Tarek El Moussa appears to be aware of his reputation these days.
A few months after filing for divorce from wife (and Flip or Flip co-host) Christina, El Moussa has found himself the subject of multiple scathing allegations.
First, there was the incident last May in which Tarek responded to an argument with Christina by grabbing a gun (!!!!) and heading into the woods (?!?!?).
Both Tarek and Christina acknowledged this incident late last year when news of their separation went public, explaining that no one was injured and no charges filed against El Moussa.
Still, it didn’t exactly paint Tarek in the most positive or stable of lights.
Then, amidst analysis over what went wrong in this marriage, there was the report that Tarek often treated Christina very poorly on the set of their HGTV series.
One tabloid cover even claimed that Tarek joked about raping his wife.
YIKES, right?
Over the past few weeks, meanwhile, Christina has appeared on the cover of People and talked openly about her relationship with Tarek.
She hasn’t blamed him for the romance falling apart, instead taking the high road any time the subject gets mentioned and making it clear that the ex-couple’s two young kids are her priority.
In other words: Christina has been totally winning the PR game.
Perhaps aware of this discrepancy, Tarek has shared a new photo on his Instagram account.
We posted it at the outset of this article and now we present the caption, which references Tarek’s battle with two kinds of cancer:
Thyroid cancer and Testicular cancer.
He was actually diagnosed with both these diseases in 2013.
“I thought I would share this with everyone… to truly understand how absolutely sick I was.. look at this photo and look at my eyes, I was a skeleton,” Tarek wrote on Thursday night, adding:
“This took a major toll on my physical and mental health.”
We can only imagine.
Tarek concluded his inspiring message as follows:
I know many of my fans have had similar struggles and can relate. The last 3 years were the hardest of my life, I look back and still wonder how I survived…
I never quit although I wanted to thousands of times all day every day. This is from hurting my back after battling 2 cancers.. I had a 60 pound weight swing from my illnesses…
I’m proud to say I didn’t quit and I’m in the best shape of my life!!
For everyone struggling right now from any situation.. remember… keep your head up and don’t quit! There is light at the end of the tunnel, stay strong!
If Tarek was looking for a way to turn public opinion more in his direction, it’s safe to say this picture and this caption succeeded.
Despite their split, Tarek and Christina continue to film Flip or Flop together. They are under contract for another season of the show.
Will they ever get back together?
Despite supposed photographic evidence, we strongly doubt it.
But that doesn’t mean they can’t be on friendly terms, co-parenting their infants as a team and proving that not all celebrity divorces need to be contentious, ugly and/or messy.
We wish both El Moussas nothing but the best.