Tarek El Moussa is pretty good at renovating houses.
But it turns out he’s even better at reconstructing the narrative around his crumbling marriage.
The Flip or Flop star has spoken out about his estranged wife, Christina, on social media, coming to her defense against an influx of online haters.
Even as word spreads that Christina is now dating Gary Anderson, the family contractor.
The HGTV personalities have been in the news for several days now; not due to any great deal they made on a home, but due to some serious drama surrounding their relationship.
It has come to light, for example, that Tarek fled his house in May, taking a gun with him into the woods and prompting a frantic 911 call from Christina… who thought he might kill himself.
While Tarek told authorities at the time that he was simply safeguarding himself from wild animals, the publicized incident forced these reality stars to admit they’ve been separated for months.
“Like many couples, we have had challenges in our marriage,” the pair said in the statement last week, addressing the dramatic incident without detail.
“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.
“During the process, we are committed to our kids and being the best parents we can be.”
It has since been confirmed that HGTV will continue to air new episodes (and maybe even a new season) of Flip or Flop, while Tarek and Christina are seeing other people.
They actually seem to be on very good terms.
This point was driven home on Thursday after Tarek shared a cute photo of himself and his daughter, six-year old Taylor.
They are posing near some boats that are decorated with holiday lights.
“Me and the #love of my life #crushing it!!!” Tarek wrote as a caption, making a reference to his separation and adding:
“It’s been a #crazy few days but we #love our kids soooo #much!! My #heart and #soul.”
Tarek and Christina also share 15-month son Brayden.
They will continue working together as business partners, at the very least, with Tarek not taking kindly to one comment left by a user in response to the photo above.
“Christina your [sic] a phoney,” this person wrote to Tarek on Instagram.
“She’s a great person and mom,” Tarek responded. “We have had many many struggles that’s all.”
According to an incident report obtained by E! News in regard to what took place in May, Christina said Tarek “took a handgun, put it in his backpack and ran outside” their house in Orange County.
He reached a state park, where cops, aided by one of their helicopters, tracked him down.
They later found five firearms in the house and he relinquished them voluntarily for 30 days as a precautionary measure.
It sounds pretty crazy, but who are we to judge?
As long as Tarek and Christina are both happy and both doing the best job they can as parents, we’ll gladly sit back and watch as they flip, flop and pretend to get along on camera.