Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes love to overshare and say the most self-unaware things on their podcast “Amy & T.J.” This past week’s episode took kinda of a serious turn when the two co-hosts and lovaaahs talked about doing Dry January. During the discussion, they shared that they were doing it because they both had a very boozy year, with Amy confessing that she was probably drinking more than 30 drinks a week and T.J. – who’s mentioned his love of vodka on the pod before – sharing that he estimates that he was drinking as many as 18(!!!) drinks per day. They would start drinking in the morning and continue throughout the day. According to them, they never got fully drunk but rather maintained a buzz all day long. Amy also confessed that it was her first-ever Dry January and she was scared to do it without doing it with T.J.
Because people love to gossip, especially about things like infidelity and substance use, “sources” who knew the couple while they were still at Good Morning America spoke to Page Six to spill that their boozy relationship began while they were still working there. These sources also claim that their imbibing, which began when their workday ended mid-morning, was so prevalent that it was actually an “open secret.” Oh my.
Sources tell Page Six that early morning runs weren’t the only thing that brought Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes together. The couple’s penchant for booze was apparently an open secret among those who knew them best, insiders tell us. In fact, drinking at the bar after work brought them closer, we hear. The former “GMA3” anchors — who became a couple, and were then ousted from their ABC show — first started stepping out after getting off from their early mornings at work together.
“They’d have drinks all day after meetings,” a source says.
As morning hosts, their work days ended early, after all. One source describes Holmes — who recently revealed he was consuming up to 18 drinks a day last year — as being well-lubricated when he was socializing.
The lovers came clean about their need to be buzzed after leaving their ABC gigs, on the most recent episode of their new “Amy & T.J.” iHeart podcast. But they said that drinking as much as they did in 2023 was “an anomaly” — after their relationship was revealed, and they were out of their morning show gigs.
Robach said on their podcast of how much she imbibed during the difficult period: “That’s embarrassing to me, that’s not what I wish it were.”
She also blamed her alcohol habit on being unemployed. The former ABC host, 50, said she was having “over 30 drinks a week — but cautioned she wasn’t getting “wasted” or “drunk” every day, just “keeping a buzz going all day or keeping a heightened state of mind during an anxious year.”
The marathon-running pair revealed on the podcast that they loved what they dubbed “runs to fun” — when they’d hit the pavement only to end up at the bar, or with a drink at home, after their workouts.
Holmes, 46, said he was at times already “two drinks in” by lunchtime.
“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 added. “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.”
They drank so much that their December booze bill was a whopping $2,689, and that’s not counting their occasional physical runs to their local liquor store, they revealed. They’re now partaking in a Dry January, and they told podcast listeners they wanted to be honest about their relationship with booze to encourage them to do the same.
I don’t want to shame or snark on them for this because while they’re both drama queens, there’s nothing funny about substance abuse. That said, holy crap, $2,689 is a wild amount to spend on booze in one month. 18 drinks a day is also nuts. Wouldn’t that cause a daily hangover? How does one even think clearly with a constant buzz? I guess when you blow up your life to have an affair with your equally buzzed coworker, you’re not fully thinking clearly. My goodness, the first week of January must have been detox hell. I hope T.J. especially took precautions to safely go cold turkey after 18 drinks a day.
Honestly, it’s great that they’re doing Dry January and are aware that they need to reevaluate their relationship with alcohol. For a lot of people, just getting there is really hard. I also think it’s never a bad thing to raise public awareness on this issue. If they can reach even one person, it’s a good thing. Amy also spoke about drinking despite it raising the risk of her hormone-positive breast cancer recurring, saying that she’s adjusted all of the other health factors that her doctors recommended, but hasn’t quite gotten there with drinking because she, “[A]lways drink[s] to enhance joy.” That’s a major red flag. I truly wish them the best when it comes to getting their alcohol abuse under control. There are clearly outside factors there that led the both to drink that much. Hopefully, having a sober stretch leads them to address those underlying issues. They have the resources to get help. I hope they utilize them.
Photos via Instagram
I don’t know that outside factors are contributing to their drinking so much that they are people who drink and attribute it to all sorts of justifications. This is clearly one of the things that bind them together and I doubt the relationship would survive if only one of them quits drinking.
One or both. The relationship is clearly entirely about drinking. They found a toxic fuck buddy in each other. Even if they weren’t together, both should have been fired for drinking on the job. They both need rehab and extensive therapy.
People their age that are drinking that much are not going to have a happy ending.
I do not say this to be snarky, but this info explains a lot. I have been wondering how two such awful people could stand to be with someone equally awful and draining. But they are bonded by (seemingly severe alcohol problems) and gazing lovingly through beer goggles. They are gonna need serious therapy if they get sober and look at what they have done to their lives.
Has anyone ever worked at a place where drinking at work was acceptable? I’m US based and in the past I’ve attended happy hours after hours, but it was very much a one drink thing. Drinking at work just sounds insane and a huge HR risk?
It used to be. And entertainment and other creative industries can far more lax than most. Jobs where you get off work in the morning are odd. Used to work at a place where we’d cut through a hotel lobby when the weather was bad. There would usually be some people having a drink at the hotel bar after coming off the night shift from the hospital or labs nearby.
I used to work a graveyard shift and after work would, sometimes, go out for a steak and glass (or two) of wine. I certainly got a lot of looks from other diners working their way through there 2nd cup of coffee 🤣
I work in advertising and it’s common. Usually with excuses- drinks at lunch, beer taps in the office open at 3, that kind of thing. I’ve never partaken because it is so odd to me (I started my career in the legal field before switching to advertising).
“Mad Men” and the office boozing wasn’t too far off from reality.
I would like to point out that delirium tremens is a serious life threatening condition. It should be managed in the E.R.
Going cold turkey from quite a bit of alcohol is risky. Starting to get the shakes is a bad sign.
One of my friends said she interviewed for a humanities chair in Nevada, and three old coots interviewed her, and they offered her whiskey at 9am with the start of the interview. They already had their glasses going when she entered the room.
I just moved from banking to marketing at my large mortgage company job and wow, you’re not wrong. In the last month we’ve had 2 events DURING WORK HOURS where there were wristbands and a bar. I’m an alcoholic (2 years sober) so I don’t partake but it’s so off-putting to be honest, and I don’t feel involved with my team.
Where I live in Europe a glass of wine at lunch is totally the norm.
But one glass, not the whole bottle.
Yes, I think large part of Europe, at least those regions that are part of the Mediterranean culture, has a spcial tradition of one glass of wine for lunch, two if it’s outside of the working hours. Most of my collegaues and friends don’t drink any kind of alcohol during working hours; my collegaues from the coastal part of the country are prone to a glass of wine during lunch. But this is completely different. I truly don’t know how a person can stay functional after 18 drinks and claim they have no problem with alcohol.
I have not seen drinking on the job…but I have heard so MANY co-workers talking about drinking a bottle of wine each evening….I have come to believe that people believe that consuming wine does not say they have a drinking problem.
Because wine is seen at least in the U.S. as somehow a more sophisticated type of alcohol and also because it’s got a reputation as being heart healthy. “I’m not an alcoholic, I’m just getting my antioxidants in!”
I’ve worked several places where we drank at work or at lunch. Nonprofits and Start-ups sometimes have a drinking culture because many times there is a small number of employees and no HR or real oversight. I also bartended, and we drank copious amounts behind the bar.
I never have, but I work for the government so its a different set of rules/expectations.
But this sounds like they started drinking after they were done working? so they had their segment, then meetings, and then hit the bar? They probably justified it by saying it was like happy hour, just earlier bc their work hours were so different from a normal 9-5.
I’m a Chicago-based litigator and used to work at a really large firm. Since you’re working on weekends and staying until 11:00 during the week, most people there from the Partners on down to the junior associates would drink late at night. And not light stuff, like beer or even wine, but freaking scotch (barf). I left that life 10 years ago and have aged far better than my former co-workers. I remember in law school where they actually had one-day seminar towards the end of 3rd year, with all this information you were going to need out in the real world. Like paying your student loans, etc. But I distinctly remember the one of the FIRST things the speaker brought up was that every state bar has a hotline for alcoholic lawyers. I remember my classmates and I kind of laughed a little, like “uh, what??” Because we were studying our butts off for 3 years, most of the students didn’t really drink. But then they actually started practicing law, and well… that changed for alot of people, including my ex-fiance.
I remember that seminar too. I was wide eyed at the idea that lawyers had such a high rate of alcoholism. Then I worked at a large firm and was like yep, that tracks.
My ex boyfriend’s father was corporate litigation, owned his own firm with a partner. He started drinking at 10 am when he got to work screwdrivers or scotches and continued drinking until he drove drunk home at 4pm. He would be passed out by 730pm nightly. There were periods where he ended up in the hospital and or rehab due to drinking, but he always went back to it even after he nearly died a few times. He finally died of a heart attack at 71(he had a lot of money too and I mean tens of millions) so that was quite young for him to die. I ultimately left my ex because he became a hard core alcoholic too and to my knowledge, still is.
I’m not a lawyer, but was married to one. I taught school to put him through law school. Then he graduated and got a coveted spot with a large firm. A large firm with a drinking culture. I heard from other wives about the conference room that had folding doors at one end. At 5 o’clock those doors would be folded back to reveal a full bar setup, complete with an ice machine, a wine fridge, a beer fridge, and all the top brands of hard liquor. My husband began “dropping by” the firm happy hour, then he began staying later and later. Pretty soon the happy hour stretched into an evening poker game, after getting dinner delivered. Within a year of working there he was drinking steadily while bragging that he never touched the stuff until 5. He was getting home later and later and then he began an affair with one of the paralegals at the firm. I found out and divorced him. Our marriage only survived a year and a half at that firm where drinking was so much a part of the culture.
I also have friends in the banking industry of Canada who are heavy drinkers (I mean Bay Street types just like Wall Street). A girlfriend I know could drink double vodkas midday with no chaser like it is nothing.
I worked in advertising in the 80s and 90s and every Friday at 1pm, the booze cart came around. I don’t drink so it didn’t appeal to me but all I could think of is those who drank would drive home not long after.
While there’s a lot to snark on them about, I sincerely hope that they each address their issues related to drinking. Their dependence on a daily buzz is not a path I would wish on anyone.
I’m guessing they were unhappy people before they got together and who found each other because they had the same issues – trauma bonding and calling it love.They need serious help. That affair and relationship were symptoms not the problems. Sounds like functional alcoholism
Very astute chica. I agree. And I hope they get help.
Like I said in another website, what they are describing is functioning alcoholism. I would argue the reason they are unemployed was because of this alcoholism. If you’re drinking to stay buzzed all day and in an altered state, you’re drunk (pretty much) and you have a problematic relationship to alcohol. Buzzed = drunk.
Good on them to evaluate your relationship to the substance during Dry January. But I will say that will be rough on those who love them cus Dry Drunks are not pleasant people. And if you are coping with someone’s alcoholism, I highly recommend Al-Anon.
One month isn’t going to do it if they’re actually serious about making any kind of lifestyle change. Based on what they’re saying and describing, they both need some rehab.
These two just embody what everyone knew about morning shows being completely toxic. It’s like there were glimmers of things being bad, but they doubled down on the awfulness instead of cleaning things up.
This exactly. Way more serious than “oh we overdid it at our holiday parties-time to do dry January.” Both of them having functional alcoholism for at least a year is very problematic. What a mess.
I’m kind of surprised that they had no withdrawals? Like- none?? This is coming from an alcoholic who has been sober coming up on 18 years in 13 days! 🙂
But seriously, drinking 18 in one day for most of (if not) the entire year? Either they are lying about how much they drank, or they are still drinking. I was up to 8-10 a day when I quit and I definitely had major withdrawals – hands shaking, depressed, excessive sweating, insomnia, and the worst anxiety I’ve ever had.
Congrats on 18 years that is outstanding!
All the alcoholics in recovery in my life (quite a few family and friends) had similar experiences to yours, Marietta. Congrats on your upcoming birthday! I’m proud of you.
One doesn’t have to be a complete falling down mess, being ‘buzzed’ is drunk too.
18 drinks. Wow. I think he didn’t have hangovers because the alcohol never left his body.
I can’t understand how they could work and prepare for a marathon with day drinking habits. It seems those 2 just didn’t have any boundaries so their affair makes perfect sense.
Right? I cannot imagine drinking that much and then training for a marathon. I can’t even have a drink the night before I do a long run for a HALF marathon because it messes with me. Running hungover is the worst…. running any kind of distance while even a little buzzed would be challenging. I don’t know how they do it.
I’m surprised he didn’t need some kind of medical intervention to get off of alcohol if he was truly having 18 drinks a day.
Also, just thinking about early morning runs after boozing it up so much the day before just makes me want to throw up. The fact that they were capable of doing that just shows how accustomed to heavy alcohol intake their bodies were.
I wish them well in their dry January journey.
This ^^^. I’m a psychiatric nurse practitioner and alcohol and benzodiazepines are two substances that you can die from if you stop them abruptly. He really should have been medically detoxed if he was drinking that much daily.
The actor who played Lafayette on True Blood died from alcohol withdrawal. So sad.
@Rnot That is soo sooo sad. He was such a great actor.
Whew. These two are doomed. I kinda want them to stick together so as not to inflict there mess on another set of folks. I do hope they get healthy for their sake and their children.
Given the amount of alcohol both were consuming on a daily basis, I can only imagine how brutal their detox was and I wonder if they needed medical assistance to navigate it safely?
I don’t even drink that much water a day or week. I hope this opens their eyes and they can get sober together.
Cirrhosis has entered the chat
Yeah, saw a couple reruns of Dr last weekend. Cirrhosis is a nasty thing to court. Your liver is not happy when you drink heavily and doing it day after day, month after month just makes things SO much worse. It can create health problems that (unbeknownst to you) are cascading into bigger problems, all the while you’re telling people you’re having fun and keeping your buzz going.
My mother drank all day, every day, for decades, and while officially it was Covid that killed her, the booze had eaten through her bowels, again, to the extent that if Covid hadn’t killed her, that would have, moments later.
She always had a drink in front of her. Black coffee. Vodka on ice. Giant ashtray of cigarettes.
While drinking all day can creep up on people, I do hope that these two will listen to the horror with which these confessions are eliciting, because what they’re describing is alcoholism.
“Vodka makes me feel like Superman,” my mother used to say.
But like most addicts, what she left was a trail of ruined relationships. She could have been a fabulous person, if the booze hadn’t turned her into a nightmare version of herself.
I’m so sorry you had to experience that. A dear friend who had alcohol-related dementia when he died would say something similar. He wasn’t shy about revealing that he drank a quart of vodka every day. In fact, he was proud of it – like he had some special powers that kept him able to work on time, while thumbing his nose at doctors who kept predicting his death. He was an artist, very funny and highly intelligent, but at the end he left 2 ex-wives, a son who refused to ever see him, and a handful of friends who had become emotionally detached for their own mental safety.
30 drinks a week for her and 18 drinks a day for him?? Out of all the oversharing they’ve done, I didn’t think they would admit to substance abuse. It doesn’t matter if neither of them were falling down drunk, being “buzzed” all day long still amounts to being intoxicated for me and indicates they are both alcoholics, even if they won’t admit it. I really hope they had drivers and were not driving during any of the times they were buzzed/drunk. I know 2023 was an especially challenging year for both of them (I have no sympathy for their poor life choices that led it to being challenging, but I can be objective about it) but I never want to hear people are trying to cope with substance abuse, even if I don’t like them. They both have kids and that’s what I mostly worry about, how it affects their relationship with them.
I said in a previous post about them my mom spotted them recently in a meeting with what looked like producers (my mom just literally walked by the room they were having the meeting in) when she took a tour of the I Heart Radio studio in NYC with a friend she knows who works at the studio. My mom’s friend dragged her away from them immediately as they walked past and made her distaste known for them. My mom didn’t know it was them immediately until her friend made the comment about them cheating on their spouses.
God, these two are messy and gross. I wish they’d take themselves and their functional alcoholism far away and stop looking for headlines. I hope, for their sakes, that they get the help they need to deal with their problems, but please do it privately.
2 cheaters, who destroyed 2 families with children.
All the other details coming out = Trash, Trash, Trash. These 2 are trash.
No shame, no remorse, no class, just selfish, garbage people. Ignore them.
I find these two really unlikable for some reason but hope they can get their sh*t together.
I can’t imagine what they were going through at the time. At first ABC gave them a pass and wanted to sweep it under the rug (for ratings). It was the media that wouldn’t let it go and forced ABC to take a moral stand about their behavior dismissing them from the network.
They were *this close* to having it all. The freefall was crazy, but this let’s just tie it all in a bow and they act like being functional alcoholics after losing their jobs is acceptable. It’s distasteful of them to use it as fodder for their podcast. They really are the worst. I can’t believe someone pays them to talk.
They are alcoholics. And people in their lives might beg to differ regarding their description of being buzzed, not drunk.
Comments are right on the money about these 2.
Ignore them. Are they thinking any Adult believes their spin?
That amount of every day drinking sounds like their “dry January” should be followed by a doctor.
Both of these people have children, right? And they are airing this out in public? It’s not like doing a dry January is the answer to what is most definitely functional (or not functional) alcoholism. I grew up with a mom who didn’t think she had a problem because she didn’t start drinking until 5pm. She had wine glass after wine glass for the rest of the night until bed, but to her it was alright because it was after 5. Alcoholics can really twist themselves into a knot to get around admitting there is a problem. Oh, I am 100% sure that TJ’s “mocktail” is actually a cocktail because he would not be able to quit cold turkey after drinking that heavily for over a year.
I don’t think either of them are smart enough to have hired PR advisers ruthless enough to advise this, but this could be the beginning of a public redemption arc. A breakup, a DUI arrest, a loooong stint in rehab, a year out of public view “reconnecting with the kids,” and a triumphant/tearful return to broadcasting newly humbled and willing to share what she’s “learned.” I think he’s probably too personality disordered to pull it off but she might. I have this horrible vision of her filming the fifth step.
Public redemption arc, my fat butt.
These 2 need to work on repairing the damage done to their kids. In private.
They can disappear from public view, and should IMO.
Their decisions and actions tore 2 families apart.
So many red flags here, yikes. If this was a family member, I’d start an intervention and push for treatment. Holy moly. They have normalized addiction-level quantities of booze. When you need to drink like that to get through the day, it’s time to get help.
A lifetime ago I worked in real estate. These folks drank like college kids and would throw out lunches in the fridge to make room for booze. Official wine o’clock started at 3 and so did the pressure to join them in drinkingat the office. I left at 4 to commute for 40 minutes to pick my kids up from school so I wasn’t about to get lit and drive with my kids. But other people did, all the time.
Marilee and Andrew are cackling. Losers.
I think this is a gross exaggeration verging on outright lies just to get attention. They are famewhores of the worst type, revealing wayyyyy too much and likely making a good deal of it up. IF they had been drinking that much they would have suffered DTs and possibly worse side-effects unless they were detoxing under medical supervision. I call bullshit and just wish these two would shut up and go away, they’re nauseating.
What they are describing is “functional alcoholism”, and I doubt one dry month will fix anything (for all we know those mocktails are alcoholic!).
I am surprised they are talking so frankly about it- makes me think they live/work in a very unhealthy drinking environment and do not know what a proper baseline is. I admit, my drinking really increased when I lived in the UK and was surrounded by people who genuinely thought drinking two glasses a wine every night was “moderate drinking”.
No hate on the hobby, which can be wonderful if treated in a healthy way, but I have known MANY people who run together to drink heavily after runs (NOT talking about the groups that meet up and grab a beer or two after). Often, this is accompanied by affairs, etc. When someone in the group decides to change, it’s disruptive and usually they are ousted, affair partners split up, and so on. I haven’t seen the same pattern with other activities – it is rather interesting.
These two are so problematic. I predict they will crash and burn by the end of 2024.
All I can say is that they do that thing where they consistently smile the same enthusiastic way in every photo, which in my observation usually means they are hiding unhappiness and are probably only months away from breaking up.