Tarek El Moussa (born August 21, 1981) is a real estate investor and television personality. He is best known for co-hosting

HGTV HGTV (an initialism for Home & Garden Television) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The network primarily broadcasts reality programming related to home improvement and real estate. As of February 2015, appr ...

's '' Flip or Flop'' alongside his ex-wife

Christina Hall Christina Meursinge Hall (née Haack, formerly El Moussa and Anstead; born July 9, 1983) is an American real estate investor and TV personality. She previously co-starred on HGTV's show ''Flip or Flop'' alongside her now ex-husband Tarek El Mou ...

. The pair found success flipping houses as an alternative to their previous business of selling real estate, which took a hit during the

2008 economic crisis 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

Professional background

El Moussa got his real estate license in 2002, at the age of 21. He had a lucrative career selling real estate until the

, when the business he shared with then-wife,

Christina Haack Christina Meursinge Hall (née Haack, formerly El Moussa and Anstead; born July 9, 1983) is an American real estate investor and TV personality. She previously co-starred on HGTV's show '' Flip or Flop'' alongside her now ex-husband Tarek El Mo ...

, began to struggle. At that time, the couple had no choice but to give up their $6,000/month home to move to a $700/month apartment. The pair then ventured into a new real estate strategy - flipping houses. During their first flip, El Moussa submitted an audition tape to

that followed the pair's process of flipping a house. The network picked up the show, which has seen a popular 10-season run, with season 10 premiering on

in December 2021. Despite the couple's divorce, they continued working together on '' Flip or Flop'', with Tarek saying to ''People'', "From the beginning, HGTV has shown Christina and me tremendous support and we are excited to go out there and flip many more houses for ''Flip or Flop.''" In 2020, El Moussa launched a second HGTV show, '' Flipping 101 with Tarek El Moussa'', in which he serves as a mentor to novice house-flippers. On December 2, 2022, he and his second wife Heather Rae shared a first look at their upcoming show "The Flipping El Moussas", set to release on March 2, 2023.

Personal life

Tarek El Moussa was born on August 21, 1981 to a Lebanese Catholic father, whose family migrated to Egypt, and a Belgian mother in Long Beach, California. In 2000, he graduated from Sunny Hills High School in

Fullerton, California Fullerton ( ) is a city located in northern Orange County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 143,617. Fullerton was founded in 1887. It secured the land on behalf of the Atchison, Topeka and Sa ...

. He married

in May 2009. The couple met while working at a real estate office, later entering into business together. Their daughter was born on September 22, 2010. Their son was born on August 20, 2015. In 2013, Tarek was diagnosed with cancer. A ''Flip or Flop'' viewer, nurse Ryan Reade, "noticed that at certain angles, at certain times, it just caught my eye that Tarek had a lump on his throat" and contacted producers. Tarek has been in remission since 2014. Tarek and Christina divorced in 2018. El Moussa started dating actress and real estate agent

Heather Rae Young __NOTOC__ The following is a list of ''Playboy Playmates of 2010''. Playboy magazine names its Playmate of the Month each month throughout the year. January Jaime Faith Edmondson (born December 30, 1978) is an American model. She is the ''Playboy ...

in 2019. They married October 23, 2021, at the Rosewood Miramar Beach Hotel in Montecito. The wedding was the subject of the Discovery+ special "''Tarek and Heather: The Big I Do."'' In July 2022, the couple announced Heather's pregnancy and that they were expecting a baby boy, conceived through IVF, in early 2023. Tarek announced their son's birth on January 31, 2023, on Instagram. Tarek reportedly dedicated a star to Heather Rae in September 2022, through the International Star Registry. They have also stated that they've considered having more children in the future and "still have the embryos" from Heather's IVF treatments.

Filmography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moussa, Tarek 1981 births American people of Lebanese descent American people of Belgian descent American television hosts American real estate brokers Living people