Things got heated between Christina Haack’s former romantic interests Josh Hall and Tarek El Moussa on the season premiere of HGTV’s The Flip Off.
The show’s premise follows Christina, 41, and Josh, 44, as they team up against her ex-husband Tarek El Moussa and his wife, Heather El Moussa (née Young), while they each find, purchase and renovate a house to compete for the biggest financial gain.
In an effort to save costs, Josh and his father, William Hall, decided to do the demolition work for their first flip themselves, rather than hire outside help.
“Tarek says ‘I’m not handy. I’m not getting dirty. I’m not sweating,’” Josh complained to his dad about his competitor as they went to work on the Wednesday, January 29 episode. Tarek, 43, FaceTimed Josh during the workday and Josh criticized him for appearing too “relaxed” on the first day of the competition.
“When I was a rookie flipper, I used to do the work too. When you’re a pro like me you just sit on the big couch,” the HGTV alum replied. “By the way, your wife, she’s going to be way over budget. She’s going to mismanage and you’re going to be behind schedule.”
Josh told Tarek to get out of his ear, adding, “Act like a man, put on a shirt that’s not $700 and you can save money on demo.”
The Flip Off was announced in May 2024, only two months before Josh filed for divorce from Christina on July 16, 2024. She followed suit by filing her own paperwork one day later.
Although the pair had already begun filming The Flip Off before they parted ways, Christina admitted shooting the show was smoother without Josh.
“It’s so much easier without somebody else bothering me,” the Christina on the Coast star said on The Jennifer Hudson Show on Tuesday, January 28. “I mean, I don’t have to ask approval from anyone, no one’s, like, weighing me down.”
Host Jennifer Hudson asked the Flip or Flop alum if she felt disadvantaged by not having a teammate anymore for the competition show. However, Christina felt quite the opposite. “No, I think I have an advantage,” she explained.
Christina previously shared that Josh was “very hard to film with” while filming The Flip Off. “He’d always get upset with me, like, ‘Oh, my gosh, you did this,’ or ‘You did that.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m making a TV show,’” she told Us Weekly in an interview published on January 9. “Ultimately, it was better that he left after episode 1 because the show would’ve sucked.”
The mom of three admitted that working together on the TV series “probably just sped up” her split from her estranged husband, as she claimed that filming brought out Josh’s “insecurity.”
“If I would laugh at Tarek, I would get the silent treatment for a week,” Christina continued. “Somebody with more confidence would be able to say, ‘This is my wife, but yes, she does this for TV. She was filming with Tarek when I met her.’ There was a rationale there that didn’t make sense. You know what you signed up for. I’m your wife, and I’m choosing you, but you’re choosing to make my life harder over insecurities.”
