Tarek El Moussa details THAT ‘blowup’ fight with ex-wife Christina Hall that led him to take a gun to the woods and the end of their seven-year marriage
Tarek El Moussa broke his silence on what really happened when he shot a gun into the woods in 2016 after a “blown” fight with ex-wife Christina Hall.
While reflecting on the dark chapter of his life that led to the end of his seven-year marriage, the Flip or Flop star, 42, detailed the infamous incident in which he took a firearm to the Chino Hills State Park Main Ridge Trail.
After Hall called 911 to report that her then-husband had “grabbed a gun” and ran outside, police responded to a report of a “possibly suicidal male with a gun.”
In his new book, In Flip Your Life: How to Find Opportunity in Distress – in Real Estate, Business and Life, the father of three said after he got into an argument with Hall, he “went to our backyard in Yorba Linda.” . and jumped over the fence.’
Tarek El Moussa broke his silence on what really happened when he shot a gun into the woods in 2016 after a ‘blown-up’ fight with ex-wife Christina Hall (seen in 2020)
Although she feared for his life, El Moussa insists he only fled to get some exercise and explore the trails along their property after recently purchasing a pair of new mountain bikes.
Since the trail is also a home to dangerous wildlife, the TV personality, who is now married to Selling Sunset’s Heather Rae Young, explained that he armed himself with a .38-caliber pistol as an “insurance policy.”
El Moussa, who had obtained his California concealed carry permit just a few weeks earlier, was shocked to see a “police officer leaning out of the helicopter” and pointing a “rifle” at him.
“Dust swirled around me as the blades turned, and a loudspeaker crackled, ‘Put your hands in the air!’” he recalled in his book. ‘More and more police arrived in off-road vehicles.’
El Moussa then remembers the office calling his first name.
‘Yes! I’m the TV guy! What are you doing?’ he shouted back, prompting them to lower their weapons.
“I spent the next several hours handcuffed to a cooler in my driveway,” he wrote. “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 and asking myself, what the hell is going on?”
Describing the aftermath of their breakup, El Moussa bluntly said it was “physical and emotional hell” that led him to retreat to his boat and drink until he was unconscious.
While reflecting on the dark chapter of his life that led to the end of his seven-year marriage, the Flip or Flop star, 42, detailed the infamous incident where he took a firearm to the Chino Hills State Park Main Ridge Trail; in the photo in 2016
After Hall called 911 to report that he had “grabbed a gun, put it in his backpack and ran outside,” police responded to a call of a “possibly suicidal man with a gun.”
Although she feared for his life, El Moussa insists he only fled to get some exercise and explore the trails along their property after recently purchasing a pair of new mountain bikes.
He noted that he also suffered from “withdrawal from the testosterone he had been taking” and eventually went to rehab.
At the time, he told Today’s Joe Fryer that he “absolutely never” planned to commit suicide that day.
As in his memoir, he said he brought the firearm to protect himself from “mountain lions and bobcats and rattlesnakes and the big wildlife out there.”
“Everyone gave up on me: the magazines, the media, the network, no one believed in me,” he said People.
As he stepped back from the spotlight, he lived in a “halfway house” and still clung to the hope of recapturing Hall and reuniting their family.
After finding out she had moved on with Ant Anstead, who she started dating in late 2017, he says “devastating would be an understatement” to describe his pain.
Following their split, El Moussa began dating Heather Rae Young after meeting on the Fourth of July in 2019.
Last year they welcomed their first child together, a son named Tristan, who turned one earlier this month
Hall and Anstead married in 2018 and then announced they were expecting a baby boy together in March 2019.
But in 2020, just two years after their wedding, they revealed they had split.
Meanwhile, El Moussa and Young started dating after meeting on July 4, 2019.
Last year they welcomed their first child together, a son named Tristan, who turned one earlier this month.
El Moussa said meeting Young was his “breakthrough moment” that made him never “look back” on his old life
In 2022, Hall married Austin-based real estate agent Joshua Hall.
Seven years after his divorce from Hall, El Moussa said he has “nothing against Christina.”
‘I understand why she did what she did. We had a lot of hard years because of my illnesses and my mental health issues because of the testosterone,” he told People. “I’ve never said this before.”
El Moussa says he and Hall have a friendly co-parenting relationship and that they “all communicate well.”
“We really focus on the children,” he says.
El Moussa also said that after meeting Young, he has never “looked back” and is “just so happy and excited about the family” he has today.
He said meeting his wife was his “breakthrough moment.”