Inside GMA hosts the romance scandal of Amy Robach and TJ Holmes

It’s perhaps the happiest problem Bob Iger, the newly installed president of ABC’s parent company Disney, will face when he resumes the reins of the conglomerate and its top-tier cash cow, Good Morning America.

Two of GMA’s most trusted — and until recently very much married — star hosts, Amy Robach and TJ Holmes, are drawing even more attention to the #1 morning show because of their bombastic secret romance.

Insiders say the affair, revealed last week in a series of photos showing the couple snogging at a Lincoln Center bar and at a cozy rented cabin upstate, is leading to what one source is calling “ratings gold.” ‘ for the show.

Rumor has it that Robach and Holmes, both 49, who started out together as co-hosts of ‘GMA 3’ in 2020, aren’t being penalized for continuing behind the scenes — at least until now.

However, the drama could get messier. Multiple sources told Page Six on Friday that Holmes – who has been married to Marilee Fiebig since 2010 – allegedly had a three-year affair with a married producer at GMA, Natasha Singh, that began in 2016.

Holmes and the producer both confided in mutual friend Robach as they tried to figure out how to leave their spouses.

“Amy was the person they spoke to about their affair and marriage,” a source said.

As rumors about Holmes and Robach circulated, another source said, “Marilee never considered Amy because she was focused on Natasha. She never thought about it [Holmes cheating] with Amy because they were friends. Amy’s daughter was her daughter’s babysitter.”

Holmes reportedly ended the affair and began working with Fiebig to reconcile their marriage during the pandemic. Robach remained friends with Singh and it angered Fiebig because “she saw photos of them on Instagram and she didn’t understand how her friend and her husband’s co-host could remain friends with the woman who was trying to break up her marriage.” the first source said.

All of that is apparently a thing of the past for Holmes and Robach. The two arrived at work unexcused last week after the news broke. They refrained from mentioning the scandal during Thursday and Friday’s shows – and privately announced the affair began after the two lost their respective spouses.

“You are not ashamed. They’re two amicable adults who ended up loving each other,” an ABC source told Page Six.

In fact, on set Thursday, the two shared a giggle together before baking Christmas cookies with chef Caroline Schiff, while Robach cheerfully announced, “It’s Friday night!” Robach looked carefree when she was photographed going solo in her apartment in Manhattan.

However, insiders speak of collateral damage in the form of the spouses left behind. Robach married former Melrose Place star Andrew Shue in 2010, the same year TJ Holmes married immigration attorney Fiebig.

A GMA staffer told Page Six that Holmes and Fiebig had been separated for six months but were “trying to work things out” when news of his romance with Robach broke on Wednesday.

“She is devastated. She had no idea,” the source said. “They haven’t been in together yet [a while]but they tried to work it out.

“They were just together for TJ’s birthday,” that was August 19th.

The source notes that while Fiebig wasn’t wearing her wedding ring, the now estranged couple were trying to reconcile.

For his part, Shue deleted Robach from all his social media accounts.

Robach and Holmes have reportedly been romantically involved since at least March when they were training for the New York City Marathon. Sources told The Post on Thursday that Robach and the Melrose Place grad are nearly finalizing their divorce.

“He moved out early this summer,” a source shared. “They constantly struggled over the years and eventually broke up.”

However, just a year ago, in a joint interview with Robach in December 2021 on The View, Shue gushed about his wife and the success of their marriage and stepparenting together. The performance was tied to a children’s book they wrote, Better Together.

“It’s our greatest achievement because it’s not easy,” Shue said of their marriage at the time. “Anyone who has a mixed family knows that it is very difficult to bring different parenting styles together.”

Robach has two daughters, Ava and Analise, with ex-husband Tim McIntosh, while Shue shares sons Nate, Aidan, and Wyatt with ex-wife Jennifer Hageney. Shue said bringing their families together has been challenging but rewarding.

“I give Amy all credit for really sticking with it because there have been many times I’ve had a problem figuring out how to create a playbook together,” he explained during the interview. “I fought back. It’s difficult to have two playbooks. You must have a game book. And when you are married for the first time, it is obvious that you have a playbook. And Amy has brought so much to my boys, discipline and love. It really was a journey.”

Robach was just as enthusiastic about her then-husband.

“Andrew is very selfless about it,” Robach said. “He also brought so much love and structure and joy and heart to our family and so we both decided to walk on the same page. But it wasn’t easy, and sometimes it still isn’t easy. It’s not like we found out. We’re just trying to work together, that’s the whole point.”

Holmes and Robach have reportedly been very good friends since joining the GMA team in 2014. Robach previously told People that she was thrilled when executives decided to pair her for GMA 3.

“[They] said, “Hey, we want to bring a co-anchor. What do you think of TJ Holmes?’ And I almost fell off my chair,” said Robach.

“My God. You couldn’t have picked a better person to ask my opinion because we’ve been trying to find a way to work together for literally the last five years.”

Robach also described to People how she and Shue dated Holmes and Fiebig in their early years.

“The moment he started at ABC, we just clicked,” she said. “We’ve had a lot of double dates with our spouses and my daughters babysit his daughters.”

The closeness of the two couples is somewhat reminiscent of former CNN boss Jeff Zucker’s once-secret affair with then-colleague Allison Gollust, a 10-year relationship that began when Zucker and his wife and Gollust and her husband lived in the same apartment building in Manhattan lived . It led to their respective divorces as well as their mutual downfall at CNN.

Meanwhile, Mika Brzezinski and now-husband Joe Scarborough, co-hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” reportedly began an affair while both were married to others but somehow escaped scandal.

“Everyone knew, I mean everyone,” a former NBC News contributor said of Brzezinski and Scarborough’s initially illicit romance. “But somehow it never became a problem.”‘

Robach has experience weathering storms both on and off camera. Born in Michigan and raised in Georgia, Robach began working at a local station in Charleston, SC and then transferred to WTTG in Washington before methodically climbing the ladder of cable and network news. A stint at MSNBC in 2003 led to the “Weekend Today” anchor job at NBC News. She went on Good Morning America in 2012.

In 2019, she got into a hot mic moment when she complained about how ABC allegedly “suppressed” her exclusive coverage of the Jeffrey Epstein sex scandal before exploding years later.

In 2013, she found out she had stage 2 breast and lymph node cancer. She underwent a double mastectomy and said at the time that doctors discovered the cancer.

Robach said last year that she credits a ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting for maintaining her health. Her lookalike mother, Joanie, has a blog called MyKetoHome dedicated to keto recipes that was inspired by her daughter’s illness.

As for her current lover, Holmes, he’s always sounded confident about handling any scandal.

If his affair with Robach doesn’t work out, he probably won’t worry about finding someone new.

When his “GMA” co-host Sara Haines asked him what he used for pickup wires in 2015, Holmes looked confused for a moment.

“I don’t need pick up lines, are you kidding me?” he said. ‘I say hi.’ That’s my line.”