T.J. Holmes ‘walked the streets,’ slept on bench during ‘awful’ depression before Amy Robach romance

tv set

by Caroline Blair

TJ Holmes has reflected on the “darkest” time he went through before Amy Robach “saved” his life.

In Monday’s episode “Amy & TJ” PodcastThe co-workers-turned-lovers revealed how their previous careers as broadcast journalists on “GMA 3” took a “great toll” on their health.

Holmes recalled working with Robatch on the news, health and lifestyle show in the summer of 2020, and acknowledged that while it was one of the peaks of her career, it was also “probably the darkest days” of her adult life.

“I had suicidal thoughts, I was abusing alcohol. I didn’t realise how bad things had gotten,” Holmes, 46, said, adding that she had been diagnosed with “moderately severe depression” in 2015.

Holmes, who was married to Marilee Fiebig at the time, admitted that when he memorized the “5.2-mile walk from my downtown home to the ABC offices” on New York City’s Upper West Side, he found it “pretty awful.”

“I was going back and forth a lot in the middle of the night because I didn’t want to go home, and I was just walking down the street,” he recalled.

“There’s a bench on 14th Street, just west of Union Square, and I actually slept there one night. I was the most fashionable homeless person you’ve ever seen,” he said with a laugh.

Ms Holmes reiterated how “terrible” the period was for her but said she eventually got better after going into the office to work with Mr Robacci, 51.

“She sees me getting worse. She sees me not getting help. She sees me differently than anybody else. It became a question of me leaving the house to go to the studio, but what I was really feeling was leaving the house and coming home. That was Amy Robach,” he continued.

The broadcast journalist explained that working with Robacci on the show helped him with his depression because “she never allowed me to get away with anything.”

“This is no exaggeration. I’m so grateful to her for literally saving my life,” he said.

Robatch took a few deep breaths and then said, [his] The two became “best friends for life” and eventually became a couple.

“I knew you were struggling, and sometimes you just need a friend,” Robatch said.

Meanwhile, Lovac also reflected on her health journey over the years and how her job “almost killed” her: In the space of two years, she had heart surgery and was diagnosed with breast cancer, which she said was “definitely caused by stress”.

“It doesn’t seem like a coincidence that I had heart surgery and breast cancer, two years apart, while working 90-hour weeks with the pressures of network news,” she said.

However, Robach later said that ABC News [her] She was canceled from “GMA Life” twice: first in 2013, when an on-air mammogram revealed she had stage 2 breast cancer, and again in 2020, when Holmes was tapped to co-anchor “GMA 3.”

“That day, I got to stand on this stage with all of you, with the love of my life, and I got a second chance at life,” she said.

Mr Robatch, who has worked in broadcasting since 1995, previously admitted he “doesn’t look back nostalgically” on working in the industry since being fired in January 2023 over his romantic relationship with Holmes.

“I realized I never wanted to go back to morning TV,” she says. He said during a January podcast episode.

While Holmes and Robach have expressed happiness in their current lives, they have spoken openly about their mental health after their controversial relationship made headlines in November 2022.

“There were days when I wanted to die. It was something I’d never experienced in my life. I didn’t want to get up. I didn’t want to see what new headlines were going to come out,” Robacci said in the December 2023 episode.

Ms Robatch also recalled that Holmes was going through a “dark” period and that she ended up “checking on his welfare”, eventually finding him “incoherent” and “lying” in bed.

“I basically did a vodka spree after work that day, didn’t take a break for a few hours and smoked who knows how many marijuana sticks,” he admitted.

After a rocky start, Holmes and Robach’s relationship has progressed and they are even talking about marriage.

If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 988, available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, or Suicide Prevention Lifeline.org.