Flip or Flop’s Tarek El Moussa completed a cancer screening test nearly three weeks before he announced his separation from his wife, Christina.
The reality TV host opened up about the health update in an Instagram post November 23. “Rough couple of years. Today I Went in for another cancer screening and it was all clear! I remember the day we took this photo,” he captioned a throwback pic of him and Christina.
In the snapshot, Christina cozies up to Tarek as he rests in his hospital bed. He’s wearing a hospital gown, which shows a scar on his throat.
In 2013, a registered nurse named Ryan Reade spotted a lump on Talek’s neck while watching a marathon of the HGTV series. Reade contacted the show’s producers to notify him.
Tarek, who was a heavy smoker, thought it was just a fatty mass. He later found out that he had thyroid cancer. He subsequently had his thyroid and lymph nodes removed and underwent radiation treatment.
“I was just feeling totally overwhelmed about losing him,” Christina told the Today show in 2015.
Tarek added: “We made a decision not to slow down, not to stop. We’re gonna run the business. We’re gonna fight through this cancer, ’cause the second you slow down is the second it gets scary and you start getting depressed.”
The real estate agents have continued to work together since their breakup too. As previously reported, the exes — who are the parents of Taylor, 6, and son Brayden, 15 months — quietly split earlier this year following an explosive fight. On May 23, Christina’s friend told police that she saw Tarek with a weapon and authorities responded to a “possible suicidal male with a gun.”
“Like many couples, we have had challenges in our marriage. We had an unfortunate misunderstanding about six months ago, and the police were called to our house in an abundance of caution,” the stars told Us in a statement Monday. “There was no violence and no charges were filed. We chose to get counseling to sort out our relationship. Together, we have decided to separate while we reevaluate the future of our marriage. During this process, we are committed to our kids and being the best parents we can be.”
