The rise and fall of an HGTV couple
At first, the couple’s phoenix-rising narrative was simple enough.
Christina and Tarek El Moussa, now of HGTV fame, were two recovering real estate agents who, amid the 2008 housing market crash, lost nearly everything. In an attempt to salvage their once-prosperous lifestyle, the couple started a business buying foreclosed houses in southern California and flipping them for a profit.
Tarek had the investment eye, Christina the designer’s touch. Sometimes they succeeded. Sometimes they failed. But, hey, they were trying.
It was a great American plot.
The couple’s riches-to-rags-to-riches-again backstory attracted showrunners at HGTV, the popular home and garden channel, which signed the couple to the network.
On April 16, 2013, the El Moussas debuted as the stars of their own program, “Flip or Flop.”
The show has skyrocketed in popularity in the four years since, ranking as HGTV’s second-mostwatched program in 2016 with 2.8 million viewers, behind the network’s other adored renovating couple, “Fixer Upper’s” Chip and Joanna Gaines.
Like all of HGTV’s signature shows, the premise for “Flip or Flop” is compelling. Viewers can, from the comfort of their couch, watch an abandoned structure transform into an inviting home in the time it takes to finish a glass (or two) of wine.
What sets “Flip or Flop” apart from the rest of HGTV’s lineup, however, is Christina and Tarek, stereotypically attractive Californians whose personal narrative as husband and wife, best friends, business partners and parents has captured the hearts of their most loyal fans. Blog posts and tabloid pieces about the couple’s seemingly loving family life litter the Internet, buoyed by sappy social media posts from Christina and Tarek.
But like many Americans, 2016 was not kind to the El Moussas.
Fans were devastated to learn in December that the beloved, picture-perfect couple had been separated for nearly eight months, the result of a distressing incident at the El Moussa’s Orange County home that involved a gun and the police. All this came after news reports claimed that their spin-off real estate classes, pitched as training sessions for aspiring house flippers, were a disingenuous money-grab, which they denied.
Then this week, Tarek officially filed for divorce.
He is seeking spousal support and joint custody of the couple’s two children, 6-year-old daughter Taylor and year-old son Brayden, reported Yahoo.
The sense of permanency that accompanied this news thrust fans further into a mournful frenzy, lamenting the death of a love story in which they felt so invested — one that had been sprinkled throughout six seasons on air and included a cancer scare, in vitro fertilization treatments and the birth of their second baby.
When Christina and Tarek met a decade ago, the Californians were successfully selling real estate in the state’s wealthiest neighborhoods. Christina had just graduated from college. Tarek was a rising star in the industry.
The couple married, moved into a house with a $6,000 monthly mortgage payment and started planning for a family, reported the Orange County Register. Then the housing market crashed.
Suddenly their luxurious home shrank to an apartment, with a roommate, where the rent was just $700. For dinner, they shared Subway sandwiches because it was all they could afford. When Christina got pregnant, she passed on purchasing maternity clothes. They were too expensive.
The couple still had their skills, though, eyes for good investments and tasteful design. On a whim, Tarek recruited a friend to edit video footage of them buying and flipping a house, start to finish.
He sent it to HGTV, and the show was born.
“They liked the fact that we were poor and were trying to make something of ourselves,” Christina told the Register in April 2013, the month “Flip or Flop” debuted.
The couple’s attempts at having a second child early in the series were foiled when Tarek was diagnosed with thyroid cancer — thanks to the sharp eye of a savvy viewer.
He had surgery to remove his thyroid and lymph nodes and underwent radiation therapy, which was exhausting and gave him migraines, Tarek told the “Today” show, but didn’t force them to quit the show.
“We made a decision that same second: We’re not going to slow down. We’re not going to stop,” he said.
That battle, though, posed a second challenge for the couple. The radiation therapy meant they couldn’t conceive naturally for six months to a year after treatments stopped. It took two failed attempts at in vitro fertilization — including one that ended in a miscarriage at eight weeks — before Christina became pregnant with Brayden.
As their family — and ratings — grew, the TV personalities began expanding their empire, hosting spinoff shows and developing house-flipping seminars to teach fans the tricks of their trade.
But it didn’t take long for attendees to push back.
A trip to promote the training sessions in Washington and Oregon was canceled at the end of 2015 when social media users loudly objected to the premise. About six months later, new reports from the Associated Press, CBS News and ABC News, among others, revealed that students of their real estate seminars felt duped by the couple.
The classes, they said, were misleading, cost thousands of additional dollars beyond the advertised price and didn’t actually provide face time with Tarek and Christina.
The El Moussas defended their program.
“I stand by our product,” Christina told ABC News. “It’s our tools, it’s our system. It’s what Tarek and I do. I’ve only heard very minimal complaints.”
A month later, police were called to the couple’s home over what Tarek and Christina termed an “unfortunate misunderstanding.
Deputies got a report about a possible suicidal man, according to The Associated Press. Tarek El Moussa was later found in a nearby state park with a handgun, but he denied being suicidal, reported the AP. He voluntarily gave up several guns.
Eight months later, in a statement to People in early December, Tarek and Christina announced their decisopm to split up while evaluating “the future.”
“We had an unfortunate misunderstanding about six months ago and the police were called to our house in an abundance of caution,” the couple said in a statement. “There was no violence and no charges were filed. … During the process, we are committed to our kids and being the best parents we can be.”
Heartbroken — and outraged — fans took to social media to lament the split. Some wrote that they felt lied to by the couple, who had continued to produce episodes on the show as if they were together and whose social media posts never hinted at complications with their marriage.
Almost exactly one month later, Tarek filed for divorce.
In a statement released when the couple announced their separation, HGTV said filming of “Flip or Flop” would proceed as scheduled.
On Wednesday, Christina posted on Instagram a photo of her children at church.
“A lot going on lately,” she wrote in the caption. “But making time for what’s important is what’s really important.”