Tarek El Moussa finally talked about one of the hardest moments in his life — the explosive fight involving a gun that led to his divorce from Christina Hall seven years ago.
Perezcious readers may recall the former couple announced their divorce in December 2016 — months after an altercation in which Tarek fled their California home with a pistol to a nearby hiking trail at the Chino Hills State Park. Police received a call in May 2016 about a “possibly suicidal male with a gun” on the property. Tarek swore he had no intentions of hurting himself at the time. But after the chaotic situation ended, he knew their seven-year marriage was over.
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Now, years later, the 42-year-old reality star is speaking out about the moment in his upcoming book Flip Your Life: How to Find Opportunity in Distress — in Real Estate, Business and Life. And he has a very different story to tell of the gun incident than his ex-wife!
According to People, Tarek claims he got into a “blowup” argument with Christina that day, so he “went out to our backyard in Yorba Linda and hopped over the fence.” Here’s where the exes’ stories begin to differ. Instead of fleeing, the HGTV personality said he simply wanted to exercise and scout the trails near the property as he bought some new mountain bikes.
As for the gun, he says, it was just meant for protection since the Chino Hills State Park was known for having mountain lions and bobcats. He claimed in the book he only brought a .38-caliber pistol with him as an “insurance policy” and noted he had received a California concealed-carry license a few weeks prior.
So, he continues, he went on the hike not knowing Christina had called 911 in a panic, fearing he planned to harm himself. It wasn’t until later that Tarek realized something was going on. When a helicopter suddenly showed up overhead, Tarek said he initially thought there was an emergency like a wildfire. However, he soon realized they were there for him when he noticed a rifle pointed at him:
“A police officer leaning out of the helicopter pointed a rifle at me. Dust swirled around me from the spin of the blades, and a loudspeaker crackled, ‘Get your hands in the air!’”
Police officers in off-road vehicles soon surrounded the area. Before things escalated, one man in the helicopter fortunately recognized Tarek. He recalled:
“I heard an officer shout, ‘Tarek?’ I screamed back, ‘Yes! I’m the guy from TV! What are you guys doing?’”
The authorities immediately lowered their weapons. However, the situation wasn’t over yet. While handcuffed in his driveway, Tarek remembered that was the “last time” they were together “as a family”:
“For the next several hours, I sat on a cooler on my driveway, handcuffed. That was the very last time we were together as a family: with Christina walking down the driveway, crying, and me sitting there in handcuffs, asking myself, What in the world is going on?”
In the wake of the incident, Tarek told People he went through weeks of “physical and emotional hell” as he hid out on his boat and often drank himself unconscious. He was also experiencing withdrawals from the testosterone he had been taking. It got so bad that friends had to step in and take him to a rehab facility.
For months, he lived in “a halfway house” to work on himself. While Tarek hoped to eventually rekindle his relationship with Christina and get back his family, he soon found out he was too late “when I found out that she had moved on.” Christina began dating her second husband, Ant Anstead, in 2017. Tarek recalled of that time:
“I would say devastating would be an understatement. I hold nothing against Christina. I understand why she did what she did. We had a lot of hard years through my sicknesses and my mental health struggles from the testosterone. I’ve never said any of this, ever.”
Despite their difficult divorce, things are better than ever between them. He told the outlet:
“We all communicate well, even [Tarek’s wife] Heather [El Moussa] and Christina. We really focus on the kids.”
It is great Tarek and Christina were able to get to a better place following what had been such an intense and scary situation before their divorce. Reactions, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments.
[Image via E! News/HGTV/YouTube]
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