ABC's T.J. Holmes says 'it's been a great week' in aftermath of affair with co-host being exposed
ABC 'GMA3' hosts T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach, who had a reported affair while married to other people, opened Friday's show in coy fashion.
A former high-level ABC News employee isn’t surprised by a devastating feature about "horned up" culture at the Disney-owned network that has been under a microscope since the extramarital affair between Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes was exposed.
"ABC News’ squalid culture of sex, including sex involving some executives, has been a huge problem at the once-great institution for many years," the former senior employee, who says they witnessed rampant debauchery at the job, told Fox News Digital.
"Now it’s the subject of this extremely embarrassing article which makes Disney look terrible," the former senior staffer told Fox News Digital. "It’s sad that all we hear about ABC News these days is about sex rather than journalism."
T.J. HOLMES, AMY ROBACH REACH DEAL WITH DISNEY’S ABC NEWS TO EXIT AMID CHEATING SCANDAL
T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach reached an agreement with Disney’s ABC News to exit the network after their cheating scandal dominated tabloids and caused internal drama for nearly two months. (Paula Lobo/ABC via Getty Images)
New York magazine’s The Cut on Tuesday published, "Inside the ‘Horned Up’ Office Culture at ABC News," a stunning look at the company that featured a variety of current and former employees dishing on office romances. The sources, who had their names changes to shield identities, said "office relationships between women and men with more seniority were common at the network in the 2010s."
"It felt like everybody was sleeping around," one source told The Cut while another added that it felt like the network was staffed by "a bunch of horned-up high-school students."
Robach and Holmes co-hosted "GMA3 together for years, but they're gone after reaching a deal to exit ABC News last month after weeks of negative publicity since their cheating scandal came to light.
The devastating Cut piece focuses on a "then-27-year-old digital news associate" referred to as Sascha, who recounted her affair with Holmes, long before his scandalous relationship with Robach made him a tabloid regular.
A former ABC News staffer told The Cut she carried on an affair with T.J. Holmes long before his relationship with Amy Robach made him a tabloid regular. (Paula Lobo/ABC via Getty Images)
"Seeing the couple’s story go viral made Sascha question her own relationship with Holmes and the workplace culture that made sex between co-workers seem so normal at ABC News," The Cut’s Angelina Chapin wrote.
"Their affair became a bright spot that carried her through grueling shifts. Sascha started doing her hair and dressing nicely for work. During breaks, she’d visit Holmes’s office, where they’d have sex behind a locked door. It didn’t seem crazy to her at the time given what she describes as ABC News’s ‘rampant culture of sex,’" Chapin continued. "Sascha had heard rumors that other colleagues slept together in an edit bay, where the window was covered by a poster, and that after having affairs with executives, certain women had been promoted."
Sascha added, "It was a pretty scandalous place."
The extramarital affair between T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach landed on the front page of the New York Post. (New York Post)
Sascha "recently found out that she and Holmes hadn’t been so covert," according to the magazine. Last month, the New York Post published a story in which her former colleague said Holmes was suspected of having sex in his office in 2015 when a "junior staffer" emerged looking disheveled after sounds of rustling were heard.
"While the story didn’t name her, Sascha immediately recognized herself as the subject. She felt violated and angry," Chapin wrote. "Watching the tabloids publish the names and photos of other women who were involved with Holmes, without their permission, makes her worry the same might happen to her."
Kim Godwin was named president of ABC News in May 2021. (ABC )
The magazine also spoke with a "former ABC News producer who dated an older co-worker" who directs ill will at herself. "I wasn’t mature enough to have the foresight not to screw around and put my career in jeopardy," she said.
Another woman, who is called Ruth by the magazine, said a complaint that she was inappropriately touched in a dark, soundproof editing bay went ignored by higher-ups.
An ABC News spokesperson told The Cut that harassment and intimidation are not tolerated.
"Creating a safe, respectful, and professional work environment for everyone has been, and continues to be, a top priority at ABC News," a spokesperson said.
ABC News declined to provide additional comment when reached by Fox News Digital.
A current staffer told the magazine ABC News "has become less scandalous" since Kim Godwin was named president in 2021. Others aren’t thrilled with the way the Holmes-Robach affair was handled, and the former senior staffer who spoke to Fox News Digital thinks parent company Disney needs to step in if sex stories continue to spill out.
"It will take much stronger leadership than is currently in place to clean ABC News up," they said.
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