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When former HGTV couple and “Flip or Flop” co-stars Tarek El Moussa and Christina Hall split in 2016, Tarek was so devastated that he checked himself into a halfway house, he has revealed in a new podcast interview.
“When my ex left me, I went to some soul-searching places,” he said during his appearance on The Jeff Fenster Show on January 8, 2024. “I actually lived in a halfway house. This is my first time sharing that.”
Now in a much better place emotionally, Tarek stars in “The Flipping El Moussas” on HGTV with his second wife, Heather El Moussa. In advance of his forthcoming book about his life, Tarek has shared multiple stories about challenges most fans never knew about, from addiction issues in his 20s to the depths of despair he experienced as he and Christina’s marriage crumbled.
“My life has been filled with so much pain,” he told Fenster. “But now I use that as fuel. I’m happy, I’m positive, I’m centered.”
Here’s what you need to know:
Tarek El Moussa Says ‘I Wasn’t the Best Husband’ to Ex Christina Hall
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HGTVHGTV’s Tarek El Moussa
When Christina left their marriage, Tarek told Fenster he voluntarily checked into a halfway house. According to Real Recovery, halfway houses are typically community homes for people mandated to stay in a “transitional facility” after a drug- or alcohol-related crime. Residents are provided with social, medical and psychiatric services.
“I didn’t trust myself to be alone,” Tarek explained. “That’s how bad I was. So, the reason I ended up there is I didn’t know where to go and I needed 24-hour care. It was pretty bad. I had lost everything — felt like — overnight.”
He and Christina separated privately in May 2016 after police were called to their home about a “possibly suicidal male with a gun.” People magazine reported that 11 police officers descended on the couple’s California home and that an eyewitness said he saw Tarek “run out of his back door” and “jump over his back fence” toward Chino Hills State Park. Once he returned home, Tarek voluntarily turned over the five guns he owned to police for 30 days after the incident, per People.
Tarek has talked previously about personal struggles that led to his divorce from Christina. In 2013, the same year “Flip or Flop” launched on HGTV, El Moussa was diagnosed with cancer twice, per Us Weekly, first with stage two thyroid cancer and, a month later, with testicular cancer. The impact of the treatments on his hormones and a dependency on painkillers for a back injury led to him spiraling, he has said.
“You know, after the cancers, I had that terrible accident on my back and I lost like 60 pounds, and I was on all those opiates,” he told Fox News Digital in February 2023. “I was, you know, I was not doing well.”
On the podcast with Fenster, he admitted, “I was living in turmoil for years and, ultimately, that turmoil led to my divorce. Looking back, I wasn’t the best guy. I wasn’t the best husband. Definitely not. Wasn’t the best father, wasn’t the best son, wasn’t the best friend. I just wasn’t the best human. No excuses, I was going through a lot at the time, but my actions were not the best.”
Tarek El Moussa Says His Struggles With Addiction Began Months After Graduating From High School
During his discussion with Fenster, Tarek shared how his struggles with addiction began shortly after he graduated from high school and things didn’t come easily for him anymore.
“In life, I kinda always got what I wanted,” he said. “I was a decent looking kid, I was athletic, I was witty, I was funny, I had a lot of friends, I was a leader. I always felt pretty good. All of that ended when I graduated high school.”
Without college or a full-time job to provide a routine or future goals, Tarek said that within six months, “I fell into a terrible depression and became an alcoholic. I gained 50 pounds in like a six, seven month period. I hit a really, really rough patch in my life where I was at rock bottom, lost all hope, lost all my confidence and I thought my life was over.”
Drinking until 2 or 3 a.m. and waking up the next afternoon became habit for him for nearly a year, Tarek said. Though he tried to get sober, he said he “struggled with alcohol on and off for about 10 years.”
“At one point in my life, I used to sleep 12 to 14 hours a day,” he revealed in an Instagram post in December. “I slept so much not only because I was drunk but because I hated being awake.”
“All my drive was gone,” he continued. “It’s crazy to think today I sometimes wake up at 3am to start work, when at 20, I would wake up at 3pm to start my day. We all deserve a second chance.”
Today, Tarek leads a much healthier lifestyle. He and Christina finalized their highly publicized divorce in 2018 and now share custody of 13-year-old daughter Taylor and eight-year-old son Brayden. Tarek married “Selling Sunset” star Heather Rae Young (now El Moussa), in 2021 and the welcomed their son Tristan in January 2023.
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