Tarek El Moussa split from Christina Hall in 2016, but he still has fond memories of their years together.
El Moussa, 42, opened up about his relationship with Hall, 40, in his new book, Flip Your Life: How to Find Opportunity in Distress — in Real Estate, Business, and Life, which hit shelves on Tuesday, February 6. While much of the book centers on how to get back on your feet after suffering setbacks, El Moussa shared a few details about his relationship with Hall, whom he married in 2009.
“In May 2005, a young woman arrived at Prudential fresh out of San Diego State and ready to start her career,” El Moussa wrote. “Because of the crazy hours I was working, it took a while for the two of us to meet. Her name was Christina Haack. Christina was from the neighborhood; she had grown up in Anaheim Hills. Now she was on board, real estate license in hand, trying to become a successful agent.”
The duo were each dating other people when they met, but by fall 2006, they were single and ready to see whether their friendship could be something more. “And that was the beginning of a wild adventure and years of extremes,” El Moussa recalled. “Ahead of us were plenty of moments of celebration. But for all of the amazing highs, there were just as many devastating lows — including more than one major crisis.”
Keep reading for more of El Moussa’s revelations about his marriage to Hall:
1. They Weren’t Always the House-Flipping Entrepreneurs They Are Today
El Moussa and Hall are both real-estate experts HGTV stars, but they dealt with financial instability early in their relationship. “Christina and I moved from one tiny apartment to the next,” El Moussa wrote. “Every day for lunch, five days a week, the two of us would go to the local Subway. We would split a five-dollar footlong, get a water cup, then ‘accidentally’ hit the lemonade button instead of the water button. That lemonade was our splurge.”
Shortly after their wedding, El Moussa got into the house-flipping business, and with a lot of hard work, his career took off. Around the same time, he began pitching the idea of a TV show that followed him and Hall. That idea eventually became Flip or Flop, which ran for 10 seasons on HGTV.
2. ‘Flip or Flop’ Got Off to a Rocky Start
Casual Flip or Flop fans may not realize that El Moussa and Hall were learning how to flip houses as they filmed. Their pilot episode followed their third-ever house flip, but it was compelling enough that HGTV ordered a full season right away. “The TV people would get the footage they needed for one episode, then they’d say, ‘We’re ready to do another house!’ But there wasn’t another house yet,” El Moussa wrote. “They would ask, ‘Where’s the next house?’ And I would have to admit, ‘I haven’t bought it yet!’ Then I would jump into action and figure it out.”
Amid all of this turmoil, El Moussa recalled that the network shut down production on Flip or Flop midway through the first season. “It stopped cold,” he said. “Eventually, we learned that while most of the folks at HGTV loved what we were doing, there was one doubter. A higher-up at the network worried that our show might not be consistent with the network’s brand.” The fans won out, however, and production resumed. Flip or Flop premiered in April 2013, and within two weeks, HGTV had moved the show to a prime time slot.
3. How Tarek’s Cancer Diagnosis Affected His Marriage
El Moussa was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2013 after a Flip or Flop viewer noticed a lump on his throat. Two months later, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. “It was one of those moments when I felt like I was living in a nightmare,” he wrote, noting that he began taking testosterone supplements on the advice of a doctor.
The testosterone, however, only made him feel worse. “I would come home and be so strung out, so raw, that I couldn’t even talk to Christina; I couldn’t talk to Taylor or play with Brayden. … I was a terrible husband, father, friend and son,” he recalled. “I was the most miserable I had ever been in my life, because of my struggling mental health. Christina and I knew that we were committed to this amazing ride for as long as the ride would last. But between the show, the businesses, the filming, our babies — and my self-administered ‘treatments’ — the ride had gotten wilder and faster than we could really handle as a couple.”
4. Why Christina Called the Police on Tarek
Near the end of her marriage to El Moussa, Hall called the police one day in 2016 when her then-husband left the house with a gun in his backpack. According to El Moussa, he wanted to get some exercise after a “heated confrontation” with Hall, but Hall was concerned about the fact that he’d brought his gun along. “Looking back, I can see why Christina was so concerned,” El Moussa wrote. “In the weeks leading up to that terrible day, my mental health was as bad as it had ever been. But ending my life was just something I wouldn’t have done. Christina asked me for space for a few days, and she wanted me to leave our home.”
The pair ultimately separated, and El Moussa spent months living in what he describes as “a halfway house occupied mostly by heroin addicts.” Hall and El Moussa, who share daughter Taylor, 13, and son Brayden, 8, finalized their divorce in 2018.
5. How It Felt to Work on ‘Flip or Flop’ Post-Split
El Moussa and Hall continued working together on Flip or Flop until 2022, well after they’d split and moved on with other partners. Tarek began dating Selling Sunset star Heather Rae El Moussa (née Young) in 2019, and they tied the knot in 2021. Christina, meanwhile, was married to Ant Anstead from 2018 to 2021. She married her third husband, Joshua Hall, in 2022.
”Christina and I were still under contract and filming the show, but of course the atmosphere on the set was awkward, to say the least,” Tarek wrote of the period after his and Christina’s split. “The production team did their best to keep things positive, efficient and professional, but for months on end, the energy was terrible. Every time I was on the set, I told myself, in so many words, ‘You’re gonna get through this.’ It was about sticking with the basics and taking it one small step at a time.”
