Jackson Lee
T.J. Holmes reflected on the “darkest” period he experienced before Amy Robach helped “save” his life.
During Monday’s episode of their “Amy & T.J.” podcast, the co-workers-turned-lovebirds talked about how their former careers as broadcast journalists for “GMA3” came at “a huge price” to their health.
Holmes recalled joining the news, health and lifestyle program with Robach in the summer of 2020, admitting that, while it was one of the peaks of his career, it was also “probably the darkest days” of his adult life.
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“Thoughts of suicide, abuse of alcohol. I didn’t realize how bad off I was,” Holmes, 46, confessed, while also sharing that he was diagnosed with “moderately severe depression” in 2015.
Holmes — who was married to Marilee Fiebig at the time — admitted that he knew it was “pretty bad” when he memorized the “5.2-mile walk from my home downtown to the ABC office” on the Upper West Side in New York City.
“I would walk back and forth in the middle of the night, because I didn’t wanna go home. And I would just walk the streets,” he recalled.
“I can tell you, there’s a bench on 14th Street, just west of Union Square, where I have actually slept at night. I was the best dressed homeless man you have ever seen in your life,” he said while laughing.
Holmes reiterated how that time period was “awful” for him, but going into the office to work with Robach, 51, eventually helped him get better.
“She is seeing me deteriorate, she is seeing me not get help, she is seeing me the way nobody else was, and it became an issue where I would leave home to go to the studio, but what it really felt like is I was leaving home and going home –– which was Amy Robach,” he continued.
The broadcast journalist explained how Robach and their time on the show together helped his depression, because “she wouldn’t let me slide on anything.”
“This is not dramatic –– I credit her for literally helping save my life,” he said.
Robach took a few deep breaths before saying that he “saved [his] life,” and the whole experience resulted in them becoming “best friends” and eventually a couple.