HGTV star Tarek El Moussa has opened up about the breakdown of his marriage to Flip or Flop co-star Christina Hall and the infamous gun incident that led to their divorce.
As reported by People, the real estate investor shares his side of the story in his new book, Flip Your Life: How to Find Opportunity in Distress – In Real Estate, Business, and Life, which is set for release on Tuesday, February 6.
The incident in question happened in 2016 when police were called to the couple’s property in Yorba Linda, California, after El Moussa allegedly fled into a nature area with a pistol after a massive fight with Hall. The pair separated soon after, and their split became public in December 2016.
“I went out to our backyard in Yorba Linda and hopped over the fence,” El Moussa writes in his new book, per People. However, he claims he wasn’t fleeing the scene but instead scouting the nearby trails so he could go and exercise.
He also explained why he had a .38-caliber pistol with him, noting it was an “insurance policy” should he run into any dangerous animals. The property was located near Chino Hills State Park, a habitat for wildlife, including mountain lions and bobcats.
Tarek and Christina; Courtesy of HGTV
A helicopter started following him, which he said he thought was for an emergency, possibly a wildfire, nearby. “A police officer leaning out of the helicopter pointed a rifle at me,” he recalled. “Dust swirled around me from the spin of the blades, and a loudspeaker crackled, ‘Get your hands in the air!’”
Thankfully, the officer recognized him from TV, and the tensions eased, though El Moussa was placed in handcuffs and taken back to his property.
“For the next several hours, I sat on a cooler on my driveway, handcuffed,” he added. “That was the very last time we were together as a family: with Christina walking down the driveway, crying, and me sitting there in handcuffs, asking myself, What in the world is going on?”
El Moussa and Hall, who share two children, Taylor and Brayden, born in 2010 and 2015, respectively, separated soon after the incident, and the split took a significant toll on El Moussa.
The reality star told People he went through weeks of “physical and emotional hell,” including hiding out on his boat, drinking himself unconscious, and suffering through extreme withdrawal from the testosterone he’d been taking.
“Everybody gave up on me: the magazines, the outlets, the network, nobody believed in me,” he continued.
After disappearing from the limelight for several months, El Moussa said the hopes of reuniting with his family got him through the hard times. But he soon found out that wasn’t in the cards as Hall began dating her second husband, Ant Anstead, in late 2017.
“I would say devastating would be an understatement,” he said of discovering his ex-wife’s new relationship.
However, as the years have passed, El Moussa says he’s in a much better place in his life. He started dating actress and real estate agent Heather Rae Young in 2019. The pair married in October 2021 and welcomed their son Tristan in January 2023.
“I hold nothing against Christina. I understand why she did what she did,” El Moussa told People. “We had a lot of hard years through my sicknesses and my mental health struggles from the testosterone. [Our relationship] is better than it’s been ever since the separation. We all communicate well, even Heather and Christina. We really focus on the kids.”