Latest / Untraditionally Lala / An Unlikely Foursome with Amy Robach & T.J. Holmes

Transcript

An Unlikely Foursome with Amy Robach & T.J. Holmes · Untraditionally Lala

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hi Amber, Hi Lola. Welcome to an Unlikely Affair.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: All right, hello everybody, welcome back to another episode of
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: The Unlikely Affair. I'm sitting the right or actually I'm
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: sitting to the left.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: You're to my right of your right hand today, baby,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: yeah you are.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: And I'm so excited for this podcast. Today we are
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: here with Amy and TJ. Hi, guys, Hello, happy to
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: be here.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: Oh my goodness. It's a nice setup. This is great.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: This is what it's like to be on you guys podcast.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: We will come all the time, don't us.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: With a good time. This is lovely. Amy and TJ.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: We're at our Unlikely Affair party, and we were talking
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: at this round table, which, by the way, thank you
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: guys so much for coming. I know you guys, thank you.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Blew in and had like the longest day. But Amy
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: said to us, you guys have such a crazy story.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: I was like, so do you We we should talk about it.
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: That takes one to know one.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: So we're very excited to have you guys on.
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: That was last night in thet another thing that party.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: We found each other and it looked like all of
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: us were trying to find the exit at the end
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: of it. You all called us and we were trying
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: to leave. We called yoah and everybody was ready to go.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: And I think I said, you guys should probably leave now.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: We took the hint.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was like, you guys have been up and
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: you have to wake up at one thirty in the
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: morning like you.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Mama Bear came out and said, Okay.
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: That's funny, but yes, that was good advice and we
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: took it.
• 1:35
  Speaker 5: Well.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: We're thrilled that you did, because I mean, I you
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: both have children older. How old are your kids even?
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: I have a twenty three year old daughter and a
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: nineteen year old daughter.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: Wow, and we have the My little one is twelve.
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: Okay, sheep saying twelve. She just turned thirteen in.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Jayeary wow, Oh my gosh. I know part of my language,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: but bit you look good, thank you.
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: I will take that language do Yeah. And you know
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: what's cool because I know you all have some shared
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: children experiences. We'll get into that, but we my daughters
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: grew up baby sitting sabine, so they all knew each
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: other very well before we even became romantically involved. Let's
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: start from the beginning.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Let's start from the beginning.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: What the beginning.
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: We actually aren't sure.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: It's a little foggy, doesn't it kind of even disassociated.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: You're like, I don't know. I'm not claiming I can
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: do that.
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: Tell me to do that.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: We have that.
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: Experience for sure.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: So you you said this is the third go around
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: for you both, you're correct, Yes, okay, Well third time
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: is the charm. My dad always said he only made
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: it to a second wife. So I don't know. I
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: don't know how it feels about that. And you said
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: that your kids grew up watching your child. I have
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: to imagine then that you guys knew each other's spouses
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: at the time. Yeah.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: We I mean, you just naturally have to. But there
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: wasn't a lot of We didn't spend a lot of
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: time no together.
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: There was no relationship with the others spouses at the
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: time at all. We would run into each other, I
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: would say, maybe in the span of the eight years
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: that we were just friends. I bet you we crossed
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: paths at social functions. I could count on one hand.
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: That's how little people made a lot more about like,
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: oh somehow we were all we were not TJ and
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: I were always the friends.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: And to your point, about the wondering about the kids.
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: Her kids would just come over and babysit. It wasn't
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: like I was going over there, So no I needed
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: a babysitter much. I was one two at the time
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: when they started babysitting.
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: My kids were teenagers, and so it worked out.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Here you go, were you at ABC together?
• 3:53
  Speaker 6: Yes?
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Okay, so just okay, that makes sense, and you know that.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: I feel like there are times where you.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: And again I've I can count on one hand how
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: many times I have been in a relationship or even
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: leaned in that direction. But the friendship part and then
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: the comfortability I find is when shit gets real. Obviously
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: that's what you guys have.
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we just you know what, We were two people
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: who always found each other in a crowded room and
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: I was like, oh, there's my guy. And he was
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: just always that friend who I knew I could go.
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: You know, when you have to make small talk with
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: people and you're in these functions, and even when we
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: would go we would get a sign to go cover
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: things together, it was like, oh, thank god, it's TJ.
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: Because we just got each other. We love just hanging
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: and we knew we could trust each other. On the air,
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: and that's very rare in media. Usually people are trying
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: to one up each other steal the spotlight from another.
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: So if you've got two people on a story, it
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: oftentimes becomes competitive. Wow, and he and I never had that.
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: We always were there to make the other look better.
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: And it was just such a rare chemistry that we
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: had where we just trusted each other and we made
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: each other better. And so we just and we liked
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: each other, which is also I think kind of rare
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: sometimes in the business we were in.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm sure at some point both of you
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: guys closed and said, you know, like, Wow, that person
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: just makes me feel like myself or I feel so like,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: did you consciously recognize the difference you felt when, say,
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: you were with another like a co host or co
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: anchor or even back at home.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: Oh my god, dear lady, we were begging and pleading
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: with them to let us work together like we were
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: please please, will you all please allow us to work
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: because we became I would say, in the last three
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: years at least before we started dating, we were best.
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: We were each other's best friend, like legit best friend.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: She helped me through some of the worst hell, I've
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: gone through in my life as a friend and got
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: me on a good path. So that foundation of friendship
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: was there now, and we didn't realize how how valuable
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: that was in a relationship because I've never had that
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: in a relationship. But I am saying I argue with
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: before we even start dating. I said, sweetheart, this, I
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: cannot lose our friendship. So we have to make a
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: decision now if we're gonna date, I cannot lose you
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: as a friend. So if you think this is going
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: to cost us the friendship, I don't want to date you.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: I absolutely had that conversation. That's true.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: Yes, it's so important to be friends first. And I
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: think that's what I'm realizing now going out and dating.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: I think I told you this before.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: It is like I go out and I look at
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: the person that I'm sitting across with, and.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Can I actually be friends with this person? Not romantically?
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Can I just can we be best friends? Do I
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: see that like comfortability with each other? And I realize
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: it's so important. It sounds like you guys have that
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: from the beginning.
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: What's the thing you like, what's the thing you like
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: to do most?
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: Right?
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: We eat, we go to movies, we watch netflixs you
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: lay in back if you don't. Whoever, if I ask you,
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: who do you want to do that with and not
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: your partner, there's a problem.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: There's a huge problem.
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: That should be the number. All that stuff, a basketball
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: game I want to watch, go to or anything. She's
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: number one. I got my boys, she's got her girls.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: And yes there are moments for that, but all the
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: best fun, adventure, vacation, you name it, get drunk off
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: my ass, you name what's the thing you want? Who
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: do you want there? It's her. That's a friend thing.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: That's not a romantic thing. I want my friend there.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: And it's true. Right now I'm sitting going, oh my god.
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: I don't think people believed us, and I think it's
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: fair to say, and we've talked about this. There were
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: always rumors that something was going on between us because
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: we got along so well, and we were always like,
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: absolutely not. It was the truth. We were just friends
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: who really liked each other. I never even let my
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: head or my heart even consider him as anything other
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: than my friend. It just I was in that lane.
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: That was just where I was, and so I was bifurcating.
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: I wasn't even acknowledging how important that friendship was. And
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: I did know that in other relationships I never had that,
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: but I always thought that was normal. I'm like, I
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: have my girlfriends, those are my best friends. That's why
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: I tell everything too. And I used a lot of times,
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: not used, but I leaned on my girlfriends and those
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: friendships to distract from not actually having a relationship that
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: I wanted to be in or I wanted to so
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: that that should have been a huge red flag, but
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: I didn't know anything different. And it wasn't until it
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: all clicked with TJ where I was like, wait, this
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: is actually incredible. The person who I like being around
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: maybe actually could be the best romantic partner ever. And
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: it took us a little while. It was weird at first.
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: We were such good friends. It was weird. I think
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: the first time I brushed my teeth in front of him,
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: he was like, I don't even know what's happening right now,
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: and it sounds silly, but maybe my teeth all the
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: time in there. But it's like, we're just friends who hang.
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: This is way too intimating right right. And there was
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: a lot of nerves because we actually he told me
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: he loved me before he ever even held my hand.
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: So we had such an emotional connection where there was
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: nothing physical between us, and so it was an I've
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: never had that experience where it's like now when it
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: was time where we actually could be physical because we
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: were in a romantic relationship, it was scary. He was like,
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: I this is strange.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Was there? Were you intimidated by that? Because sometimes when
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: you have such a beautiful thing happening and you're like,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: now I got to perform in the bedroom.
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: Yes, and now he's got to see me naked, like, oh,
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: is he gonna still feel the same?
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: That's super vulnerable.
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And I'm in my late forties at the time.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: So how are you feeling, TJ? Were you worried or
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: you're like, I'm ready to go. I can't wait to
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: look a look because matter just they're not sitting there
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: and being like, I wonder how she's gonna feel about.
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: This whole time? Does he see that?
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Do you notice that my left boom drinks more than
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: my right?
• 10:12
  Speaker 6: I don't know.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: That could be that could.
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: Be a deal breaker, exactly exactly. Well, No, I didn't
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: have that.
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: I don't know. Maybe you said, guys, just don't think
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: about that. So that was a concern. But as crazy
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: as it sounds, we ran together for so long. I
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: sit next to her at work. She's wearing tight outfits,
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: she's wearing running pants. I had a pretty good idea.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: In the whole time.
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: I'm just.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying no words in my mouth.
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: I was aware.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: I mean, I would suggest you are wearing an outfit
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: today that would lend to letting people know what your
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: figure is. She's wearing a larger jacket. I'm saying I
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: had more.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Don't make me take off my clothes.
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: It was simple as that to wear. Of course, worse
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: that wasn't a concern. But we were very familiar with
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: each other.
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: We actually had a very specific conversation because I was nervous. Look,
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: I'm a breast cancer survivor and I had a double
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: mastectomy and I had reconstructive surgery. But it is not
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: the same, and you do not look the same, and
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: you have scars. And I actually broke down and cried
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: redemption Bar at redemption bar because he said, are you nervous?
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: As we were talking about taking the next step, and
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: I started to I started to cry, and I just said,
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: I'm just afraid because I'm not I'm not who I
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: used to be, and I just am afraid because I
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: felt like I had damaged goods and I didn't know
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: how he was going to take that, if that was
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: going to take away from any interest he had in
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: me physically because I looked different, and so I was
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: nervous about that one. My doctor cancer is nerve wrecking sometimes.
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: And I'm sitting here with you, well, I haven't thought
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: about it this way before, and it's a little upsetting
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: to think the how everybody views our relationship. Like early on,
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: at least people thought these two are involved in this
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: hot affect, don't g please. We were the as far
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: as morning show anchors go, We're the hot ones. We
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: were the and all.
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: Seriously, I mean, we're just the younger.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: When you guys got together, I'd be lying if I
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: said I didn't masturbate to it. I'm sorry, I'm just
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: gonna put that out there.
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: What other morning show anchors.
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: That's my point, right, that's my so with that in mind,
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: what I'm saying, we get that people think, oh, yeah,
• 12:31
  Speaker 5: they got hot and they had a hot night and
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: they did this and they threw away their marriages.
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: That conversation. You make such a good point. It was
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: so deliberate, like she took and we took time, and
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: something that serious about breast cancer and what she looks
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: like in the deliberation we took before we took a
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: step to have a relationship together. That is important. This
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: is so special to us. And to think that anyone
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: thought that we were just blowing up our lives or
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: we were out of marriage just before that conversation even
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: took place.
• 13:02
  Speaker 5: That shit.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: But that doesn't make for an interesting headline exactly.
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: And you said that, as a woman who has been
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: there and done that, you know how it can.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: People take control of the narrative. They don't care that
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: you're two people who are in love and with children.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: It does not matter what is going to get the
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: most clicks. It's not over.
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: We know that, and we know you do.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: You know better than anybody. But it is very hard
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: when people who don't know you in the slightest take
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: control of your narrative and then you never get it back.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: You never get it back. You will always be and
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: I hey, I'm I think you're both great, but I'm
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: telling you when you see your names, you guys are
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: the anchor. It's almost like your careers, which is not okay.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: This is not okay at all. And I hope that
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: I'm not offending you by saying this. But once something
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: is out there you you can't change it.
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: Oh, I have a scarlet letter like oh. I mean
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: it was relate to that shame, shame, shame, you know,
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: like Circe in the Game of Thrones. And that's how
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: it felt a full year every.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: Day after that, after all of these headlines, how did
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: you guys stay so intact.
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: As a couple.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: I felt like now hearing your story from the beginning,
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: it's like your guys foundation was so strong there was
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: nothing that could possibly break it. But if I'm wrong,
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: please no.
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: I think it had to be. I met God. I
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: shuddered to think if we were not already solidly friends,
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: you can't survive. That's evidence of how good we were.
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: There's no way the ship we went, there's no way
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: you could survive that. I know with just somebody you're
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: starting a relationship or not that it breaks people.
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: Yes it does, because I think they would individually go
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: after TJ in a different way. Than they would go
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: after me, and so then they almost are calling you apart,
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: and that can be incredibly damaging. We had to stick
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: together as a team and face it as a team.
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: But we were I know, you guys know what this
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: feels like, but I felt like we were under assault.
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: We had folks camped out and just chasing and looking
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: for a weird facial expression. If we were smiling, we
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: were flaunting our love and our ex's faces. If we
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: were cold and had a look on our face, we
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: were fighting and things were about to end. And it
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: didn't matter what your face looks like, what you were doing,
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: what you were wearing. They found a way to make
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: it negative and it just became where you got so
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: freaked out by it. We ended up being hermits in
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: our apartment, unable to leave, and then if we did leave,
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: it was hell because.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: It's affected at all.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: I mean in terms of like walking outside of their apartments.
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: Really, I'll tell you an interesting story. I know you
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: guys know the paparazzi, but there was a point where
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: I was trying to pick up my car. I had
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: a parking garage next to my apartment, and both of
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: my daughters were out and there was a paparazzi out
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: there just taking pictures, taking pictures. My older daughter thought
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: stupidly that she could go talk to him and say, hey,
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: you got your picture, please leave, like this isn't fair.
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: My sister's sixteen years old at the time, she's a minor,
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: please stop taking pictures of her. And he just looked
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: at her and didn't react. So she came back over.
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: He starts taking pictures even more so she puts up
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: her hand like stop. They used that picture and blurred
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: her hand to make it look like she flicked them off.
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: That is exactly the kind of stuff they do. And
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: I told her, I was like, you just learned what
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: happens when you engage. They will come back and double
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: down and make it even worse.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Wow, that's disgusting. I'm so sorry.
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: That she had to go through that.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: How what was their reaction during all of all this?
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: I mean your yeah, the kids were did you sit
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: them down and talk to them like what your ex's
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: reactions like?
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: We didn't have the opportunity to. We were blind here, you.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: Were just outed. You're completely I.
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: Was giving a speech in DC and he was on
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: the set of Good Morning America when it all came out.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: Look, you asked about our daughter or my daughter, how
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: she was affected. She this all happened and came out
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: November thirtieth of twenty twenty two. Right, My daughter was
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: aware of the divorce in August of twenty twenty two
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: because I moved out the house. She knew the divorce
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: was happening. So this wasn't a big that that part
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: wasn't a shock.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: That was. It was what the media did that was intense.
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: We was and well, we've talked about this and we
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: were blindsided. But I don't know if we didn't take
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: the threat seriously, but we were. We were threatened. We
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: knew this was someone threatened specifically to do this to us,
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: specifically threatened to do what happened in the media as
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: a part of I guess, is it blackmail or extortion?
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: It wasn't.
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: Is it extortion? It was it was black They want it.
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: They wanted us to admit that we were dating, and
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: we just weren't ready to yet. We knew obviously we
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: were coakers on Good Morning America. We had a conversation
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: about it. Should we go tell ABCPR and our thoughts
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: or at the time, let's get our divorces finalized and
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: then go And so we were not like hiding, but
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: we weren't broadcasting that we were dating and we want
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: We actually had a plan right after the Christmas break,
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: We're going to go into ABC and say, hey, just
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: want to let you know. But everyone around me, like
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: my close friends, my family, and my daughters all knew
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: I was in the middle of a divorce. We this
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: is in the summer, at the end of July, like
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: my ex moved out of the on my apartment. So
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: to have it be that many months later for them
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: to pretend or act as though they caught us having
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: an affair was so unfair. It was completely absolutely not true.
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: But it was intentional.
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: It was the plan was this was a targeted, a
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: specific plan and make this be the case.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: Was the plan to get you too off the air.
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: The plan was to humiliate and possibly yes, to get
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: us to lose job. But wow, absolutely this was a
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: part of a plan to get us to behave a
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: certain way. We didn't and we lost. The threat came
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: November fourth, or so I think it was two days later.
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: Was the first picture that was taken of us. So
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: they made good on the threat.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: How that is? How do you stomach that? I mean,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: how do you go out into the world after that
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: and believe in humanity when people are capable of doing that?
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: I mean that had to have been just such a
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: shock to your system where you're looking around so disoriented.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: You're the happiest you've ever been in your life. Yes,
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: and at the top of our careers and at the
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: top of our careers, and then someone comes in with
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: the fucking bulldozer to shit all over it, knock it down.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: I mean that is heartbreaking.
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: Yes, I will say this I had never before TJ. TJ,
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: and then my daughters, but like in terms of being
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: in love, the only the love of my life other
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: than my daughters was my job. It was the one
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: thing that I knew I was good at, that I
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: loved and I was proud of. It was my it
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: was my identity. And so someone who wanted to do
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: harm knew that. And TJ, I would say, probably the
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: same for you, right, this was your passion.
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, this was we were finally healthy and happy. As
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: crazy as that sounds, that when you all and the
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: country saw was having the worst moment of our life,
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: it was happening because we were having the best moment
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: of our life. We were finally out of marriages we
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: shouldn't have been in. We were finally getting ourselves healthy
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: and happy and stable and getting kids settled. We were
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: as happy individually as we had ever been in our lives.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Found you found your other one hundred percent to make
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: the two hundred you had, you know, fought the battle
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: of your life correct.
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: I mean, and honestly I will say this, This is
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: not being dramatic. My cancer actually played a huge role. We,
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: like TJ was saying, we made a decision to be together.
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: This wasn't some lustful night where we just said, fuck it,
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: let's just see what happens, let's get drunk. And this
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: was so intentional. We had so many conversations. We had
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: to acknowledge that we were feeling a certain way about
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: each other and then say what are we going to
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: do about it? And then we said, we both have
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: to go back and figure out what we're doing. We
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: have to we have to move forward in a respectful,
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: correct way. And that is how we managed everything. And
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: we actually, I wanted to be able to look in
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: the mirror and say we did the right thing we
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: did right by everyone, and so to have been managing
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: all of that and dealing with divorce. I knew this
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: was going to be difficult for my children, and we
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: knew it was going to be difficult for Teach's child.
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: But I told myself, if you knew your cancer came back,
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: and I have I have a friend who I watch
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: fight every day and live her best life because no
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: one is guaranteed tomorrow. But when you've gone through cancer,
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: you know it can come back, that threat of recurrence.
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: And I thought, if I walked in for my blood
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: test and they said it's back, how would you live differently?
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: What would you do? And I was like, I would
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: be with tj oh an impact on the decision that
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: we made, because it's hard. It's hard to make all
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: the choices that we made, but we were trying to
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: do the right thing and live our best lives and
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: show our daughters that you can be happy and you
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: can do it the right way.
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: For those decisions, it's it's great. Those decisions were made
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: after we both had made individual decisions to get divorced.
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: I didn't know her divorce was going to happen. She
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: didn't know mine was gonna happen. No, wow, though she
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: didn't know. That was no planning. Okay, you go first,
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: and then I'm we.
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: Didn't know we were gonna be together.
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: I'm not going to get out of a marriage for
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: the sake of maybe I'll start dating.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: I really want what you guys have. Yeah, and I
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: didn't think I did. I had sworn off men. I
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: was like, I'm going to be single for the rest
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: of my life. They add so much drama.
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: And I don't know.
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: I don't as far as I don't know if we
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: got lucky. I don't know. I really really don't. The
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: advice I give to people now is it's okay to
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: find out, Like figure it out now, it's okay, Like
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: why are we wasting time with something you know is
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: not going to work out? It's okay to just my
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: mom just told me it's better to find out in
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: five months and five years. That's some of the best
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: advice I've ever got.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: That is genius advice, something so simple, it is so profound.
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: I was in college, it's better find out now that cry.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: Don't cry long, but go ahead. Congratulations you got out
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: of that shit.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but you can tell when you guys are together.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: It seems very effortless.
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: That's friendship.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: Man.
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: We just know each other.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: I feel it.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: You guys don't even have to say anything.
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: You guys know each other. But I will tell you
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: that year, and again this is not me being dramatic.
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: That year twenty twenty two going into twenty twenty three,
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: that was That was the hardest year of my life,
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: including the year I went to chemo, had multiple surgeries,
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: had the breast cancer diagnosis. That year, that assault, that
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: emotional assault, the assault on our reputations, on our credibility.
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: That was the hardest year of my life. Because our daughters,
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: even and mine, were older, so I think it was
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: more difficult because they were more aware. My youngest was
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: in high school, my oldest had just started NYU. They're
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: walking past the New York Post, They're walking past these tabloids.
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: They see the headlines, they hear everyone talking and social media.
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: They were devastated. They were devastated, they were hurt. And
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: we had not told our daughters. We say that was
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: our biggest mistake of not being transparent about our relationship
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: with our children. We just I wanted to give them
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: a little bit more time. You know they were getting
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: used to the new normal. Anna, Lisa and I were
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: living alone together in our new apartment. Ava had her
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: apartment at NYU. But I just wanted them to get
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: settled for a few months. And I think that's fair,
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: that's our right as private people to be able to
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: give our kids a couple months to breathe before we
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: said hey, by the way, And because they knew TJ
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: and Sabine knew me and we all knew each other,
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: I was just like, let's just give them a little
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: bit of time to get used to this new normal.
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: And that's really why we were trying, for our kid's sake,
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: to keep it quiet, just for a little bit, to
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: give them space because they were in the middle of divorces.
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: Also, why are we making an announced Please keep in
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: mind here, we didn't know we were going to end
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: up together. There was no reason for us to make
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: an announcement that we were dating, because it's like a
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: why are we hard launching a month in? There was
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: no reason for that, right right.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: We're still figuring it out, we're finding our groundwork.
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: And Yea also hadn't made announcements about our divorces. We
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: this is the other mistake. Yeah, we didn't realize that. Apparently,
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: as public figures, people give a shit need to hear
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: about everything going on in your life. So if we
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: didn't have made an announcement that she was getting a
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: divorced and my vote, divorce came later and people found
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: out two months later, they're dating.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Now, Okay, Yeah, it doesn't count because you didn't let
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: all of.
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: Us know exactly, even though even though yes, the people
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: who were important in my life already knew. I mean,
• 25:51
  Speaker 4: I had I had draft, I thought my divorce was
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: going to be finalized by December. It was quick, it
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: was ready to go. We had lawyers, every thing was done.
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: I think you had lawyers too at the time. Yeah,
• 26:02
  Speaker 4: of course, we go through the divorce with months. The
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: frustrating thing about what ended up happening to us professionally
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: was that it was it. It took it. We could
• 26:12
  Speaker 4: prove it. Not that we had to, but we could.
• 26:14
  Speaker 4: We could easily prove, like, hello, we're not in this
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: affair cheating on our care spouses. We actually have the proof.
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: You want to talk to my divorce attorney. Do you
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: want to talk about when I hired her? It was
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: not even a question we had you were living in
• 26:28
  Speaker 4: another apartment. I mean it was I was moving. The
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: day it came out was the day Annie and I
• 26:35
  Speaker 4: were moving into our new apartment with all the paparazzi changing. So,
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: I mean it everything was scheduled and happening. It wasn't
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: like it happened because we got photographed together. Everything was
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: already like far along in the proceedings.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: It's just someone, Yeah, someone was out out to get you. Yes,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, No, I just hearing you say that, Amy.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: I just realized we are so focused on the wrong
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: things in this country. And I know, I'm I will
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: speak for myself only it's just so twisted. There's so
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: many criminals and with all the Epstein file shit that's
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: going on, and all of the political I mean everything
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: that's going on, not in in within the United States,
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: in the world, and they choose to focus on two
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: people that are with children trying to get their lives together.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: You guys were trying to do right and then you
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: get you get fired, you get fired, bye bye by
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: It's just.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: What was that? What was that like when they brought
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: you guys in, did they bring you in together separate, seately,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: they probably had to.
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: It was a Friday night. I got called to the
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: Empire Hotel. Who did you you went somewhere else? They
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: had Did you know what was what was coming? No,
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: because when they pulled us apart actually on Friday and
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: had us talk and they asked us very specific questions
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: about the timeline everything. They then told us we're gonna
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: support you. Like I left Friday night, do we have
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: a job you? I didn't hear that. I did I
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: I heard? I said, what do you think? They're like,
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: look everything, it sounds like this is fine, Like we
• 28:14
  Speaker 4: wish you had told us ahead of time, but we
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: understand now things are making sense. And then so I
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: was like cool, and we were supposed to be on
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: the air, and we had been on the air after
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: it happened, I think on a Wednesday, came out.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Can I ask one thing very quickly? So the person
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: who were obviously not saying their name, the person who
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: you feel was blackmailing or out to get you, had
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: nothing to do with the news channel.
• 28:36
  Speaker 4: Correct, got it? Okay, keep going? It was correct. So
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: we actually were back on the air for the first
• 28:41
  Speaker 4: two days. We had phone calls with people at ABC
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: and they they at the time were like, you know what,
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: You're right, You've technically done nothing wrong. You're in the
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: middle of divorces, your your own you know, private citizen.
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: What you do on your own time is what you
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: do on your own time. And so I felt pretty
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: confident that we were good. We came back Thursday and Friday.
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: Then night they took us and had us do some
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: more investigative questioning. Right, so we were like, okay, but
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: it all went well as far as my experience went,
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: how did you.
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: Oh, it was fine, But I didn't walk out of
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: their feeling I had support of any kind.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: You didn't feel supported at all? You left feeling supported?
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: I did?
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: Oh.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: Not.
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: In the there was never a moment from the time
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: that article came out that I felt support from ABC
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: or Disney. That's so interesting, not once from anybody. Now.
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: They're not supposed to I'm not This is not a criticism.
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: What I'm saying is they're looking out for ABC, they're
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: looking out for GMA, they're looking out for their brand,
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: they're looking out for shareholder, they're looking out. Fine, they're
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: supposed to not support me, But it was pretty shocking
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: how quickly that nobody even asked, well, what's going on
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: or what happened or how are you doing? There was none.
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: It was soom, why are they.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Not supposed to support you? You didn't do anything wrong.
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: But no, I get it. It's a big business, it's
• 29:49
  Speaker 4: a big machine.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: Yes, at the end of the day, when they love you,
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: they love you. But when you no longer serve your purpose, goodbye.
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: But again, see that's the thing. We were serving a
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: great purpose. But Twitter was talking about us in a
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: way that Disney didn't like it.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: So you okay, well there you go.
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: The frustrating thing, though, is if if I and I
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: believe this, if ABC and Disney had been able to
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: say and by the way we both look and I'm
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: not I'm not naive enough to think, oh I was
• 30:16
  Speaker 4: so loyal to them, they should be loyal to me.
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: But we were their go to workhorses who would fly anywhere,
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: go anywhere. I didn't miss one day while I was
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: on Chemo. I we loved that job, we loved that company,
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: we loved that show and we still do. And so
• 30:32
  Speaker 4: I felt like, and this is my naive part, that
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: we had the receipts we could prove that we did
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: nothing wrong. So I was of the belief, well, the
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: truth is on our side, so we're gonna be okay. Right,
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: Something happened over the weekend and Monday morning I was
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: we were getting up to go into work, get a call.
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: Don't come into work. We're taking you off the air
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: while we effective immediate investigate. This isn't you being fired.
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: This is just us giving it a beat. Lets it
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: die down. I said, please, don't do this, because at
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: that point only the tabloids had reported it. The New
• 31:05
  Speaker 4: York Times, the Washington Posts, any reputable organization had not
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: reported on it because it was just it was it
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: was fun.
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: Let us say this that weekend. After the thing went down,
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: we went on the air two days that weekend. We
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: spent the weekend with crisis managers on the phone with
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: a lot of news outlets, and the mainstream news outlets
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: refused to do the story.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: Because it felt smucky because.
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: You're getting divorced and now you're dating. Okay, who gives
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: a fuck?
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: Right right?
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: Irrelevance all passed.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: TMZ loved it, though, I'm sure you know.
• 31:35
  Speaker 4: They all passed.
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: As soon as a network now has suspended to anchors.
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: Now it's a story, a story.
• 31:44
  Speaker 4: And that's what I begged. I begged, I said, please
• 31:46
  Speaker 4: don't do this now, you are going to make it
• 31:49
  Speaker 4: such a much bigger story if you all just said
• 31:52
  Speaker 4: we did the investigation. Turns out both of them are
• 31:55
  Speaker 4: in the middle of divorces and had been for months.
• 31:58
  Speaker 4: We support were whatever they choose to do that, whatever,
• 32:03
  Speaker 4: but just say we and and that was very refiable.
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: And so I don't understand why they wouldn't have given
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: us just that, because if they had done that, none
• 32:12
  Speaker 4: of the rest would have happened, none of it, none
• 32:15
  Speaker 4: of the main we to then when that happened, when
• 32:18
  Speaker 4: they took us off there, Now we're on every single
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: news channel to see your face, to see oh my god.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: And then that it looks at it and it's like,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: well now it's huge, and it's like you did that.
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: And some of the bosses at the time, who aren't
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: there anymore, did get criticism for that, for that being
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: a bad move, for now handling this the right way. Look,
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: that is all either. I mean, it's all said and done.
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: It we had to get over, we had to get
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: past it.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: But that really hard.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: It was hard want to show up and do you
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: know do your job now, because it's like, obviously you
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: haven't lost that love for storytelling or journalism.
• 32:55
  Speaker 4: We're doing it on our terms. We're working our asses off,
• 32:57
  Speaker 4: but we're our own bosses now, and we love iHeart
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: and we have just, honestly the iHeart family. I could
• 33:04
  Speaker 4: get emotional because when you feel like everybody turned.
• 33:07
  Speaker 6: Their back on you the moment you aren't of use
• 33:10
  Speaker 6: to them, they just completely discard what you've done and
• 33:15
  Speaker 6: how hard you've worked to build a certain credibility and career.
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: And so iHeart came in and said, we got you,
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: and we believe in what you can still do and
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: what you can still produce, and you have value. And
• 33:29
  Speaker 4: that was everything in that moment, because I can only
• 33:32
  Speaker 4: speak for myself. I felt so devalued and I had
• 33:36
  Speaker 4: a lot. I had to go back to therapy like
• 33:39
  Speaker 4: and just figure it out. And it's all been good
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: for me because you shouldn't have your job be your identity.
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: You shouldn't get your value from what you do. You
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: should get your value from who you are and how
• 33:47
  Speaker 4: you treat people. And so it was just a total
• 33:50
  Speaker 4: I've been on a course correct because of it, and
• 33:52
  Speaker 4: I think we're at a place now where I can't
• 33:55
  Speaker 4: say that I'm glad it happened, but I do think
• 33:58
  Speaker 4: there was a reason why it and I'm a better
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: person because of it. And I'm just so happy that
• 34:04
  Speaker 4: we are where we are and our kids and our
• 34:07
  Speaker 4: girls and our families full support of us, full support.
• 34:11
  Speaker 4: And and we did lose friends. I did lose friends.
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: You should have lost some of those fuckers. Seriously, there
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: are the should Yeah, that's okay, which to you. I
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: don't think I lost any Seriously. I'm a certain type
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: of clan and I have very few people that I
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: am close to. And you know it, I lost a friend.
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: I hadn't thought about this. Did I lose a friend
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: in this mess? I don't think I did. Some colleagues
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: I don't still deal with us. You just see every day.
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: But you knew they were probably never friends to begin with.
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: That wasn't that shocking.
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: I didn't know in the beginning that I was going
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: to be gaining a friend at some point, but I
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: did in my divorce.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: You're talking about me, yeah, bitch.
• 34:51
  Speaker 4: I'm talking about it.
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: I love that there's no one I mean, yeah, It's
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: amazing how life does that. You just never know you don't,
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: and I such a testament to who you guys are
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: and your values, both of you and your children, and
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: the strength like.
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: I'm just completely blown away.
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: It's true.
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: Thank you, Kelly Clark. Yeah, yeah, I mean no, but seriously,
• 35:17
  Speaker 4: like we both had moments, I mean not and we
• 35:19
  Speaker 4: can kind of laugh about it now, But there were
• 35:22
  Speaker 4: days where I had never ever had thoughts of wanting
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: to just for it to all be over. I've never
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: had a feeling like that before in my life, and
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: I did on multiple days in low moments, I actually
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: and that scared me so much. I was like, I
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: have never felt like I just want the pain to stop.
• 35:39
  Speaker 4: I just wanted to end. I can't live with this pain,
• 35:45
  Speaker 4: because when it's one thing, if you get a divorce
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: is hard enough. Losing your job is hard enough, losing
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: your reputation is hard enough. Having it all be public
• 35:52
  Speaker 4: is hard enough. Having it all happen at the same time,
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: and having your children, my adult children being upset with
• 35:57
  Speaker 4: me about how it all happened, like how could you
• 36:00
  Speaker 4: let this happen? How could you get how could you
• 36:03
  Speaker 4: not know someone was taking a picture of you like
• 36:05
  Speaker 4: those kinds of things. We're like, are you kidding me?
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: Right now? I cannot deal with this. But it all
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: happened at one time, and it just it almost it
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: almost broke me.
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: The part of that that got me is that it
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: was happening and it was false and there was nothing
• 36:18
  Speaker 3: say everything you saw, everything that happened was ae hundred
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: percent lie that was specifically manipulated and done intentionally to
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: do what it did. We lost. I mean they won,
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: I mean for the folks, for the one the folks
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: out there listening. You beat us. You won, and we
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: have your name, We have the emails, the documentation at
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: our attorney's office. We could blast that out anytime we
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: wanted to, but we have chosen not to because we
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: don't want this to all get started up again. We
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: don't know, well, you don't want impact to our daughters again,
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: which it certainly would be, and we don't. We just
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: not there.
• 36:53
  Speaker 4: But would that help us?
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: And they go, oh, okay, we feel better about Amy
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: and TJ now that we know this, Well, we should
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: have put that out three years ago.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: Well tell me this, do you feel that you know
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: this happened in twenty twenty two? Or in twenty twenty six,
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: do you feel that obviously things have calmed down, because
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: that's what happens with time, But do you feel that
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: people have come around to like really see you again
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: and appreciate you.
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and you'll probably realize as well. We think the
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: whole world is after us and hates you because you
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: read a headline or something like that. But you go
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: out in the world and there's the nicest people and
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: everybody embraces you, and it's just a totally different So
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: we were just caught up in that thing for a second,
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: or did not be caught up in that Yeah. Once
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: we actually got out and started interacting me again, we're like, oh,
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: we're not.
• 37:46
  Speaker 4: But it took a long time for us to get out.
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: And you guys didn't leave in New York, which is shocking.
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: I would have been like, get me out of the city.
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: The city's you know, toxic.
• 37:52
  Speaker 4: So everyone was telling us get out of the city.
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: I'm like, that sounds great. But I have a daughter
• 37:55
  Speaker 4: who's a junior in high school, and TJ had a
• 37:58
  Speaker 4: daughter who was in elementary school. I can't leave, but
• 38:00
  Speaker 4: I can't go somewhere. Did I want to go and
• 38:03
  Speaker 4: maybe go to my parents' house in Atlanta and go
• 38:06
  Speaker 4: just bury my head. Yes I did, but I couldn't
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: because I was a mom. Wow.
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: But it also showed that you're like, I'm standing in
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: my truth and I'm not leaving you know that.
• 38:16
  Speaker 4: I didn't feel strong like that at all. I felt
• 38:18
  Speaker 4: like I was under the sheet.
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: But now looking back, you have to be so proud
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: of yourself and like the woman that you are today
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: because of that experience. And we talk about it all
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: the time, like you there's the growth doesn't happen, like
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: when you get the pot of gold, right, the growth happens.
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: And in those moments where you're in the closet and
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: you're like, I can't fucking take another phone call, I
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: don't want to cry anymore, and you're just you feel
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: defeated as a human, like I would rather for me personally,
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: rather not be on this earth. Every time my headline
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: came out with Laala and our ex I and the kids,
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: and it was just like it's a pain.
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: In your heart that there's no words to describe. You
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: just want the pain to stop exactly. And I don't
• 38:59
  Speaker 4: think people understand and you can't know, like even us
• 39:03
  Speaker 4: as journalists who saw this and knew the media business
• 39:09
  Speaker 4: fairly intimately, I still can tell you until it happens
• 39:13
  Speaker 4: to you, Until the cameras are pointed at you and
• 39:16
  Speaker 4: the accusations are being lobbied at you, and the headlines
• 39:20
  Speaker 4: you're reading are complete utter lies, you can't know how
• 39:24
  Speaker 4: destructive that is, not just to you, but to everyone
• 39:27
  Speaker 4: who loves you.
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: Right, it's a waterfall. It's a waterfall effects well when
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: you see the same thing over and over again. And
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: obviously my situation was on a massively smaller scale, but
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: there were moments where I would look in the mirror
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: and I'd be like, I don't even know who I am,
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: what do I want, what do I represent? What do
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: I care about? Like I just relay on a much
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: smaller scale of looking in the mirror when those headlines
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: and even though you know how the media works, like
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: you said, when it's pointed at you, you lose your
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: identity and sense of self and it is beyond disorienting,
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: and you are in survival. You disassociate, you're on autopilot.
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: And then being a parent, it is like you're just
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: doing enough to like get your kids fed and where
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: they need to be and being like, that's a win
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: for the day.
• 40:18
  Speaker 4: I'll catch it tomorrow.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: I'll catch you tomorrow. I said, I love you, and
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: I fed your three meals. We're done here.
• 40:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And you know, we actually had to be very
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: mindful then after that, like we I it wasn't a year.
• 40:31
  Speaker 4: A full year went by before I physically saw Sabine.
• 40:34
  Speaker 4: We kept everything separate. We just wanted to give the
• 40:37
  Speaker 4: girls space. We kept everything separate. So our first Christmas,
• 40:42
  Speaker 4: first two Christmases together, we spent a part because we
• 40:45
  Speaker 4: spent them with our respective children, because we just wanted
• 40:48
  Speaker 4: to give them the courtesy of them deciding when they
• 40:52
  Speaker 4: were ready. Right, And now we have family vacations, we
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: have Christmases together. Now we can't get rid of them.
• 40:59
  Speaker 4: It's true we're going somewhere next week and Annalsa's popping by,
• 41:02
  Speaker 4: But it also is just a reminder if anyone's going
• 41:06
  Speaker 4: through something, even as a parent, and your kids are
• 41:08
  Speaker 4: upset with something you did or they don't like, even
• 41:11
  Speaker 4: maybe a new relationship or how it all happened, they
• 41:14
  Speaker 4: come around. I had someone tell me, I had someone
• 41:17
  Speaker 4: very kind who went through something similar, say, your kids
• 41:19
  Speaker 4: will come around. They will accept it and they will
• 41:22
  Speaker 4: accept you. If your love is real, they will they
• 41:25
  Speaker 4: will see you happy and they will support you. And
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: sure enough they did it. Just you have to be
• 41:29
  Speaker 4: patient and that that was a lesson for me. I
• 41:32
  Speaker 4: wanted to force everybody just like it's been so painful,
• 41:34
  Speaker 4: can we just all be together? And you have to
• 41:37
  Speaker 4: you have to respect where they are. And we did that,
• 41:39
  Speaker 4: and I think with Sabine it was really I was
• 41:42
  Speaker 4: proud of us. We waited a full year before I
• 41:46
  Speaker 4: and you asked her it was your birthday.
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: Sabine led the way. She was never forced to be
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: around anything. None of the kids were. So that was
• 41:54
  Speaker 3: and Sabine came around to a point. So now I
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: asked her to do things and she'll ask if Robot's
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: going to be there, and if not, she'll say, oh,
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: I'll pass them.
• 42:01
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 42:02
  Speaker 4: It's just that we have a thing.
• 42:03
  Speaker 3: We've gone on so many vacations internationally, We've the three
• 42:07
  Speaker 3: of us traveled.
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: I guess it always works out the way it's supposed to.
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: It works out. It's it's worked out. I cannot believe
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: we're sitting here and where we are and how we are,
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: but it's something has worked.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I want to say, because you said that
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: they won, and now I'm going to get emotional, damn it.
• 42:27
  Speaker 4: No, please, I never apologize for tears. They're powerful. And
• 42:30
  Speaker 4: I know I hate when I cry too. I hate
• 42:32
  Speaker 4: that I just cried.
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: And I do it all the time, and I'm like,
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: stop it, but you care.
• 42:35
  Speaker 4: But it's someone.
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: You sit down with people and you you find each other.
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: And that only a few people. Everything we've said, you
• 42:40
  Speaker 3: all look like, oh okay, I get it, walk and
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: so many people can't relate to what we're saying and
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: being in those positions. But I can understand why almost
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: everything out of our mouth. You all have been there,
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: done that to a certain degree.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's probably easy for me to say because
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: I wasn't in your shoes, but I don't. I don't
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: feel like they won. I think it is really hard
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: to find the love of your life, and love always wins.
• 43:08
  Speaker 4: It is, it's, it's and it's not. It's not always
• 43:10
  Speaker 4: been easy. This is this is a tough and by
• 43:13
  Speaker 4: the way, we went from wanting to hang out with
• 43:15
  Speaker 4: each other to now never ever not being with each other.
• 43:19
  Speaker 4: It's I've never spent this much time with another human
• 43:22
  Speaker 4: in my life. But thank god it's him.
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: I don't know I said that about because it did
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: they their goal. They reached their goal. I mean, they
• 43:35
  Speaker 3: did what they set out to do, embarrassed, humiliate, and
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: maybe even get us to lose job. But it like
• 43:42
  Speaker 3: that plan worked. We were threatened at what happened.
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: Now, I don't mean to discredit that.
• 43:48
  Speaker 3: Oh no, no, no, no no, but I'm saying I need
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: to be on board what you're saying.
• 43:51
  Speaker 4: You are correct.
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Like I just imagine that they're like they set
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: out to do what they wanted to do, and now
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: where the fuck are you? And you guys are together
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: living this like very beautiful happy life and it costs
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: a lot, but I mean I'm out in these streets,
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: you guys, and finding your person is hard, and you
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: guys are a testament to like you fought, you sacrificed,
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: and I'm just so happy that you guys, you know,
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: worked it all out, your kids are involved in happy,
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: you have iHeart allowing you to do things on your terms. Yeah,
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: this was just I really enjoyed having you guys on
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: this podcast. Yes, thank you guys so much. Thank you.
• 44:34
  Speaker 4: We have loved starting to get to know you, but
• 44:37
  Speaker 4: we're going to find out a lot more about you
• 44:40
  Speaker 4: here in just a moment, right. So, we have had
• 44:44
  Speaker 4: a blast being on y'all's podcast, but you all are
• 44:49
  Speaker 4: going to be on our podcast. It's correct.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: I love a good swap, So you guys, thank you
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: so much for listening to another episode of an Unlikely Affair.
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: You can catch Amber and myself on Amy t J
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: and I'm so excited we're going to get into it.
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: So we will catch you guys next week. We'll catch
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: you another pod. Bye bye
• 45:09
  Speaker 6: M