Christina Haack has become a fixture in tabloids thanks to her turbulent personal life and
romantic entanglements, but that's only part of her complex life story.
Here's the untold truth of the star of the hit HGTV show "Fiip or Flop."
Christina Haack made her name inspiring the nation to flip houses.
In 2017, for example, more than 207,000 American properties were bought and then quickly resold.
However, when it comes to building a human connection, the realtor much prefers working
with those who haven't purchased a home simply for profit.
In 2019, Haack proved she could cut it as a solo artist when she landed another show
on the HGTV network.
As with "Flip or Flop," which she continues to co-present alongside ex-husband Tarek El
Moussa, "Christina on the Coast" sees the reality TV star help to give a glow-up to
houses that have seen better days.
But the difference here is that the work carried out is for the benefit of existing homeowners.
Two years after the show premiered, Haack told E! that she couldn't be happier about its premise, saying,
"I love working with the homeowners as opposed to doing flips because I feel like it's so much more personal.
I'm redesigning for people and families and getting to know them and their style is fun
and the transformations are huge.
The look on their faces when they walk through the door is everything for me."
In 2016, Christina Haack and Tarek El Moussa announced their split, and said in a statement via People,
"Like many couples, we have had challenges in our marriage."
The challenge that ultimately ended their relationship, however, was on a different scale.
Several months previously, police had been called to the Chino Hills State Park Main
Ridge Trail over reports of a man with a gun.
People magazine reported that nearly a dozen officers took to the area, with a nearby witness
claiming that they'd spotted El Moussa jumping over his fence to the hiking trail while armed.
The neighbor had been informed by a visibly upset Haack that her then-husband had left
their family home with a gun in his backpack.
Luckily, the "Flip or Flop" co-host was swiftly located and immediately complied with officers before returning home.
El Moussa insisted that his handgun was only to fend off any dangerous wildlife on the trail.
"I went out for a hike to scout some trails.
It wasn't even a big deal.
I didn't understand.
It got really blown out of proportion."
No charges were ever filed regarding the incident, which the divorced former couple described
as an "unfortunate misunderstanding."
Christina Haack and Tarek El Moussa's marriage may have ended following some rather dramatic
circumstances in 2016, but the pair have since managed to patch up their differences for
the sake of their careers and their kids.
Many "Flip or Flop" fans thought the show would end following the couple's divorce,
but instead, it's gone from strength to strength.
The exes appear to be just as cordial off screen, too.
Referring to their parental duties in 2018, Haack told Us Weekly,
"We have a schedule where we make sure that if one of us has to travel, that the other
picks up for the other one.
And we just make sure that whatever's best for the kids is what we're going to do."
"Now that we're divorced and have separate personal lives, balancing business can be tricky."
Interestingly, the "Christina on the Coast" star also has a healthy relationship with
El Moussa's new partner, "Selling Sunset" star Heather Rae Young.
In another Us Weekly interview, Haack revealed,
"We'll, like, text each other random recipes right now during isolation.
She'll, like, send me whatever her, like, favorite go-to granola bar is, and I'll text
her back, like, whatever mine is."
As well as transforming various Californian homes, Christina Haack's second HGTV series
also explores her passion for wellness.
While promoting "Christina on the Coast" in 2021, the star, who has a thyroid disease
called Hashimoto's, and polycystic ovary syndrome, told ET,
"That's one of the most important things to me, is just staying mentally and physically healthy.
[...] With autoimmune conditions, if I don't take time to meditate and go for walks and
focus on spirituality, I will just kind of hit a wall.
And I don't really have that option with kids and work and everything, so that's just a
big part of my journey."
"When you have a low thyroid production, that affects so many things."
Haack proved just how invested she was in the subject a year earlier, when she co-wrote
a book, "The Wellness Remodel."
Christina Haack surprised everyone when she walked down the aisle with British TV host
Ant Anstead in 2018, the same year that she'd officially finalized her divorce from Tarek El Moussa.
Sadly, it didn't prove to be second time lucky, as by the end of 2020, the "Flip or Flop"
star was once again heading for the divorce court.
Haack took to Instagram to announce that she'd separated from the father of her third child,
telling her followers in a since-deleted post,
"We are grateful for each other and as always, our children will remain our priority.
We appreciate your support and ask for privacy for us and our family as we navigate the future."
The HGTV regular has kept quiet about the specific reasons for the split.
But Haack didn't waste any time in distancing herself even further from Anstead.
Within six months of filing for divorce, she put their Newport Beach home up for sale for
a whopping $6 million.
The fact that the near-5,000-square-foot property was the venue for their winter wedding may
well have played a part in Haack's hastiness, too.
Christina Haack's squeaky-clean reputation took a bit of a hit in 2016, when she and
then-husband Tarek El Moussa were accused of scamming aspiring house flippers.
The pair had appeared on promotional material for a series of classes, which suggested that
they'd physically be in attendance to impart their property renovating wisdom.
But it's fair to say that those who signed up didn't get what they expected.
"Oh no, not at all."
"Oh God.
It is.
Just ignore him."
Instead of teaching at the front of the classroom, Haack and El Moussa only appeared via pre-recorded video.
And the introductory session appeared designed solely to encourage attendees to spend thousands
of dollars on further classes and software.
One man, Doug Stephens, claimed to Associated Press that his group was even asked to get
an increase on their credit card limit as homework in order to pay for such additions.
Another attendee, Patricia Briggs, admitted that whenever Haack and El Moussa do show up on screen,
"I want to go through my screen and shake the both of them."
The Utah-based education company insisted that they'd never explicitly promised the
"Flip or Flop" stars would be attending every session.
However, this didn't stop the FTC from filing a temporary restraining order against the
firm in 2019.
The former couple at the center of all the drama, though, have never commented on the issue.
Christina Haack and Tarek El Moussa first became parents in 2010, the year after they
got married, with the birth of daughter Taylor.
But their attempts to welcome a second child into the world were a little more complicated.
In 2013, the pair decided to freeze El Moussa's sperm before he underwent radiation therapy
for testicular and thyroid cancer, two conditions from which he thankfully recovered.
Their first attempt at in-vitro fertilization sadly failed, and tragically, their second
resulted in a miscarriage.
However, on the third try, son Brayden arrived in 2015.
Haack later told People,
"I had to be really strict.
I had to do one full week in bed.
For 13 weeks after that, I couldn't go for a walk and couldn't lift anything over a gallon of milk.
At around six weeks pregnant I started spotting, so I thought that we lost the baby again."
The "Flip or Flop" star also had a hard time while carrying her third child in her first trimester.
In a since-deleted Instagram post, she wrote,
"Maybe I just forgot how bad it was with Tay and Bray [...] but yikes, it really blindsided me."
Son Hudson, her only child with second husband Ant Anstead, arrived via C-section in 2019.
Having adopted the surnames of her now ex-husbands, Tarek El Moussa and Ant Anstead, the "Flip
or Flop" star decided that, as a single woman, it was high time she put her family name in the spotlight.
She changed her moniker on Instagram to her maiden name, Christina Haack, and revealed
how happy her late grandparents would be about her decision.
Haack wrote on Instagram,
"My grandma, Mildred 'Biddy' Haack, was my greatest influence growing up.
She was always real in a world of so many fakes.
I spent the summers on my family’s farm and we would stay up all night talking.
She’s the only person I’ve ever really trusted with my life.
[...] Taking back the family’s last name and know my grandparents are smiling from above."
Christina Haack has unfortunately experienced one of the major pitfalls of being a celebrity
in the digital age, and that's online abuse.
For instance, take the time she uploaded an innocuous selfie to Instagram in 2021, wearing
an all-black sweatshirt-and-jeans combo.
While many of the comments were positive, there was also a significant amount of questionable
feedback about her weight.
As quoted by Heavy, one follower remarked,
"I feel her thinness isn't because she eats healthy and exercises.
I hope people that love her will help her."
Another use apparently responded,
"There's a sadness and emptiness in her eyes."
Noticing this display of body shaming, Haack herself was quick to shoot down any rumors
in the comments section, adding,
"Chill people — I eat, and I eat healthy."
But it's not just Haack's health that has been called into question.
Following her split from second husband Ant Anstead, many online troublemakers pointed
out that Haack rarely posted anything on social media about their son, Hudson.
Understandably, the "Christina on the Coast" host soon fired back to refute the claims.
She captioned an Instagram post with,
"I hardly post anymore [...] and I def do not want to post my kids every freaking day
to make it a contest of who's a better parent [for] that.
This doesn't mean I'm not with my kids — it means the opposite - I am with them - I'm present."
Christina Haack may have been unlucky in love on several occasions, but she hasn't given
up on finding the man she really does end up spending the rest of her life with.
In June 2021, she told E!,
"I believe that everyone deserves to have love and find love and I hope that happens for me."
However, Haack insisted that she had no plans to go on the hunt for Mr. Right just yet, saying,
"It would take a really special someone and my goal right now is just to focus on my kids
and keeping my private life, as private as it can possibly be."
That same month, Haack's second ex-hubby, Ant Anstead, proved he had no such qualms
about re-entering the dating game.
Per TMZ, the motoring expert managed to woo the one and only Renée Zellweger after they
worked together on Discovery+ show "Celebrity IOU: Joyride."
By July 2021, Haack's romantic life made headlines once again when she was spotted holding hands
with Texan realtor Joshua Hall at LAX, as the pair jetted off on a trip to celebrate Haack's birthday.
A source cited by People claimed,
"They recently started dating each other and it was an immediate, real connection [...] They've
enjoyed getting to know each other one-on-one without outside noise."
It's safe to say that Christina Haack makes a pretty penny thanks to her many ventures.
During the early years of "Flip or Flop," it's reported that Haack and her ex-husband
earned $10,000 each per episode.
That figure had increased four-fold by the time the show entered its third season.
And then in 2019, when Haack was married to Ant Anstead, she was deemed to be earning
$50,000 for every episode of her own show, "Christina on the Coast."
It's little wonder, then, that according to Celebrity Net Worth, the interior designer
has approximately $12 million in the bank.
And she's still adding to her tally.
Haack has three shows on the Home and Garden TV network, and she also sold her Newport
Beach pad in 2021 for nearly $2 million more than she'd paid for it just three years earlier.
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