Longtime HGTV star Christina Haack says her July 2024 split from third husband Josh Hall came after repeated attempts to save their marriage. In the season five finale of “Christina on the Coast” — which first aired on March 13, 2025 — cameras captured Haack telling her best friend, Cassie Schienle, how relieved she and her kids felt not having Hall around anymore.
“The house is so much better, the kids are so happy,” Haack reflected. “Like, everyone in this household is thriving and the kids truly are doing great. Everyone’s just doing better since he’s gone… just all that negative energy.”
Haack, 41, is raising her three kids at her home in Newport Beach, California. She shares daughter Taylor, 14, and son Brayden, 9, with first husband Tarek El Moussa and five-year-old son Hudson with her second husband, Ant Anstead. On the series premiere of “The Flip Off,” she informed El Moussa of her split from Hall, 44, and admitted their kids had been urging her to get out of the relationship.
“Things with Josh have been bad for a long time,” she told El Moussa as cameras rolled. “The kids literally asked me to leave. They told me he’s not nice to me. Why would I stick around?”
Christina Haack’s Best Friend Says Her Marriage to Josh Hall Was ‘So Toxic’
Haack and Hall’s surprise split came after nearly three years of marriage, just as they were starting to film “The Flip Off,” and with the filming of “Christina on the Coast” season five already underway. Though their divorce filing shocked fans, Haack told Schienle on the March 13 episode that she’d been trying for a while to make things work.
She explained, “I truly tried to make that work and tried to give him the self-help tools, tried to keep him busy and tried to say, ‘Why don’t we start flipping houses?’ and all those things. No matter what, you can’t make someone else happy; they can only make themselves happy.”
Affirming Haack’s decision to divorce Hall, Schienle told her, “There’s nothing you could’ve done. Look, I’m proud of you because I know that wasn’t easy, to really step out of that situation that was so bad and so toxic. And then also know what you were about to go up against.”
Haack acknowledged that she didn’t want to deal with the pushback she’d get for having a third marriage end. The designer was married to El Moussa, with whom she starred on “Flip or Flop,” from 2009 to 2016, and to Anstead from 2018 to 2020.
She told Schienle, “Three divorces? Of course I didn’t want to get divorced for a third time.”
Sitting on Haack’s couch during their girls’ talk, Schienle advised her bestie to be careful about walking down the aisle again.
“Look, I know you love a relationship,” she told Haack. “You love to be in love. Not one thing has changed in our 25 years of friendship or knowing each other. For real, you have your beautiful children and a beautiful life and career. Alright? Let’s slow it down.”
Haack agreed as the two friends hugged, saying, “Absolutely. It’s all going to be fine. Appreciate you.”
It’s not clear when the segment with Haack and Schienle was filmed, but reports of Haack’s new romance with business executive Chris Larocca began to swirl in January after the two were seen together during the holiday season.
Josh Hall Isn’t Happy About How He’s Been Portrayed on HGTV Shows
Though Haack’s support system and fans are happy she is feeling good and opening up about the difficulties in her marriage to Hall, he isn’t happy about how he’s been portrayed on her HGTV shows.
On the February 27 episode of “Christina on the Coast,” for instance, Haack took Schiele for a ride in a UTV (utility terrain vehicle) that she claimed Hall had tried to take from her second home outside of Nashville.
She told her bestie, “When my parents got to the house, this was gone. He took it. He thinks all of this is his even though I bought this before marriage.”
On the March 6 episode of her show, Haack told her design partner Kylie Wing that Hall also “stole” gym equipment from the home they used to share, explaining, “I’m going to get rid of this sofa and turn the gym — that Josh stole all the gym equipment from and I’m sure never uses it — I’m going to turn that into a playroom.”
After that episode, a spokesperson for Hall issued a statement to People that said, “The removal of any gym equipment by Josh was discussed and agreed-upon through legal counsel in advance. Any claims by Christina accusing him of ‘stealing’ are false, defamatory, and misleading.”
The statement continued, “This dangerous form of slander is incredibly damaging to Josh’s reputation, and they will continue to be documented accordingly.”
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Christina Haack Details Her Attempts to Save 3rd Marriage: ‘Truly Tried to Make That Work’