Tarek El Moussa is finally opening up like never before about the incident involving a gun that led to his separation and eventual divorce from wife Christina Hall.
The 42-year-old real estate investor is getting more candid than ever in his upcoming book Flip Your Life: How to Find Opportunity in Distress — in Real Estate, Business and Life, and spoke with People about the day that kicked off a downward spiral in his marriage.
Christina, 40, had maintained that after a huge fight with her then-husband, he'd been found by the police with a gun and was reportedly suicidal, but Tarek disputes that being the case.
He shares that after their fight, he "went out to our backyard in Yorba Linda and hopped over the fence," but says that he wanted to get some exercise and intended to explore the trails near their home.
Tarek carried with him a .38 caliber pistol, which he dubbed an "insurance policy," due to the high population of wildlife in the area, and maintained that he had obtained his California concealed-carry license weeks earlier.
A police helicopter then appeared, and it was not long before Tarek realized that they were looking for him. He writes in his book: "A police officer leaning out of the helicopter pointed a rifle at me. Dust swirled around me from the spin of the blades, and a loudspeaker crackled, 'Get your hands in the air!'
"I heard an officer shout, 'Tarek?' I screamed back, 'Yes! I'm the guy from TV! What are you guys doing?'"
While the tension dipped for a bit, the TV star cites it as being the start of a series of low points in his life. "For the next several hours, I sat on a cooler on my driveway, handcuffed. 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?'"
He told the outlet that the weeks leading up to the divorce were "physical and emotional hell," describing bouts with alcohol and struggling with his addiction to testosterone.
"Everybody gave up on me: the magazines, the outlets, the network, nobody believed in me," he stated. Tarek eventually received the help of friends, who took him to rehab, and stepped away from the spotlight. In 2017, he held out hope for a reconciliation with Christina and their family (they shared daughter Taylor, now 13, and Brayden, now eight).
However, that fall, he realized that "she had moved on" discovering that she was dating English presenter Ant Anstead (who she was married to from 2018-2022). "I would say devastating would be an understatement." Christina and Tarek filed for divorce in late 2017, and it was finalized the following year.
Tarek holds no ill will against the Christina on the Coast star, however, and talks about having moved on with their lives and their current partners (Christina is now married to realtor Josh Hall, while Tarek married real estate agent Heather Rae Young in 2021).
"I hold nothing against Christina. I understand why she did what she did. We had a lot of hard years through my sicknesses and my mental health struggles from the testosterone… I've never said any of this, ever." Discover more of Tarek and Heather's relationship in the video below...
He shared that the relationship between Christina and Heather was also solid, as their efforts lay on putting on a united front for their children. He deemed their bond "better than it's been ever since the separation. We all communicate well, even Heather and Christina."
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