T.J. Holmes had sex in office with ABC 'intern' 13 years his junior

T.J. Holmes engaged in an affair with a script coordinator 13 years his junior, who reached out to him as a prospective mentor but was left feeling uncomfortable and used after the relationship turned sexual, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.

According to one well-placed source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the affair with then 24-year-old Jasmin Pettaway, took place in 2015 when had been married to his , Marilee Fiebig, for five years.

The source, who knew Pettaway well at the time, said: ‘He was a predator who took full advantage of his position, and he was reckless.

‘It was Jasmin’s first real job in television, and it was a big deal for her.She was looking for a mentor and she reached out to several people. T.J was someone who was responsive, but he absolutely abused the position of trust,’ the source said.

At the time Pettaway and Holmes, who had joined the ABC News Team in September 2014, were often on the same shifts.

The source said: ‘Holmes was someone who would grab drinks and he and Jasmin started doing that.You must remember he was a correspondent at the time and he’s taking time to speak to her about work or whatever.

‘I don’t know how long that had been going on before it got sexual, but I do know the first time it did was in his office, and he was about to go on air in a couple of hours.’

The source said Pettaway later told them that Holmes called her into his office where she saw he was drinking liquor.

‘There’s like an atmosphere shift, almost an expectation that something’s going to happen, and it did.

‘They had sex and I know she was confused afterwards as to what it meant. That kind of «Did that just really happen?» feeling. I mean that’s pretty risky behavior on his part.’

It was, the source said, part of a pattern of ‘incredibly reckless’ conduct on Holmes’s part.On one occasion the source said the pair were having drinks together when he ‘got handsy’ in a very public place and way.

They said: ‘He just didn’t seem to care. You know he’s wearing his ring. He has a wife, he has a relatively high-profile job, but he wasn’t acting like he was concerned about either of those things at the time.’

Holmes’s rep did not respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment. Pettaway declined to comment.

Pettaway and Holmes’s sexual relationship continued for several months and included him visiting her at her apartment before, the source said, ‘it fizzled out.’

The source said: ‘What’s that saying?»Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it burned in one.» That’s how it went with Jasmin and T.J. It didn’t last long but you have to wonder if he ever invested in being a mentor at all?

‘Jasmin was a beautiful girl and he had it all on his terms.He was interested and then he wasn’t.

‘This was a young woman, starting out in a difficult industry, looking for role models and mentors and she got T.J.

‘No-one talked about abuse of power back then, but stuff happened.’

Pettaway went on to become a segment producer for GMA and remained with ABC in New York for two years before returning to her hometown of Cleveland late 2016, where she joined the network’s local affiliate.

Today she is an award-winning casting producer for ITV America, married and the founder of digital women’s lifestyle brand, Lemon-Love.

In an online interview with Voyage Ohio in 2021 she reflected on her departure from New York saying that it came due to a ‘mixture of insecurity, loneliness and some naïvete.’ She also admitted ABC’s ‘toxic work environment really damaged my self-esteem.’

DailyMail.com has been told that Pettaway was not the only female subordinate on whom Holmes put the moves as, according to the multiple sources, a young network intern described herself as ‘stressed’ and ‘freaked out’ by his unwanted advances.

According to the source: ‘That’s who he was.Did he ever want to be professional when it came to Jasmin or just spoil the fruits he’d been given? I don’t know. I just know he was always looking to be the guy with the swagger.

‘He didn’t seem to care that he was married or that he could be risking his job.’

In fact, DailyMail.com has been told, that attempts to raise concerns over Holmes’s ‘behavioral issues’ — which included drinking alcohol in his office and before going on air — were rebuffed by at least one executive producer who ‘didn’t want to know’ when told that the star was ‘a huge liability.’ 

Indeed, in the aftermath of DailyMail.com breaking the with married GMA3 co-host Amy Robach, 49, last November, word of a prior affair surfaced.

In 2016 Holmes began with GMA producer Natasha Singh, 37.At the time she was married to movie producer Garrett Braren, whose credits include Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny. She was also a close friend to Robach.

In fact, it was Robach who helped Holmes salvage his marriage after wife Marilee Feibig, 44, learned of his infidelity with Singh.

But neither Robach’s nor Holmes’s 12-year marriages could survive the revelation of their affair, which began as a friendship fizzing with obvious chemistry and ‘crossed the line’ last year.

Holmes’s wife filed for divorce shortly after Christmas.Robach’s divorce from her husband, former Melrose Place actor Andrew Shue, 55, is reportedly all but finalized.

Professionally their futures still .With ABC executives yet to make a final decision, the official line remains that the co-hosts-turned-lovers will be out of their seats at the morning show’s lunchtime slot ‘indefinitely.’