T.J. Holmes Reveals He Slept on Bench Before Amy Robach ‘Saved’ Him From ‘Awful’ Depression

T.J. Holmes revealed how his girlfriend, Amy Robach, helped him when he was struggling with depression years before their dating scandal.

Before T.J., 46, and Amy’s relationship turned romantic, they started working together on Good Morning America when he joined the show in 2020. While landing the gig was a major milestone in his career, T.J. revealed that it came at “a huge price” to his health during the Monday, June 10, episode of their “Amy & T.J.” podcast.

“Thoughts of suicide, abuse of alcohol. I didn’t realize how bad off I was,” T.J. recalled about his time cohosting GMA3, adding that he was diagnosed with “moderately severe depression” in 2015.

He explained that he knew his mental health was “pretty bad” when he memorized the “5.2-mile walk from my home downtown to the ABC office” in New York City. “I would walk back and forth in the middle of the night, because I didn’t wanna go home,” T.J. revealed. “And I would just walk the streets.”

“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 jokingly added.

T.J. – who was married to Marilee Fiebig at the time – then explained that seeing Amy, 51, at work made his “awful” time 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 added.

The former CNN anchor explained that Amy 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,” T.J. said.

Amy chimed in to say that T.J. “saved [his] life,” adding that the experience helped them become “best friends” and ultimately a couple.

“I knew you were struggling, and sometimes you just need a friend,” she continued.

Not only did T.J. reveal that his job on GMA negatively impacted his health, but Amy added that  the gig “almost killed” her. She underwent heart surgery and was diagnosed with cancer in the span of two years, which she said was likely caused by stress.

“To have heart surgery and breast cancer two years apart, working 90 hours a week with the pressure of network news, I don’t think that’s a coincidence,” Amy said.

Amy and T.J.’s romance was revealed in November 2022 when they were both married to other people. While they have insisted their marriages were over when they started dating, Amy and T.J. were let go of their GMA jobs in January 2023.