Christina Haack breaks down in crying selfie: ‘I deserve better’

Christina Haack has shared an emotional post on social media, offering a rare glimpse into the turmoil behind the scenes of The Flip Off amid her very public split from ex-husband Josh Hall.

The Christina on the Coast star, 41, took to Instagram to share a teary-eyed selfie taken in the midst of filming, hitting back at Josh, 44, after he accused HGTV of manufacturing drama for the sake of ratings.

“This was taken June 21, 2024. After one of my shoots with Josh. This is ‘real’ and a reminder to myself that I deserve better,” she captioned the post, which showed her visibly upset in the driver’s seat of her car.

The former couple, who tied the knot in 2021, had initially signed up for The Flip Off as a team, competing against Christina’s ex-husband, Tarek El Moussa, and his wife, Heather Rae El Moussa, to see which pair could renovate and flip a property for the biggest profit. 

But things took a dramatic turn when Christina and Josh’s marriage fell apart just as production got underway in July.

Clips released by HGTV show Christina ultimately going head-to-head with the El Moussas alone, as she navigates the split both personally and professionally.

Josh took to Instagram to criticize the network, claiming they had turned his marriage into a spectacle. “TFW when you can’t get enough ratings with celebrity designers so you rely on manufactured drama with me, a nobody. @HGTV, you’ve changed,” he wrote in an Instagram Story on Monday.

© HGTV

It wasn’t long before Christina clapped back. Sharing the same headline about their on-screen tension, she wrote, “Manufactured?! Pretty sure no one at @HGTV told you to be rude to me. That was all natural.”

A recently released clip from the upcoming show sheds more light on the tensions between them. In the footage, Josh is seen driving Christina, telling her: “I’m going to pull out all the stops to win. Halls rule.”

When she didn’t respond, he pushed her to repeat it, reminding her: “Remember, you’re a Hall now. Don’t get confused in this competition about what your last name is.”

© Instagram

After Christina remained silent, Josh called her “rude” before adding, “The s**t you say, and I’m just like, I wish she would just shut up already. My wife’s pissing me off already.”

Later, Christina is seen confiding in Tarek, revealing the full extent of what had been going on behind closed doors. “We had a blow-up, middle fingers in my face. Things with Josh have been bad for a long time. The kids literally asked me to leave. They told me he’s not nice to me, why would I stick around?” she admitted.

Christina shares two children, Taylor, 14, and Brayden, 9, with Tarek, and has a five-year-old son, Hudson, from her second marriage to Ant Anstead.

© Matt Winkelmeyer/GA

“It feels like I’m in a tornado all the time and I just can’t get out of it,” she confessed in the video, breaking down in tears. “Everything since 2016 has been so hard and so horrible and has taken a really bad toll on me,” referring to the year she and Tarek ended their marriage.

The couple’s split was first confirmed in early July, but it’s clear that tensions had been brewing long before.

Now, as The Flip Off prepares to premiere on Wednesday, January 29, viewers will get a front-row seat to the personal and professional clashes that played out on set.

The six-episode series will also feature a host of special guests, including Heather Dubrow and Jeff Lewis, promising plenty of must-see moments both in the design world and beyond.