Tarek El Moussa Lastly Tells His Model of Gun Incident That Ended Marriage to Christina Corridor (Unique)

The HGTV star spoke solely to PEOPLE about revisiting the drama-filled day in 2016 and its aftermath in his new e book, ‘Flip Your Life’

Tarek El Moussa is revisiting the darkest chapter of his life after seven years.

In Flip Your Life: How to Find Opportunity in Distress — in Real Estate, Business and Life (out Feb 6), the HGTV star, 42, tells his facet of the story of his extremely publicized cut up from his ex spouse and Flip or Flop co-star Christina Hall, 40, for the primary time — together with the harrowing 2016 incident involving a gun that led to their divorce.

When the pair’s split became public in December 2016, it was revealed that they’d really secretly separated seven months earlier throughout an altercation wherein El Moussa fled right into a nature space with a pistol after what he referred to as a “blowup” struggle with Corridor.

She referred to as 911, police flooded the park and as shortly because it had devolved, it was over — the incident and their seven-year marriage.

Tarek tells the story of that day from his perspective in Flip Your Life, and opens up about it solely to PEOPLE on this week’s challenge.

Associated: Tarek El Moussa Reveals He Lived in a Halfway House After Divorce From Christina Hall: ‘I Didn’t Trust Myself’

In his book, he writes that after a heated argument, he “went out to our yard in Yorba Linda and hopped over the fence.” On that a lot the exes agree. However his rationalization as to why differs. He says moderately than fleeing, he was craving train and needed to scout the paths close to the home after having lately bought some new mountain bikes.

The neighboring Chino Hills State Park is a habitat for wildlife together with mountain lions and bobcats, so he introduced alongside what he calls an “insurance coverage coverage,” a .38-caliber pistol. He says he’d acquired his California concealed-carry license a number of weeks prior.

When a helicopter appeared overhead, he recollects he thought there was an emergency, probably a wildfire, however he shortly realized it was for him.

“A police officer leaning out of the helicopter pointed a rifle at me. Mud swirled round me from the spin of the blades, and a loudspeaker crackled, ‘Get your palms within the air!'” he writes. Extra police in off-road automobiles swarmed.

Associated: Tarek El Moussa Says He Used to Sleep 14 Hours a Day Because He ‘Hated Being Awake . . . I Hated Myself’

The officer within the helicopter miraculously acknowledged him. “I heard an officer shout, ‘Tarek?’ I screamed again, ‘Sure! I’m the man from TV! What are you guys doing?’” he says.

They lowered their weapons and tensions eased, however it was the start of a downward spiral for El Moussa.

“For the following a number of hours, I sat on a cooler on my driveway, handcuffed,” he writes of the aftermath. “That was the final time we have been collectively as a household: with Christina strolling down the driveway, crying, and me sitting there in handcuffs, asking myself, What on the planet is occurring?”

Talking in regards to the e book to PEOPLE, he describes the weeks instantly after the cut up as “bodily and emotional hell,” and writes of hiding out on his boat, ingesting himself unconscious and going via excessive withdrawal from the testosterone he’d been taking till buddies stepped in to get him to a rehab facility.

Associated: Tarek El Moussa Addresses Steroid Addiction and ‘Very Public’ Divorce in Personal New Book

Within the wake of the separation, he says, “All people gave up on me: the magazines, the retailers, the community, no person believed in me.”

He receded from the highlight for months. Living in what he describes as “a halfway house,” he discovered the desire to struggle for what he thought on the time can be the reunification of his household. (He and Corridor share daughter Taylor and son Brayden, now 13 and eight, respectively.)

He says he realized that wasn’t within the playing cards “once I came upon that she had moved on.” Corridor started relationship her second husband Ant Anstead within the fall of 2017. “I might say devastating can be an understatement,” he recollects of how that realization hit him.

Seven years on, nevertheless, each he and Corridor have healed significantly.

“I maintain nothing in opposition to Christina. I perceive why she did what she did. We had loads of exhausting years via my sicknesses and my psychological well being struggles from the testosterone.” He takes an extended pause. “I’ve by no means mentioned any of this, ever.”

The exes continued to movie their present collectively for a number of years, which made it tough for El Moussa to maneuver on, however at present he says their relationship is “higher than it has been ever because the separation. All of us talk properly, even [Tarek’s wife] Heather [El Moussa] and Christina. We actually concentrate on the youngsters.”

Assembly Heather at a Fourth of July party in 2019 was “my breakthrough second,” he says. “Ever since that day, I simply have not regarded again and I am simply so completely satisfied and excited in regards to the household I’ve at present.”

Associated: Tarek El Moussa and Heather Rae Young’s Relationship Timeline

He and Heather welcomed their son Tristan in January 2023. Christina has additionally remarried, first to Anstead, from whom she split less than two years later after welcoming son Hudson, 4, after which to Josh Hall in 2022.

That’s the lesson of the e book, he says: “I by no means gave up. By way of loads of exhausting work, ache and simply dreaming, I used to be in a position to get to the place I’m at present.”

Flip Your Life: How to Find Opportunity in Distress — in Real Estate, Business and Life is out Feb. 6 and obtainable for pre-order now.

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