Getty Christina Hall and Ant Anstead.
Longtime HGTV host Christina Hall says she’s “mentally exhausted” from the fallout of new court filings made by her ex-husband, TV personality Ant Anstead, over custody of their three-year-old son, Hudson. Their latest dispute has led the designer to announce that she will stop including Hudson in her social media posts and on her HGTV shows altogether.
Hall Says Anstead is Trying to Turn Family, Friends & Fans Against Her
After separating from her first husband, HGTV’s Tarek El Moussa, Hall began dating British-born TV personality Anstead in October 2017, according to People, and they married in December 2018. They welcomed baby Hudson in September 2019, but split in 2020 after less than two years of marriage.
While they tried to co-parent Hudson amicably in the early days of their separation, Anstead said he grew increasingly concerned by some of Hall’s parenting decisions and filed for primary custody in April 2022. According to court documents, he claimed that Hall was only with Hudson nine days out of each month and that the environment wasn’t always safe. He also hoped to prevent Hudson from being featured in any “commercial endeavor” without his permission.
A Los Angeles judge denied the emergency request, saying Hall would need time to prepare a response, and scheduled a new hearing for June. Hall released a media statement at the time, saying that she was saddened by Anstead’s filing and wished he’d addressed the issues privately with a mediator.
The two did wind up working out some of their differences privately, but a 12-hour mediation in early September went nowhere, according to Us Weekly. On September 27, Anstead headed back to court to file a renewed complaint about his worries Hudson was being “exploited.”
In the new court filing, Anstead revealed that they’d not made headway on his concerns over Hall featuring Hudson in sponsored, paid social media promotions and that he worried she was filming him for her HGTV shows, “Christina on the Coast” and the upcoming “Christina in the Country” without him knowing. As a result, he filed for legal custody of Hudson, but said he was happy to continue sharing 50/50 physical custody with Hall.
Hall filed a response in court, claiming she’d stopped featuring Hudson in paid ads — despite one for a mattress company currently on her Instagram feed — and that Anstead was simply seeking attention. She also posted her side of the story on social media.
The first Instagram post related to the filing was uploaded on September 29, featuring a photo of her snuggling by a campfire with her third husband, real estate broker Josh Hall, whom she married in early 2022.
She wrote, “Tennessee nights. This place has been so good for my soul. When the world is spinning and people are a**holes, this is my safe place. The fall weather, the trees and animals, quiet nights by the fire. Life is short. Spend it with people who light up your life instead of try to dim it.”
Hall posted on Instagram again on the afternoon of October 2, blasting Anstead publicly — calling him “Hudson’s father” instead of by his name — and announcing a change to her social media practices.
“I am mentally exhausted over the recent false accusations against me,” she wrote. “Hudson’s father has made attempts to turn my family, friends and fans against me through manipulation tactics and false information. This has had great impact on me and my household. Because of this, I have made the decision to no longer feature Hudson on Instagram, my tv shows or any social platforms until he is old enough to make this decision for himself.”
Hall went on to say she has “always been fine” with not featuring their young child appear on public platforms.
“My only reason for wanting him to appear on my shows, has always been to participate in the fun activities/outings with our family/siblings,” she wrote.
“Hudson’s father has made it clear via his public court filings he is using Instagram to rate the kind of parent I am, since that is the only access he has to my personal life,” Hall continued. “This has been the case since July 2020. This is unnecessary pressure for a platform that is supposed to be used to share moments chosen, rather than a judgement tool…especially since this is a very small fraction of my personal life as the rest is kept between me and my family.”
Hall finished her post by writing, “My personal collection of photos on my phone and in our home are filled with memories of my children, so Hudson will be just fine without having his presence displayed on a public forum. Thank you to all the people who can see beyond the nonsense being thrown at me. I am and will ALWAYS remain a protective mother.”
Anstead Remains Mum Publicly, as Does El Moussa
Anstead, who has been in a relationship with Oscar-winning actress Renée Zellweger since mid-2021, has not commented or posted publicly about the custody situation.
He has two other children — 19-year-old Amelie and 16-year-old Archie — with his ex-wife, Louise, who remarried in early 2022. The teenagers live with their mom in England, but Anstead says he maintains a close relationship with them, including frequent visits.
The car expert, who’s shows have included “Wheeler Dealers” and “Celebrity I.O.U.: Joyride,” frequently features all three of his kids on Instagram, which many of Hall’s fans say is hypocritical, though it does not appear he has featured them in paid posts.
In addition to having Hudson, Hall shares two children — 12-year-old daughter Taylor and 7-year-old son Brayden — with Tarek El Moussa, with whom she hosted HGTV’s “Flip or Flop” for a decade. The couple separated in 2016 and formalized their divorce in 2018.
HGTV viewers have seen Taylor and Brayden grow up on TV, as they periodically appeared on “Flip or Flop” and have filmed their parents’ new shows. It is not clear yet, based on Hall’s pledge to no longer feature Hudson, whether HGTV will need to edit Hudson out of segments that have already been filmed for future episodes of “Christina on the Coast” and the premiere of “Christina in the Country.”
Both Hall and El Moussa regularly feature their two kids on social media. El Moussa, in an interesting twist, has become close friends with Anstead since his divorce from Hall. In 2021, Anstead said he viewed El Moussa and his second wife, Heather Rae, as “extended family.”
So far, he also has not commented publicly on the unfolding custody dispute between Hall and Anstead. In 2020, as Anstead and Hall were divorcing, El Moussa told E! News that he preferred not to comment, but understood why fans are so invested in their lives.
“For most fans, I think it’s more than just a real estate show,” El Moussa explained. “We’ve been doing this for so long. People have watched kids born, people have watched us raise kids, they watched us get divorced, they know us. They’ve been following our lives for almost 10 years. They feel like they’re a part of it, which makes sense.”