The breakfast hosts, the Melrose Place star and the affair America is obsessed with.

Breakfast television is an industry often swirling with rumours, allegations and lots of drama.

We've seen it play out here in Australia, and also more widely via TV shows like Morning Wars with Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. And in recent months, the television drama machine has churned out yet another story - and it's got everything to do with an alleged affair between two hosts and a famous actor caught in the crossfire.

Good Morning America (GMA) is one of the most popular morning news shows in the US, with a string of hosts. 

The primary anchors are Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos and Michael Strahan, with the breaking news anchor being Amy Robach. One of the correspondents/anchor is journalist T. J. Holmes. 

Robach and Holmes are the two names to remember. 

Both Robach and Holmes are also the anchors of Good Morning America 3: What You Need to Know, which is the daytime news program broadcast by ABC and the afternoon spin-off of GMA.

The pair had been working closely with one another for years in the GMA television world - very close in fact. So close that reports emerged in December that the pair had been in the midst of an affair for quite some time now. 

Amy Robach and T. J. Holmes working together. Image: Good Morning America.

It all happened when the Daily Mail published a series of photos of Robach and Holmes being romantic with one another while in public. 

Reports said the two have been an item for over six months. At the time, both were still married.

Holmes has been with his wife, high-profile immigration lawyer, Marilee Fiebig since 2010, and they share one daughter together and each has two kids respectively from their previous marriages. A close friend of Fiebig's told Page Six that she and Holmes had been rocky in their marriage over the past year, but that she was still "blindsided" by the news.

"She's devastated. She had no idea. They were trying to work it out," the friend said.

As for Robach, she and her husband, Melrose Place actor Andrew Shue, also married in 2010, and have a blended family together - Robach has two daughters from a former marriage and Shue has three sons from his first marriage.

Shue has since deleted all images of his wife from his social media. It is reported that he and Robach were also experiencing a period of estrangement.

And as if things couldn't get any messier, before Holmes started his relationship with Robach, he had allegedly engaged in a three-year affair with a GMA producer. 

Multiple sources told Page Six that Holmes and his girlfriend at the time even confided in Robach about their infidelity.

"Amy was the person they went to talk to about their affair and marriages," an insider claimed. "She didn't know about the affair until it was in its final stages. They told her about it right at the end."

Amy Robach and T. J. Holmes with their partners. Image: Instagram/Facebook.

The source continued: "Marilee [Holmes' wife] never considered Amy because she was focused on Natasha. She never thought about [him cheating] with Amy because they were friends. Amy's daughter was their daughter's babysitter."

As Holmes himself wrote in a tribute to his wife in 2020: "Despite my best efforts, she remained married to me the past 10 years. That's not hyperbole. I'm not being dramatic. I gave her plenty of reasons, excuses, and opportunities to walk her fine ass out the doooooooor."

Adding further fuel to the fire is the fact both Holmes and Robach's families have been close friends for quite some time. Robach and Holmes even became running partners in 2021, and completed the New York City marathon together in November 2022.

It's alleged the pair began the affair in March 2022 while training for the marathon.

Things then became more serious "when they were in London together filming the late Queen's Diamond Jubilee for ABC and staff were buzzing about the intimacy between them".

An anonymous ABC News staffer said the pair had been "very careful behind the scenes to keep their affair a secret," adding that the producers of GMA were "shocked to hear" when the situation unfolded.

Watch Lily Allen speak about cheating on her husband. Story continues below.

Soon after the news broke, both Robach and Holmes swiftly deleted their Instagram pages. In recent weeks, Robach has restored her Instagram, but hasn't posted since November.

The day after those initial Daily Mail reports and images surfaced, the duo were anchoring Good Morning America 3: What You Need to Know as per usual - and it was awkward viewing to say the least. Because both did everything they could to act as though nothing had occurred.

Although on the show, 45-year-old Holmes did joke: "It's too bad it's Friday. It's been a great week."

As for Robach, she addressed it all in an exclusive conversation with The US Sun. 

The 49-year-old was asked if she had a comment about "what has been going on" with her long-time co-star and she said: "It's been great, I've gotten a lot of support, and um, just I appreciate everything and I'm happy to be going to work."

The publication also confirmed that Robach had moved out of her shared apartment with her estranged husband, and is now in a "full-blown relationship" with Holmes. 

The following week, it was announced that GMA has decided to take Robach and Holmes off the air following the public disclosure of their romantic relationship. 

Network President Kim Godwin shared the news with staffers, reportedly saying: "The relationship between two of our colleagues. I want to say that while that relationship is not a violation of company policy, I have really taken the last few days to think about and work through what I think is best for the ABC News organisation. And so, for now, I am going to take Amy and T. J. off the air, while we figure this out."

In January 2023, it was announced that ABC News has ripped up its contracts with Robach and Holmes.

In a statement to People, a spokesperson said that following an internal investigation and conversations with Robach and Holmes, a final decision was made.

"We all agreed it's best for everyone that they move on from ABC News."

The pair are reportedly "devastated". 

A source from their team said: "They can't believe this is happening to them. They're very, very much together in every way. They're proceeding with their divorces as they were going to anyway."

Image: Good Morning America.

It's now interesting to look back on previous quotes the co-anchors had said about one another during interviews - particularly the one where Robach said to People Holmes was like her "brother".

"The GMA producers said, 'Hey, we want to bring on a co-anchor. What do you think of T.J. Holmes?' And I almost fell out of my chair. My God. You couldn't have picked a better person to ask me what I thought of, because we've been trying to figure out a way to work together for literally the last five years," she said.

"The moment he started at ABC, I think we just clicked. We've gone on tonnes of double dates with our spouses and my daughters babysit his daughters. Basically, he's like my brother. We just can finish each other's sentences. We get along so well."

This article was originally published on December 4, 2022 and was updated in January 2023 with new information.

Feature Image: Good Morning America/Instagram.