Recap
‘The Flip Off’: Christina Haack Says Josh Hall ‘Didn’t Like’ That She Kept ‘El Moussa’ Name After Tarek Split
Christina Haack and Josh Hall‘s breakup played out on the premiere of The Flip Off. The show began with the former couple working together against Tarek El Moussa and Heather Rae El Moussa in a house-flipping competition. However, after just a few weeks of construction, Haack confirmed that she and her husband had “officially split.”
Josh made a point to remind Christina — who had previously been married two times — that she was “a Hall now.” This appeared to be a point of contention in their relationship.
“When I met Josh, my name was still Christina El Moussa on everything,” Chrisitna shared. “Josh did not like that. He was all about me becoming a Hall.” Christina was married to Tarek when she became a household name on HGTV, so she was professionally known by her first married name. However, she began publicly going by “Christina Hall” after marrying Josh in 2021. She only recently reverted back to her maiden name following their July 2024 split.
After tension built between Christina and Josh during the episode, she eventually called Tarek — whom she separated from in 2016 and shares two children with — over to her home to fill him in on the state of her marriage. “We had a blowup over nothing. Truly nothing. [He was] in my face, middle fingers in my face,” Christina revealed. “Things with Josh have been bad for a long time. Not just kind of bad. Like, bad. The kids literally asked me to leave. They told me he’s not nice to me.”
Christina also admitted that Tarek made Josh “insecure,” adding, “Every time we would barely joke at soccer or I laughed at you, he would not speak to me for two to three days. I would get the silent treatment. He doesn’t like me. He calls me cocky, calls me arrogant. When we both know I’m not cocky or arrogant.”
Tarek assured his ex-wife that she was a “great mother” and explained that Josh was just “projecting” onto her. Christina then began crying as she told Tarek how “hard and so horrible” her life had been since their 2016 split. “It’s just really taken a toll on me,” she said. “I feel like I try to hide it and act like I’m not affected, but then I just do more stupid things to try and make myself feel better and I just keep doing it, and getting into things too fast that I know aren’t right.” Christina and Josh dated for less than a year before they got married.
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The conversation then shifted to Tarek and Christina’s relationship. She told him, “I know we’re in a good place now, but we went through a lot of stuff. I don’t think anyone understands just how much stuff we went through. We met when we were so young. Our stuff imploded and I feel like … we were best friends. I lost the ability to be a full-time mom and that really, really hurt me a lot and really affected me.” Tarek “acknowledged” that he was a “big part of” what Christina was going through now and that he “wasn’t the best” father and husband when they were together.
Christina had an apology, too. “I’m really sorry for s**tting on you. I just want you to know that. I am, though. I’m really sorry. I did some weird s***. I’m really sorry, OK? Forgive me?” Tarek assured the HGTV star that he “100 percent” forgave her and also apologized himself. Christina said, “You’re a great dad. I’m proud of you. You’ve come a really long way. I can see it. You’re so much calmer and you’re so much wiser, for real.”
At the end of the day, Tarek was only worried about how he and Heather could help Christina. She told him all she needed was for them to “have [her] back,” and he replied, “I’ve had your back for a really long time. People are going to talk a lot of s**t. The good thing is, you know that.” That got a laugh out of Christina, who joked, “It’s not my first rodeo!”
Despite how hard it was to go through the breakup, Christina was relieved to be able to continue on in The Flip Off competition without her estranged husband. “It’s a huge weight lifted off of me to not have to do it with Josh,” she told producers. “It was a huge weight on me to feel like I was going to have to battle Josh throughout it and have to emasculate him and all the words that come out when a woman knows what she’s doing. I have a lot more to prove and none of it has to do with him.”
The Flip Off, Wednesdays, 8/7c, HGTV
