GMA3: What You Need to Know hosts Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes’ respective futures with ABC are still up in the air, as the network continues to look into if the co-anchors violated company policy with their alleged secret workplace romance. It was announced December 5 that they’d been removed from the broadcast, due to the “internal and external distraction” the scandal had caused, but since then, the rumors haven’t quieted down. This is particularly true for Holmes, who is reported to have had a second affair and possibly a third, but could one or both of them actually be fired? Attorneys share their thoughts.
As a second week begins without T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach co-hosting Good Morning America’s third hour, questions are swirling about what CBS’ Gayle King called a “sloppy” situation. Legal expert Amory McAndrew, a partner at Hoguet Newman Regal & Kenney LLP, told IndieWire that ABC News does have the legal right to terminate the co-anchors if it sees fit. He said:
The bottom line is [ABC News] can do whatever they want. They’re just probably going to have to pay for it.
The trade reports Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes likely have employment agreements in place that would make it more difficult or costly to fire them, and they each fall into a “protected class,” per the attorney, since Holmes is Black and Robach is a woman.
However, it’s believed they each would have signed a morality clause upon joining the company that they could be in violation of, if found to have had extramarital affairs. T.J. Holmes’ previous alleged workplace affairs could also be seen as a pattern of behavior. Amory McAndrew continued:
There’s probably some sort of definition of ‘cause’ that I think would grab anything that reflects poorly on ABC.
Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes reportedly separated from their respective spouses in August, and there are questions about when their alleged romance started. Some sources say an affair began earlier in 2022 while they were on assignment, but others say no lines were crossed until their marriages were over. If the former is found to be true, another attorney, Devin McRae of Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae, told IndieWire that Disney — ABC’s parent company — likely wouldn’t be OK with “the whole thing about the double infidelity.”
The Daily Mail broke the news of the alleged affair, posting a number of photos of the GMA3 anchors having drinks at a bar, spending alone time at each other’s houses and showing some PDA on a getaway in Upstate New York. Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes had been married to their spouses since 2010, each reportedly separating in August.
Old comments from their past began to pop up after the photos were released, including a message T.J. Holmes wrote to his wife on their 10th anniversary, a cryptic joke Amy Robach made to Reese Witherspoon about workplace drama and Holmes’ thoughts on his longtime friend’s “love story” with Melrose Place alum Andrew Shue.
While we wait to see what action ABC News decides to take, you can catch GMA3 on ABC in Good Morning America’s third hour, and see what premieres are coming in the new year with our 2023 TV schedule.
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