ABC News president Kim Godwin has decided to remove Amy Robach and TJ Holmes from ABC News programming, including the show they co-host, GMA3, in light of the recent revelation that they have have been romantically involved in recent months and neglected to inform their superiors.
Godwin announced the news to staff Monday on the daily 9 a.m. call, telling staffers she would begin the call by addressing “an external distraction between two of our colleagues.” She pointed out that while that relationship is not a violation of company policy, she has taken the last few days to think about and work through what she thinks is best for the organization, and she came to the conclusion that she is taking the duo off the air “while we figure this out.”
ABC will continue to present GMA3 during Robach’s and Holmes’ absences, with Gio Benitez and Stephanie Ramos guest-hosting today’s broadcast.
The Daily Mail reported last week that Robach and Holmes have engaged an off-camera romance over the past several months. The duo did not address the report on-air this past Friday, despite tons of press coverage.
Included in the Daily Mail’s online piece are a series of pictures showing the duo together at a Times Square bar, spending alone time in each other’s apartments, and – two weeks before Thanksgiving – a weekend away in a secluded cottage in Upstate New York. Their dynamic reportedly turned from friendly to romantic in June when the duo were in London covering the Queen’s Jubilee for GMA.
Robach and Holmes separated from their respective spouses in August, the tabloid news site reports.
Robach, a GMA and 20/20 co-anchor who joined ABC in 2012, and Holmes, who joined ABC as a correspondent and anchor in 2014, currently share the spotlight on Good Morning America’s third hour, GMA3: What You Need to Know.
GMA3 launched in March 2020 as an additional hour of news which originally aimed to help daytime audiences navigate the outbreak of Covid-19. In-depth coverage of the pandemic, led by Robach and ABC’s lead medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton, had been the primary focus of the GMA third hour from its 2020 launch through the summer of that year. Holmes joined the hour in the fall of 2020, the show evolved to include coverage of America’s racial reckoning, as well as coverage of the 2020 presidential election. Today, the show resembles the two-hour flagship program – a daily mix of hard and soft news.