T.J. Holmes revealed he could easily consume over 18 drinks in one day following the backlash of his romance with Amy Robach.
During Thursday’s episode of their “Amy & T.J” podcast, the pair admitted they were “appalled” by how much they drank during 2023 — which they called their version of the COVID-19. “pandemic” — after losing their respective jobs at “GMA3.”
“I didn’t have a job to go to and I was away from a lot of friends and family. We were laying low. So what did I do? I drank a lot,” Robach explained. “A lot more than I ever have. I don’t think I have ever gone a full year where I drink every single day and that was 2023 for me.”
The former anchor, 50, noted that she wasn’t getting “wasted” or “drunk” every day but rather “keeping a buzz going all day or keeping a heightened state of mind during an anxious year.”
Holmes, 46, agreed that he also “needs to reexamine [his] relationship with alcohol,” prompting the pair to reveal just how much they were drinking before turning over their new leaf.
While Robach revealed she was having “over 30 drinks a week,” Holmes said he could “easily go through 18 drinks” a day.
Although Holmes’ number seemed a bit high to Robach, the former explained that the pair — who are “big runners” — like do to what they call “runs to fun,” where they will run several miles and “end at a bar.”
“Now we will run at 8 or 9 in the morning …. and I come back and we have a beer,” Holmes explained, noting that due to the “runs to fun” he is typically already “two drinks in” by lunchtime.
Then, once lunch comes around, they typically have at least two more drinks unless they have errands to run. From there, Holmes said he could “easily have a drink in [his] hand from two in the afternoon until seven, eight, nine, ten at night.”
“So you do those numbers and that’s a drink an hour for another eight hours — or even less — but that is another eight hours of a drink in hand, plus the four I had during the day,” he continued.
Yet the pair pointed out that the “official guidelines say one drink is one beer or a five ounce glass of wine or one and a half ounces of liquor” and so Holmes isn’t necessarily “pouring 18 drinks” but rather accounting for heavy pours.
While looking deeper into their drinking habits, the pair also assessed how much money they were spending on alcohol per month — which caught them both by surprise.
After tallying up how much money they spent on the alcohol delivery app Drizly and their receipts from bars, Holmes revealed they spent $2,869 on booze in December 2023 alone.
“This doesn’t include, however, the trips we made once in a while to a liquor store,” he added.
The couple told listeners that they wanted to be honest about their relationship with alcohol to encourage others to do the same.
While Holmes has participated in dry January in years past, Robach revealed this is her first time doing the challenge — which she wouldn’t have had the courage to do without her partner.
“I don’t know that I would have felt comfortable or — honestly this may sound crazy — but I don’t know if I would have felt brave enough or courageous enough to say, ‘I am 100 percent going cold turkey this month,’ if you hadn’t said, ‘I’m doing it and we can do it together.'”
