
HGTV stars Tarek and Christina El Moussa have called it quits after seven years of marriage.
The Flip Or Flop stars – who had police called out to their home six months ago after receiving a call of ‘a possibly suicidal male with a gun’ who turned out to be Tarek – announced their separation to People magazine on Monday.
‘Like many couples, we have had challenges in our marriage. 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,’ the pair released in a statement.
The husband and wife real estate agent couple told the publication they attended marriage counseling but decided to separate while assessing ‘the future of our marriage.’
Tarek, 35, and Christina, 33 – who star in the home makeover program – added in their statement: ‘During the process, we are committed to our kids and being the best parents we can be.’
‘We will continue to work through this process civilly and cooperatively, and plan to continue our professional life together.’
The couple – who tied the knot in 2009 – share two children, daughter Taylor, six, and one-year-old Brayden.
On the same day the shocking announcement was made, Christina shared a sweet Christmas snapshot of her little ones visiting Santa which she shared with her Instagram followers.
Back in May cops were called to the couple’s home after an altercation involving guns and a possible suicide attempt, according to TMZ.
A helicopter and nearly a dozen deputies responded as witnesses told the site they saw Tarek run out the back door of his home with a gun and tried to escape down a hiking trail.
Sources added they saw Christina run out of the house sobbing and trembling just shortly after.
The site reported that Tarek was eventually spotted by officers and ordered to drop his weapon.
The father-of-two allegedly told police he had no intention of injuring himself and simply wanted to ‘blow off some steam.’
Five guns were later seized from the home, including an AR-15.
That weapon seemed to be back in Tarek’s hands however, as he showed off his trigger skills on the firing range with an AR-15 last week in an Instagram video which has since been deleted.
Their separation comes two weeks after Tarek announced he was cancer free after discovering he had thyroid cancer when a viewer of the program noticed a lump in his throat.
A woman watching an episode of their popular show got in contact with Tarek to tell him he should get tested to see if he had cancer after noticing an odd lump in his throat.
It turned out that he did have thyroid cancer, and just two weeks ago he got some great news which he posted on Instagram.
‘Rough couple of years.. Today I Went in for another cancer screening and it was all clear!’ he captioned a photo of himself and his wife by his side in a hospital bed from when he had his first surgery.
He instead took to Instagram on the day of the separation announcement with a photo of a book entitled ’10 Things Great Dads Do.’
He wrote in the caption: ‘Raising kids is the most important thing a parent can do. Like anything in life… The harder you work at it the better they will be!’
HGTV announced that Flip or Flop ‘will continue production as scheduled,’ and comply with any decision the couple makes for their show and their children.