The recent departure of Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes from ABC News and GMA3 after a monthslong controversy due to their alleged romantic relationship has brought out a variety of opinions. SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly believes race may have played a role in the way the events transpired.
During The Megyn Kelly Show, the host claimed the PR behavior by the pair was “ridiculous” and added “I think there is a very good reason why they lost their jobs”, before wondering if Holmes put ABC News in a difficult position because of his race and the potential public reaction if he was the only anchor punished.
“My suspicion is they were in a position where, ‘What are you gonna do? You’re gonna fire the black anchor and you’re gonna let the white female stay?’ That can’t happen,” Kelly posited.
“She had to go too. Even though that investigation appears to have only found her prior sins as being she had a bottle of liquor sealed in her office and somebody claimed she showed up drunk after some sporting event on the air, which I don’t believe either. But I bet you if you cast a wide net, you could find 10 people who showed up drunk on the air at ABC at one point or another.”
Kelly then noted the way the pair handled the allegations — going as far as to joke about the situation on the air before being removed from the anchor desk — was completely wrong.
“They could have said on the show the next day, ’cause they were on the air one day with this scandal having been broken by The Daily Mail,” Kelly continued, “and they could have said, ‘We are very embarrassed. It’s true. This was a private matter that we wanted to resolve privately given the fact that we have kids and we have spouses, but we couldn’t, given The Daily Mail report. And we are gonna take a leave of absence to deal with this and we hope that we can earn your forgiveness and trust when we come back’. And then lay low.
“Stop with the very clearly orchestrated photo events in South Beach where they were all over each other kissing and fondling, while their spouses who they cheated on are posting sad face pictures with their kids who look incredibly forlorn,” Kelly said. “That was a massive PR error. They 100% orchestrated, it in my opinion.”
