Getty Christina and Josh Hall with their family in Anaheim, California in January 2022
Halfway into the first season of their new HGTV series, “Christina in the Country,” Christina and Josh Hall say their country home in Tennessee no longer feels like the getaway it was intended to be.
In an Instagram Live session on February 2, 2023 — the first they’ve ever done together — the couple answered fans’ questions and talked about how busy their life has become juggling two shows, two houses, three kids, and a production company. Instead of providing relief from their busy life, they said their second home and design projects in Tennessee have only added to the pressure — but they wouldn’t have it any other way.
Josh Hall Says Having Fun in Tennessee is ‘On the Back Burner’
After going through two divorces, Christina — who grew up in southern California — bought a farmhouse near Nashville in 2021 to have a place to relax with her kids. She shares 12-year-old daughter Taylor and seven-year-old Brayden with her first husband, HGTV’s Tarek El Moussa, and three-year-old Hudson with her second husband, Ant Anstead. She and Hall married in early 2022.
In promos for “Christina in the Country,” which premiered in early January 2023, the 39-year-old designer said life in the country felt like “heaven.” But in a video obtained by Heavy of Christina’s Instagram Live session with Josh, the couple revealed that their time in the country has become far less relaxing than she’d originally hoped.
In fact, Josh claimed being in Tennessee no longer feels as fun as it once did, which Christina disputed.
“It’s mainly work lately,” he said. “We used to go there and have a lot of fun. And now the fun is kind of on the back burner. It’s been a lot of work putting together these episodes.”
“Oh please,” Christina chided, and then added, “The fun’s on the back burner?”
After trying to explain that “there’s more focus on other things,” Josh conceded that “it is fun” to have his sister, Stacie, living five minutes away. Christina then said anyone who saw the recent episode in which Josh and her design partner James raced off in a RZR offroad vehicle “knows there’s a lot of fun happening.”
Later in their conversation, Christina admitted the way they spend their time in Tennessee has changed since they began doing design and TV work there.
“It used to be…we went to Tennessee to get away and hide and turn off the phones and everything was so quiet,” she said, sitting with Josh near the pool at their primary residence in Newport Beach, California.
“And then when it became work,” she continued, “it was like, ‘Okay now we get to Tennessee and it’s like, hustle for the five days we’re there and really pack those days with work,’ and then (we) come home to…more work!”
“Our days are starting earlier and earlier there,” Josh added. “I forget how much 24 acres is and I’m very OCD. I mean, I’ll rake leaves, take care of animals, get the house winterized, you name it. I do that before she wakes up and then she’s got a full day of…work.”
Juggling work, clients and family in Tennessee and California has become more tiring than they expected, too. In fact, Christina said she thinks the frequent travel is partly to blame for her recent health challenges, for which she’s undergone extensive testing.
“Going back and forth a lot…definitely took a bit of a toll,” she said. “I would, like, come back to California and then just feel super wiped out, like I got hit by a bus.”
Christina and Josh Hall May Not Retire in Tennessee After All
HGTVChristina Hall in Tennessee, filming “Christina in the Country”
In early January, Christina told People magazine that their “ultimate plan” is to retire in Tennessee.
“It’s definitely where we’ll retire,” she said. “I would love to do the opposite (of what I do now): I would love to live there full time and then have a cute little beach cottage in California, in La Jolla, that we hop back to.”
But in their Instagram Live, the couple no longer sounded certain about that plan when a fan asked if they’ll ever move there full-time.
Christina slowly said, “Potentially, once all the kids have graduated high school? Maybe then. Maybe then.”
“I mean, I don’t think Christina is up for one of those hot, sticky summers full-time yet,” Josh said. “She took in some doses this past year. But to live through that for a full summer? She might change her mind.”
In early 2022, Christina and Josh married in a private courthouse ceremony — a secret she revealed during the December 2022 premiere of her other HGTV show, “Christina on the Coast.” She revealed on Instagram that they’d begun dating in March 2021 in Nashville.
After their secret wedding, Josh, a former police officer and real estate agent, became CEO of the production company Christina was creating, now called Unbroken Productions. The pair began producing her two home renovation shows — one filmed in California, and the other filmed in Tennessee — and developing other unscripted shows.
Since their Tennessee home is not the respite it once was, the couple periodically takes a two-hour flight to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for short vacations, and are currently planning a vacation for Christina’s 40th birthday in July.
“Nothing like chips and salsa, some sun, a couple of Mexican beers,” Josh said during the Instagram Live, and then joked, “Is it my birthday or her birthday?”
Despite the stress of working on two shows in two states, the Halls did say at the end of their Instagram Live that it’s still rewarding and they “absolutely love doing the show,” adding that they’re hopeful HGTV will renew “Christina in the Country” after the February 25 season finale, which they plan to watch at a viewing party in Tennesee.