The HGTV series The Flip Off is premiering in January, and for Christina Hall, it’s not just houses that she’s flipping. The home renovator has swapped exes on the show after she and husband Josh Hall filed for divorce, with her second ex-husband, Ant Anstead, reportedly making an appearance when the show hits the 2025 TV schedule. In the midst of the huge casting change, the Christina on the Coast star -- who also has a show hitting the 2024 TV schedule -- opened up about making herself small in her marriage to Hall, and as she said: “What wants to live like that?”
Christina and Josh Hall were set to compete on The Flip Off against her first ex, Tarek El Moussa and his Christina-look-alike wife, Heather Rae. However, when the couple split, the decision was made to continue production without Josh, and it sounds like that came as quite a relief to Christina. She admitted she struggled to be herself around her husband, telling ET:
When someone is insecure about you and doesn’t like to watch you win, that really puts a damper on everything. I feel like I was not shining as bright to try to not make him feel emasculated. But who wants to live like that?
The breakup between Josh Hall and Christina (who filed to have her maiden name Haack reinstated) has been pretty contentious from the beginning. Money seems to be a big part of why the HGTV star said she was “done,” and she’s spoken before on her estranged husband’s supposed insecurities. Suffice it to say, the issues that were bubbling up between them made for a pretty miserable working environment. She continued:
It was not fun, to be honest. I did not enjoy filming with him. So, having split up made this, to be honest, so much easier and so much better in every, every way.
Apparently the awkward premise of The Flip Off was its own problem, as she indicated that Josh Hall wasn’t comfortable with the friendly relationship she’s developed with Tarek El Moussa since they split in 2016, claiming:
The show would have been hard to film [with Josh]. Jealousy over Tarek, [he] doesn’t like, you know, our dynamic, because Tarek and I have our own dynamic and some could call it flirty. It’s more like, for me, more like a sibling-type thing.
Hopefully she won’t face similar issues when Ant Anstead shows up on the upcoming HGTV show. There were rumors after Christina Hall’s latest divorce filing that Anstead’s partner of over three years, Renee Zellweger, was nervous about his ex, but insiders brushed the claims off as “totally laughable.”
While some fans are hoping to see James Bender, a designer who’s worked with Christina Hall frequently on several shows, partner with her on The Flip Off, it seems like she’s just happy to be able to shine as brightly as she wants to without Josh Hall.
Keep an eye out for that premiere date coming in January, and in the meantime you can catch the second season of Tarek and Heather Rae’s show The Flipping El Moussas, which premieres on December 26.
