Why Did Tarek El Moussa & Christina Haack Break Up? Details on the Altercation That Led to Their Split

Tarek El Moussa and Christina Haack‘s dramatic 2016 split is being revisited as the exes appear alongside one another, and Tarek’s now-wife Heather, on HGTV‘s The Flip Off.

El Moussa and Haack married in 2009 before finding fame on HGTV with their hit series Flip or Flop. The couple share two children, a daughter born in 2010 and a son born in 2015. They announced their separation in December 2016, before finalizing their divorce in 2018.

Haack and El Moussa’s break up came as a shock at the time of their split, particularly given their ongoing real estate show, however fans have been given an insight into what led to the breakup in the years since.

Why Did Tarek El Moussa & Christina Haack Break Up?

Haack and El Moussa broke up after a harrowing incident in May 2016 that involved Haack calling the police after El Moussa left their home with a gun.

“We had an unfortunate misunderstanding about six months ago and the police were called to our house in an abundance of caution. There was no violence and no charges were filed,” the couple revealed in a statement announcing their split on Dec. 12, 2016.

Per People, police responded to a call about a “possibly suicidal male with a gun” after Tarek climbed over the couple’s backyard fence and made his way up a hiking trail. Authorities located him on the trail and took him back home.

Tarek later claimed in his 2024 memoir, Flip Your Life, that he was trying to get exercise and took what he called an “insurance policy,” in case he encountered an animal. “For the next several hours, I sat on a cooler on my driveway, handcuffed,” Tarek 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, asking myself, What in the world is going on?“

In February 2017, Haack told People the incident was a breaking point in their marriage. “It just made me realize that us being separated was healthier for both of us,” Christina said.

Tarek Battled Addiction Before His Split From Haack

In his memoir, Tarek opened up about dealing with an addiction to prescription anabolic testosterone after beating cancer. He said his dependency on the drug led him to become distanced from Haack.

“I would come home and be so strung out, so raw, that I couldn’t even talk to Christina; I couldn’t talk to Taylor or play with Brayden,” he wrote in his book. “I would walk upstairs and close the door. I would sit in front of my computer, thinking about nothing. More often than not, I’d sit there simply staring at the wall. I was a terrible husband, father, friend, and son.”

El Moussa wrote that his addiction issues played a role in his divorce.

After getting sober, El Moussa met Selling Sunset star Heather Rae Young in 2019 and married her in 2021. The couple share a son, Tristan, born in 2023.

Haack married with British TV host Ant Anstead in 2018 and welcomed a son, Hudson, the following year before their 2020 split. She married Josh Hall in 2022 but filed for divorce from him in 2024.

Before you go, click to see a look inside Christina Haack’s dating history and three divorce.