Quarantine can be such a struggle for some couples, so it’s encouraging to see a couple getting closer through the strain. ABC News journalist Amy Robach’s latest Instagram update is a heartwarming ode to her husband, actor-turned-entrepreneur Andrew Shue, with a message about how the pandemic has taught her to take time to enjoy the simple beauty in everyday life.
“Walking in the woods on a weekday with my guy… learning to enjoy the quiet, beautiful moments through all of this,” Robach wrote in the caption of a photo of her and Shue on a beautiful hike (above).
Read MoreRobach was diagnosed with stage 2 invasive breast cancer in 2013 after agreeing to get a mammogram on live TV as part of a “Good Morning America” breast cancer awareness segment. The journalist was so shocked and devastated, she told SurvivorNet, that she began to get angry with her husband for not reacting the way she felt, at the time, that she needed him to.
“I don’t know how other people handle that news, but I didn’t handle it well,” Robach, now 47, told SurvivorNet. “I became an absolute wreck, a total mess. I had my husband on speaker phone at the time of diagnosis because he was 3,000 miles away … I remember the radiologist, because my husband said nothing … said into the phone, ‘Mr. Shue, your wife is not taking the news very well,’ trying to get him to say something.”
The truth was, Robach and Shue were both shocked at the diagnosis — which came out of the blue at a time when their marriage was already in a rough spot.
“We were already struggling when I got the cancer diagnosis,” she said. “So, this kind of threw everything into a further tailspin, until it didn't … until we realized that we were only stronger together and that we had to give each other a break.”
RELATED: Breast Cancer Surgery — What Are the Options?
Robach explained that it took awhile for her to see that even though she was the one battling cancer, for which she eventually ended up undergoing a double mastectomy, her husband was going through the diagnosis and all the emotions that come with it right there with her.
“I actually say cancer saved my marriage,” Robach said. “Ultimately, it did because we figured out some of the things we were struggling with in terms of becoming teammates and not doing what we thought was right, but what the other person needed. And so, I have the worst thing in my life to credit with creating one of the best dynamics in my life now.”
That dynamic seems to have carried over into the era of COVID-19, as Robach has shared regular snaps of she and Shue enjoying their time inside (and outside — at a safe social distance, of course), doing everything from long hikes to training jogs to “growing old together on the front porch,” as seen in the above snap.
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.
