TJ Holmes Was Accused of Stealing Someone’s Cell Phone on a Flight

TJ Holmes spoke out about being falsely accused of theft.

“I was recently accused of stealing someone’s phone on a flight,” Holmes, 46, shared on the Tuesday, April 30, episode of “and.” Amy RobachAmy and TJ Podcast. “[It was] JetBlue, but I can’t remember the flight number or I would tell you. The woman sat in 1F and I sat in 5C.”

Holmes noted that Robach, 51, had previously “witnessed a black man go through similar situations” but was “treated very differently.”

“I used the toilet at the front next to the cockpit. I come out and there’s a flight attendant and a little old lady,” he recalls. “She’s standing there and the flight attendant asks if I saw a phone there. I turned around and said no.”

Despite Holmes’ denials, the unnamed woman continued to accuse him. “The woman comes up to me and makes a gesture as if she’s going to search me: ‘Oh, you don’t have it?’ Outside the plane, she accused me of stealing her phone,” he added. “I actually squatted down, put my hands on my knees and got down to her level. I’m like, ‘Ma’am, are you telling me I stole your phone?’ She kind of ignores me.”

The passenger found her phone and subsequently realized she was in the wrong. In the end, she screamed “across the front rows” to Holmes that she was sorry but the damage was done.

“I’m sorry, that’s not enough at this point,” Robach said, to which Holmes added, “I have to stay calm.” If there weren’t more people there, I wouldn’t bend over and be as assertive as I am because I don’t have one “I would have a witness who would testify that I am not aggressive.”

This isn’t the first time Holmes has used his platform to speak out about the experiences he’s had as a Black man. Earlier this year, Holmes and Robach released an episode in which they worked through an issue in their relationship live. Robach cried at various points in the conversation, while Holmes adopted a calmer demeanor.

Holmes later admitted that he regretted recording his tense argument with Robach, citing the backlash caused by racial stigma.

“I told them both straight away [Amy and our producer] I said on the phone right at 4:30 in the morning that I don’t want to put this out because I’m afraid it will be seen as a black man beating up a white woman,” he said in a January episode. “Now if anyone has taken the time to listen to this podcast, then obviously I wasn’t screaming, I was screaming. I didn’t do anything. Now we’re a couple at odds, so obviously neither of us are having our best moments.”

Robach, meanwhile, criticized concerns from listeners who claimed she and Holmes were in an “unhealthy” relationship.

“That would never have occurred to me. Race, the fact that you’re black and I’m white, would never have crossed my mind, and that’s kind of your point,” she explained. “You have to think about things that I don’t have to think about. And honestly, it took me a second to understand it. After you explained it – and when we saw the reaction – in a way a light bulb went off in my head. And it’s just a constant learning curve. But, and I’ve said this all along, I don’t know what I don’t know, and every day I learn more about what I don’t know.”

The couple launched their podcast in December 2023, a year after they made headlines for getting cozy outside of the office on numerous occasions. At this time Robach was married to Andrew Shue since 2010, and Holmes was married to him Marilee Fiebig since 2010. Both filed for divorce after their relationship came to light in November 2022.

After sparking breakup rumors with their January podcast episode, Robach and Holmes clarified that they are still together.

“We just wanted to stop by and let you know that despite what you’ve heard, we’re still together. We hear from many of you on our latest episode of the podcast,” Holmes said via Instagram video that same month. “It was something we really struggled with and debated whether we should even release it – but at this point I’m glad we did.”

Robach added, “Our bigger goal in releasing our latest episode was to show that while we love showing pictures of ourselves smiling and laughing like everyone else on social media, we want to be authentic and transparent.” , we wanted to show all sides of ourselves and I would say most of the relationships. So we hope you all get something out of it and we hope you keep coming back.”