T.J. Holmes explained why he worries so much about being apart from girlfriend Amy Robach when she travels without him.
During the Friday, April 12, episode of their “Amy and T.J.” podcast, Robach, 51, discussed her plans to visit her older daughter in Germany.
“We are about to be apart for the first time in a long time for a couple of days,” Robach, who shares daughters Ava, 21, and Annalise, 17, with ex-husband Tim McIntosh, said.
Holmes, 46, initially joked that he wouldn’t mind the distance between them, adding, “Everybody needs a break. Sometimes you don’t realize you need a break. … I said maybe. I didn’t say I would like or that I want. I didn’t say we need[ed] it. I said maybe. I don’t have a hand in us being apart.”
After Robach asked what Holmes had planned for the four days she would be gone, he admitted that he wasn’t sure whether he would enjoy being separated for that long.
“I am guessing [be in the] fetal position for several days,” he quipped before getting more honest. “I will be worried about you traveling.”
Holmes noted that he is always concerned when Robach is away.
“I have said this to you plenty of times. I get not pissed [but] really frustrated when we are apart in traveling apart. We have been through so much together,” he explained. “[Now] I always get an anxiety and a fear that if we are not together then I’m not there with you to protect you or help you. I just don’t like being apart from you.”
He added: “I do get anxiety that something is going to happen and after all that we have gone through I freak out about that.”
In response, Robach made a joke about Holmes “not missing” her, to which he replied, “It is not a matter of missing you. I miss you when you go to the bathroom. I hate when we travel apart for long periods of time.”
Holmes and Robach often use their joint podcast as a platform to offer a candid look into their personal lives. The couple initially made headlines in November 2022 when photos surfaced of them getting cozy outside of the office despite being married to other people.
That same month, Holmes filed for divorce from Marilee Fiebig after more than a decade of marriage. Robach also ended her marriage to Andrew Shue, whom she married in 2010. Us Weekly broke the news in January 2023 that Robach and Holmes were officially axed from ABC, and the network later confirmed their departure from GMA3.
Holmes and Robach initially remained tight-lipped about the scandal. They broke their silence in December 2023 with the release of their podcast, which allowed them to tell their side of the story.
“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.
Robach also defended her romance with Holmes, sharing, “We had attorneys, mediators, we were in the middle of divorces. We thought we were protecting our children and our families and we thought we had time and we thought we had a right to privacy and maybe that was foolish and silly.”