a five-ounce glass of wine or one and a half ounces of liquor. Holmes said he wasn’t necessarily “pouring 18 drinks” but rather accounting for heavy pours.
In encouraging listeners to consider their relationship to alcohol, Holmes and Robach cited certain mental and physical health benefits they had already begun to notice since starting Dry January, including better sleep, more energy and the loss of a few pounds each. Both said they hadn’t experienced any withdrawal symptoms, and Holmes insisted he didn’t miss alcohol at all.
“I’m in a rhythm, where alcohol is not part of my life anymore,” he said. Robach, on the other hand, expressed a bit more ambivalence, saying she has missed having a drink at 5 p.m. She also said she “honestly” isn’t sure if she could have gone a month without alcohol on her own. “I don’t know if I would have felt comfortable, or I would have felt brave enough to say, I am 100% going cold turkey this month, if you hadn’t said I’m doing it and we can do it together.”
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