Christina Haack Admits She ‘Never Wanted’ To Divorce Tarek El Moussa—as She Lays Bare Bitter Split From Josh Hall

HGTV star Christina Haack‘s bitter divorce from Josh Hall took center stage in the premiere episode of her new show, “The Flip Off,” which saw the starlet candidly explaining what led to the breakdown of her marriage.

Haack and Hall called quits on their relationship in July 2024—just two weeks after they began filming a new HGTV project alongside Tarek El Moussa and his wife Heather Rae El Moussa.

The show had originally meant to focus on a renovation battle between the two couples; however, after Haack and Hall’s divorce news emerged, the latter was quickly removed from all promotional materials for the series, with reports suggesting that Haack was going to enlist several guest stars to help her with her home flips.

While Hall no longer plays a central role in “The Flip Off,” his divorce was the main focus of its premiere episode—which captured the emotional moment that Haack broke down in tears as she told Tarek that her relationship was over.

After asking him to come over to her house so they could speak “in private,” she tells her former spouse—with whom she shares two children—that she and Hall had “officially split up.”

“Things with Josh have been bad for a long time. Not just kind of bad. Like, bad,” Haack goes on. “And the kids literally asked me to leave. They told me he’s not nice to me.”

She then admits to Tarek that Hall always made her feel “very insecure”—before claiming that Hall used to get bitterly jealous any time she and Tarek shared a friendly moment.

“Every time, like, we would barely joke at soccer, or if I laughed at you, he like would not speak to me for like two to three days,” Haack claims. “I would get silent treatment.

“He doesn’t like me, calls me cocky, thinks I’m arrogant, when we both know I’m not cocky or arrogant. I just do work.”

Tarek comforts Haack, reassuring her, “You’re not any of those things, he’s projecting.” He then adds, “You’re a great mother, you’re a great daughter, you are a great human.”

Haack then reflects on how her life was thrown into turmoil after she and Tarek split in 2016, admitting that she’s felt like she’s been in a “tornado” that she can’t escape.

“I feel like I’m in a tornado all the time, like, and I just can’t get out of it,” she says while breaking down in tears.

“Everything since, like, 2016, has been so hard and so horrible, honestly. There’s so many good things, but there’s just so many bad things. And it’s really taken a really bad toll on me.

“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 to make myself feel better. And I just keep doing it and then, like, getting into things too fast that are not, that I know aren’t right.”

Later, Haack confesses to the cameras that she “never wanted” to get divorced from Tarek, hinting that she only began dating Hall because she “felt safer” in a relationship than being single.

“I never wanted to get divorced,” she reveals. “I’m the only one in my family to ever get a divorce, so I just felt like it’s safer to be back in a relationship. But ultimately, that was not safe either.”

Tarek urged his former spouse not to “be hard” on herself, conceding that the two of them “went through a lot” in the wake of their split.

“I know we’re like, in a good place now, but yeah, we went through a lot of stuff,” Haack agrees. “I don’t think anyone understands just how much stuff we went through and, like, we met when we were so young.”

She adds that one of the hardest things about their split was the loss of her “best friend,” prompting Tarek to confess his guilt over how much hardship she has faced.

“I understand that feeing of being a little bit lost, you know?”he tells her. “And I acknowledge, you know, that I’m a big part, if not the entire part, of all of this.”

Through tears, Haack responds, “And honestly, like, I’m really sorry for s—. I really am. I want you to know that. I want you to know that I’m really sorry, I did some really weird s—. I’m really sorry, OK.”

Tarek then vows to always “have [her] back,” insisting that he’s tried to support her for “a really long time.”

The sweet reconciliation between the two exes is a stark contrast to the El Moussas less-than-positive interaction during the episode when they get into a furious spat over the interior design elements that Heather has picked for the home they are flipping.

After Heather pulls out her chosen cabinets for the kitchen, Tarek asks to see “other options,” only for his spouse to inform him that there are none, because she has already picked the ones they will use.

Taken aback by her decision, Tarek says: “You didn’t ask me?” only for Heather to insist that she didn’t “need” his input, before questioning if he dislikes the way the kitchen looks with her chosen white-and-brown design.

Tarek seems unsure. “It’s just not something that I normally see, because normally, you know, they’d be consistent,” he explains.

“This house is not going to be something that you normally see. We’re taking risks here,” Heather argues. “Think about, like, these high-end homes—they take risks.”

“Well, do we want to take risks?” Tarek counters. “I mean, we’re in a competition.”

“It can’t just be, like, boring. This is Heather’s house,” Heather says, then adds, “and yours. But—”

Tarek seems offended. “Just like our son. It’s Heather’s son,” he says before taking a pause. “And mine. This house is yours. And mine.”

Later, as they’re discussing the design for the home’s fireplace, Heather admits that she’s feeling additional pressure to nail the renovation—because she knows that viewers are going to compare her to Haack, pitting the former wife against the current.

“You’re upsetting me. You’re upsetting me. You’re upsetting me. I am so stressed out. You don’t even understand. Everyone’s gonna be talking smack about me against her,” Heather shares.

Later, in an interview with producers, she admits that a lot is on the line with this design, saying: “I want to prove to Christina that [she is] not better than me.”

Ultimately, guest judge, “Real Housewives of Orange County” star Heather Dubrow, determines that Tarek and Heather put together the winning kitchen. But while they won the battle, she predicts that Haack will claim victory in the renovation war.

“You guys created a really beautiful space,” Dubrow tells Heather and Tarek. “But you’re so hot on winning each challenge, especially Tarek, and thinking about room to room. But you could win all the battles and lose the war.”

She then looks at Haack, saying, “She’s looking to win the war.”

Thinking back on the judging, Heather seems unsatisfied. Even though her kitchen won, she seems upset that Dubrow was so impressed with Haack.

“Damn. I know that our design was incredible, so I’m like, ‘What did she do?’” Heather wonders.

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