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Tarek El Moussa Reveals Why Ex-Wife Christina Called 911 Amid Their Explosive Split
It’s been more than seven years since Tarek El Moussa and his ex-wife, Christina Hall (née Haack), split in December 2016 after their marriage came to an explosive end at their house. Now, the Flipping El Moussa star is opening up about the chaotic day when police officers arrived at their Los Angeles home after he left the property with a handgun following a heated fight with Christina.
Tarek, 42, “went out to” their “backyard in Yorba Linda and hopped over the fence” in May 2016 to get some air and distance from his then-wife, he wrote in an excerpt from his upcoming book, Flip Your Life: How to Find Opportunity in Distress — in Real Estate, Business and Life. Upon leaving the property, the reality star grabbed possession of his licensed .38-caliber pistol and brought it to protect him from the dangerous wildlife that roamed the neighborhood, he claimed in his pages.
“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?’” the HGTV star wrote, according to People.
Tarek then reflected on being handcuffed in his driveway “for the next several hours,” which were also the final hours that Tarek and Christina, 40, were a unified family alongside their kids, Taylor and Brayden.
In May 2016, an eyewitness called deputies and claimed that there was a “possibly suicidal male with a gun” after they saw Tarek running around the neighborhood with the handgun, law enforcement told People at the time. Officials arrived at the Chino Hills State Park Main Ridge Trail and talked to the eyewitness who was working on the house next to Tarek and Christina’s. The bystander claimed to have seen Tarek “jump over his back fence” and told police that Christina approached him next door and said that her husband “took a handgun, put it in his backpack and ran outside.”
The Christina in the Country star’s then-glam artist, Shannon Rhodes, also made a statement to officers, noting that she was in the home and witnessed Tarek retrieve the firearm from his safe and into his backpack. Although she acknowledged that Tarek “seemed upset,” she didn’t hear him make threatening or suicidal comments upon his abrupt departure.
That being said, Shannon called Christina and informed her about Tarek leaving the home with a weapon and the TV host called the police for help.
Tarek, who is now married to Selling Sunset alum Heather El Moussa (née Young), didn’t get charged or arrested and was deemed as “compliant” by officials. Furthermore, he voluntarily released the possession of his five guns to police for 30 days.
Although Tarek walked away from the incident with his hands clean, it permanently tainted his marriage with Christina. The former couple announced their split in December 2016 and their divorce was finalized two years later.
Christina went on to marry husband No. 2, Ant Anstead, in 2018. They got a divorce three years later and Christina went on to tie the knot with her current husband, Josh Hall, in 2022.
