Flip or Flop star Christina El Moussa is on her second People cover this week, if we count the post-divorce announcement cover as her first. This December, Christina and Tarek admitted they had split several months earlier following a huge fight after which Tarek “took a hike” armed with loaded guns. Since their separation was announced, the narrative surrounding their post-split life has changed a few times. Initially, the reason given for their divorce was that renovating their home had been overwhelming and taken its toll on the marriage. I could see where that was probably not the best talking point for renovation gurus. From there, the story took some dark turns that had crew members alleging Tarek was abusive to Christina on set. Now that season six is airing, and the couple is filming season seven, Christina is claiming “Fake News” regarding any acrimony. According to her, their marital issues stemmed from the pressures of sudden fame and returning to work too soon after her son’s birth. Christina claims they are friends and everything is just fine.
After welcoming son Brayden, the mounting pressures of running their business piled up, and Christina went back to work just four weeks after giving birth. “It was too soon for me,” she says. “I was overwhelmed. The tension between me and Tarek was high.”
“We weren’t able to properly communicate anymore,” she says. “It got to the point where we weren’t even driving to set together.”
After news of their split finally became public in December, Christina says she felt relief. “I think the separation process begins long before people actually separate,” she says now. “So by the time we officially did, I felt like a weight was lifted off me.”
Tarek officially filed for divorce on Jan. 9, but the couple has been candid about their decision to move on and date other people.
“Tarek and I don’t discuss each other’s personal lives,” she says. “It is what it is and we are going through a divorce and eventually we will be dating other people. I’m happy for him and whatever steps he takes in his life and I just hope he’s happy.”
“We have so much fun on set and we look forward to continuing the show,” said El Moussa. “We met at work so we worked together before we ever started dating.”
“It’s our normal,” she said of her working situation with Tarek, with whom she also runs a seminar company. The El Moussas appeared smiling alongside each other at a speaking engagement at the 2017 Investor Summit in Las Vegas earlier this month.
People has a follow up claiming that Christina is finally opening up about the incident last May in which Tarek left their home with a gun. She remained very vague about it, however, simply saying “It just made me realize that us being separated was healthier for both of us. I didn’t necessarily know that we weren’t going to get back together. It was after seeking therapy and trying to work things out that we both realized this is for the best.”
While being interviewed by Michael Strahan on Good Morning America, Christina said that “despite everything that articles show” she and Tarek were getting along fine at work and in co-parenting the kids. Christina and Tarek not only have the show but their side business, Success Path, which provides educational seminars on house-flipping. It sounds like a contentious divorce could jeopardize all of that. Also interesting is that Tarek was the one to file for the divorce since it sounds like most of the pressure was on Christina. And after reports of Tarek blowing wads of cash on his much-younger girlfriends, he is asking Christina for spousal support.
Christina’s comments about “the separation process begins long before people actually separate” are completely relatable. Many of us have been there. She speaks about the tension before the spilt being so great, they had started driving to the set separately. The marriage did sound like a pressure cooker for everyone and I’m relieved she got out before things got even further out of hand. I just really hope this newfound “normal” is really what she wants. Or if she doesn’t, that she has options to get out of it.
There’s also news that Christina and her boyfriend, contractor Gary Anderson, have broken up.
Photo credit: People, Getty Images and Fame/Flynet Photography
Sorry, I don’t believe their spin. These two saw the gravy train pulling out of the station and decided to stick it out for the money. They both seem like huge opportunists.
It says a lot about him that he is going after spousal support. Things may be okayish for the moment but they will explode shortly.
People can get to a point in their lives where a shitty situation feels like “their normal.” That doesn’t mean it’s automatically good or healthy.
I don’t believe her – I think she thinks she can achieve her desire for mega-fame better alone. I mean c’mon..she went through IN VITRO when her marriage was already bad??!! That is a BIG thing to go through in a bad situation (and cue her in 1, 2, 3 to say….it was a “patch” baby to respond to that). Because to actually bring ANOTHER CHILD into a relationship where the “separation process begins long before…”???! Bad enough 1 kid, but 2, one who was “difficult to conceive”??? Really??!! Isn’t their baby barely 2?!?! The timelines just don’t match. He doesn’t look easy, but I think she wanted fame, fell out of love with him, had an affair with someone who has $ and can expand her business and she is playing the “I was unhappy for a LONG TIME” card to paint herself as a victim and to get her own show. Maybe she was realizing the public weren’t buying her woo is me strategy and why she is now “it’s fake news, we get along” strategy.
Can’t stand her. And her VOICE?!?! Is it just me who hates it SO MUCH? Is her voice awful, mannish and sounds…uneducated?! Anybody else feel that way????
Great analysis, I agree with you. I think she had an affair etc as well.
Yeah, although I hesitate to take the man’s side when any kind of abuse by the husband is alleged, even verbal (as formerly claimed in this case), I just have trouble believing her spin.
The elephant in the room is that during this time or just prior to it, Tarek was diagnosed with thyroid cancer after a viewer contacted the show about a swelling she observed in his neck area; he had the surgery; and then shortly after that he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.
Ffs, what would we be saying — if the tables were turned — about a man who had left his cancer-stricken wife — let’s say breast cancer, which like testicular cancer pretty much goes to the heart of someone’s physical sexual identity? And then what if the man, in the midst of his wife’s medical trauma, began an affair with one of the show’s contractors?
Sorry, but I find it difficult to sympathize with her in this situation. The one way I can work up some sympathy for her is that they went thru the invitro process to have their son Braydon, and possibly went through it with their first child, too. In vitro is often hard on a relationship, and I’ve heard people who’ve been through it say that nothing erases the romance faster. So when I want to feel some sympathy for her too, I remind myself of that.
And yes, her voice crushes my last nerve.
Totally agree. I liked the show for the one season that I watched it, but then she just got on my nerves.
I agree
She is out for fame
Having an affair set him off
She fell out of love cause she wants to make a name for herself
WRONG
SHe’s too old
Should have done this years ago.I can’t stand her voice
Or her vulgar actions
Good luck to Tarik
Maybe he’ll find someone who is truly a good wife
I think they are both probably psycho to some degree. They 100% should not be gun owners or parents.
This sounds like someone doing damage control and trying to keep her career going.
Totally. “somebody” leaked the he’s so awful stories. Otherwise nobody knows these people or cares about them. Somebody is ready for her close up. Blonde pretty single mom dealing with brown skinned man who had guns and a foreign name. Ahem.
Urgh, these two are so low rent. I can’t believe HGTV is going to keep them around after all the embarrassing drama. The show wasn’t even good to begin with.
Right??? I watched it maybe 3 times… they had NO chemistry whatsoever, he came off as having no backbone-constantly wanting her approval – she’s a mono-tone, nails-on-a-scratchboard whiner who’s disinterested in everything and only cares about HER design, etc. There was nothing to like about this show to begin with, and this BS is just another angle to get people interested again – mostly the ones who like watching train-wrecks, which in my case won’t work.