HGTV has had a big hit with Flip or Flop, the real estate and home renovation series starring Tarek El Moussa and Christina El Moussa. However, that all could be changing now that Tarek and Christina are splitting up. The separation news is coming following an altercation that also involved the police, leading us to wonder how the series could possibly keep going in the aftermath.
News broke on Monday that Tarek El Moussa and Christina El Moussa are separating after seven years of marriage. The popular stars of Flip and Flop have been in counseling for some time, following an incident that occurred six months ago in which "a misunderstanding" led to the police coming to their house where a "possibly suicidal male with a gun" ran out the back door and onto a hiking trail. TMZ is reporting that during the May incident, Christina was spotted coming out of her house and crying. Tarek later told police that he had only grabbed the gun to blow off steam and not to hurt himself, but the couple had been in counseling ever since.
Per People, the couple also released a statement about moving forward, separately, following the troubling incident.
Like many couples, we have had challenges in our marriage. We had an unfortunate misunderstanding about six months ago and the police were called to our house in an abundance of caution. There was no violence and no charges were filed.
Meanwhile, on television, Flip or Flop couldn't be going any better. The summer season of the series, which hit the schedule back in August, also was the #1 show on cable the night of its premiere, pulling in nearly 3 million total viewers. HGTV also recently premiered the winter season of the show in December, which means there are at least a few more episodes of the show that have already been shot.
Christina and Tarek have said that despite their separation, they are committed to co-parenting their children. Because of the altercation leading to the separation, it's hard to see them continuing to co-run their business, which is shot as part of Flip or Flop. However, part of the statement they gave out seems to say they are going to try and keep the gravy train rolling.
We will continue to work through this process civilly and cooperatively, and plan to continue our professional life together.
Because Tarek picks the properties and does the work and Christina designs each of the properties and helps to keep people on task, they really do both need each other to have a functioning business model. However, when splitting with your partner, the last thing you usually want to do is have to spend most of your time together. We'll have to wait and see how this one pans out.
So far, HGTV has mostly stayed out of this one, but if Flip or Flop ends up finishing its run, we'll be sure to let you know. In the meantime, you can check out what is heading to TV with our premiere schedule.
