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Who knew? Tarek El Moussa has something in common with Walter White.
"Tarek" rhymes with "car wreck," he notes in his book Flip Your Life: How to Find Opportunity In Distress—in Real Estate, Business and Life, but it means something far different: "Tarek translates roughly as, 'The one who knocks.' I like that," he wrote. "I tend to be the one who knocks, over and over again."
When opportunity knocked on his door, he got after it in a big way.
"Time is our most valuable resource, and if you waste it, you never get it back," he wrote in his book Flip Your Life: How to Find Opportunity In Distress—in Real Estate, Business and Life. He takes that mantra very seriously—he's had more than one brush with death and even spent time incarcerated growing up, so he knows probably more about the value of every second than almost anyone (at least on HGTV!).
Get to know Tarek El Moussa, including some of the ways he flipped his own life for the better.
Related: Tarek El Moussa’s Net Worth in 2024: A Flipping Fortune
Who Is Tarek El Moussa? 31 Facts About 'The Flip Off' Star
1. Tarek El Moussa is a Leo.
He was born Tarek Gustave El Moussa on Aug. 21, 1981. That may explain why his hair is almost always perfect!
2. He has an older sister.
Tarek's older sister, Angelique, was born on Oct. 9, 1978. He affectionately calls her his "little big sister." Aw!
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3. He's the son of immigrants.
Tarek's father's family is from Lebanon and immigrated to Egypt, while his mother's family stems from Belgium.
Tarek toldCountry Living, "My dad was raised Catholic in the Middle East in Lebanon and then Egypt. My mom's from Belgium and my dad moved to Europe when he was in his late teens."
His parents lived in Beirut until 1978, when they immigrated to the United States amid the Lebanese Civil War.
4. Tarek El Moussa has a tattoo that he regrets.
Tarek revealed toUs Weeklythat he has a "big black spider-looking tribal" tattoo on his back that he got in high school—and that he can't stand it, in part because it's still itchy to this day.
5. He didn't get great grades growing up.
Tarek told Us Weekly that he was a "straight-C student." In Flip Your Life, he notes that he had ADHD, which made concentrating in classes difficult, but that he was great at math and could solve even complex problems in his head.
Related: Who Is HGTV Star Christina Haack?
6. Real estate wasn't his dream job as a kid.
According to Us Weekly, Tarek actually wanted to be an engineer as a child. He fell in love with real estate when he was 20 years old and obtained his real estate license the following year.
7. He was almost a baseball player.
Tarek reveals in Flip Your Life that had a promising future playing baseball, but a shoulder injury forced him to abandon that dream while still in high school. He dropped out of college and felt lost, leading him to drink heavily for a year until he got back on his feet to pursue real estate.
8. Tarek El Moussa's mom helped him early in his real estate journey.
Tarek is not a nepo baby by any means! His mom let him crash in her garage when the market tanked in 2008.
9. His mom taught him a cleaning hack he still uses today.
In Season 8 of Flip or Flop, Tarek had his mother, Dominique, help him clean an oil stain off of a driveway using her tried-and-true method: Baking soda and actual soda. It worked!
10. Tarek El Moussa and Christina Haack first met in 2005.
Tarek and Haack met when they both were real estate agents for Prudential in 2005. Haack toldGood Housekeeping that they moved in together by October 2006 and married in April 2009.
11. He's a father of three.
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Haack and Tarek share daughter Taylor Reese El Moussa, born in September 2010, and son Brayden James, born in August 2015. He and wife Heather share son Tristan, born in January 2023.
Related: Christina Haack's Relationship History
12. A Flip or Flop viewer saved his life.
During Season 2 of Flip or Flop, a viewer sent Tarek an email that may have saved his life. It read: "This is not a joke. I am a registered nurse. I’ve been watching Flip or Flop. I noticed that Tarek, the host, has a large nodule on his thyroid and he needs to have it checked out."
"I knew that if a nurse took the time, energy and effort to send an email from Texas to mention my neck, there was probably something wrong," Tarek toldChasing the Cure.
Tarek heeded the viewer's advice, and it turned out that she was right: He was diagnosed with stage III thyroid cancer and had his thyroid and several lymph nodes removed.
"If she didn't send that email, there's a chance I wouldn't be doing this interview right now," he said. "If she didn't send that email, maybe there are other people out there that never would have found out they had cancer because I didn't have my story."
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13. Tarek El Moussa was diagnosed with testicular cancer the same year he battled thyroid cancer.
Two months after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer, Tarek was diagnosed with testicular cancer.
"Sharing that I had testicular cancer was a little more challenging than initially sharing that I had thyroid cancer because it’s a more personal thing," he wrote for Movember in 2020. "It's very important to recognize if something feels off or feels wrong, to go the doctor and if that answer still doesn't feel quite right, get a second opinion because it could mean the difference between life and death. It's about knowing your own body and listening and then doing something about it."
14. He's raising awareness about post-cancer struggles.
"For me cancer, was terrible, but the aftermath of cancer was worse [than the disease]," Tarek wrote for Movember, noting side-effects of treatment including anxiety, depression, panic attacks and hair loss due to hormonal changes. He had previously opened up about suffering from nausea and migraines during his treatment as well.
"It can really mess you up. I don't think there’s enough being said about post-cancer treatment and support," he added. "Don't be afraid to speak up about what’s going on. Your voice matters. You have to fight for yourself and be your best advocate. We’re all in this together."
15. Tarek El Moussa battled steroid addiction after cancer.
After being treated for testicular and thyroid cancers, Tarek was desperate to get his hormone levels back in order.
"I was tired and I thought it was from the thyroid medication, but it wasn't," he revealed on theDr. Drewpodcast in 2018.
His desperation led him to what he calls "the worst thing [he] ever did," adding that it was "100 times worse than cancer."
"I thought it was from my testicular cancer so I went to this Botox doctor and hormone clinic that my ex said to go check out," he said, referring to Haack. "Next thing I know I’m shoving a needle on my a** and taking steroids—it was testosterone. It was awful. I was on way too much testosterone, on top of that taking human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) injections every day because I was told to."
16. He believes his steroid use contributed to his divorce from Christina Haack.
Tarek says that the steroids and hormones he was taking made him depressed and anxious, which, combined with the stress of the show and work, took a toll on his marriage to Haack.
"My hormonal levels were off and I wasn't feeling really well a lot of the time and I wasn't being the best person I could have been," he recalled to Dr. Drew. "There's so much going on with TV and the notoriety and the finances and so many different things happening at one time and it slowly pulled us apart."
Related: The Surprising Kitchen Element Christina Haack Says Can Be the 'Star of the Show'
17. He had yet another health issue after battling cancer.
Beating cancer wasn't the end of Tarek's health issues.
"Four months after I recovered from the second cancer, I hurt my back," he told Dr. Drew, adding that he needed surgery for the injury. "I lost 60 lbs., I was on Vicodin every day, my hormones are off, I'm on pain meds and narcotics and I'm filming and working," he recalled of the period. "It's wild. It was a horrifying experience ... [a] really rough three, four years."
18. According to him, Tarek El Moussa's gun incident was a heartwrenching misunderstanding.
In May 2016, TMZ reported that police were called to Tarek and Haack's home after he left the house with a gun and was believed to have suicidal ideation. Tarek explained in February 2024 that while he was struggling with his mental health at the time, he had no intentions of taking his own life (though he did admit to contemplating doing so prior to having children).
"I had just bought mountain bikes and we had all these trails behind our house," he told E! News. "I really wasn't doing good ... hated my life, hated myself. I just hated being alive. So I decided to go blow off steam, hike some trails."
Tarek had recently received his conceal and carry permit at the time and brought both his handgun and license with him in case of an animal attack, as the trails were part of Chino Hills State Park, an area known for wildlife like bobcats and mountain lions.
"Next thing I know there's a rifle pointed at me," Tarek recalled. "I'm like, 'Oh, something's really going on.' I swear everything slowed down, it was like a movie and there's these dust clouds everywhere, 11 sheriffs come up, they pull out their guns, they have me at gunpoint, they're screaming at me. And I'm thinking, 'What in the world is going on?'"
The incident was the biggest catalyst for his and Haack's separation, which was announced that December, and they filed for divorce in January 2017.
19. Tarek El Moussa's divorce from Christina Haack taught him how much he truly loves fatherhood.
Tarek admitted to Business Insider that before his separation and divorce from Haack, he didn't quite realize how much he was missing in regards to raising their kids. Today, he embraces being a father of three.
"I'm just obsessed with being a dad, and it truly is my favorite part of my life. I didn't even realize how obsessed I was with my kids until I hit rock bottom, until I was on my own, until I started rebuilding my life," he explained. "I wasn't present. I wasn't putting in the work [before the divorce]. I wasn't putting in the time that I put into flipping houses. I needed to put that time into being a dad."
20. Tarek El Moussa finds solace and peace in hot yoga and exercise.
Tarek says that separating from Haack and being away from his kids whipped him into shape in every other aspect of his life. He got off of his pain medications and hormone and steroid injections, began exercising more, eating healthier and doing hot yoga, as well as taking care of his mental health.
"After separating and losing my family, I said I’m gonna do every single thing I can to be the best person I can be. I can say standing here today I'm the best version of myself I ever thought I could be," he told Dr. Drew.
Being open about his struggles was key to healing, he noted.
"People have helped me and I remember how important it was for positive support," he explained. "Just talking about it makes me feel so much better."
21. He wrote a book detailing his struggles and to make amends to his loved ones.
Tarek's memoir, Flip Your Life: How to Find Opportunities In Distress, hit shelves in 2024. In an interview onThe Jennifer Hudson Show, he revealed his true motivations for putting pen to paper.
"I felt like I had to be honest, and the only way to tell the real story is to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth … It was my time to share what I went through," he said. "In a lot of ways, it was an apology to my family, to my ex-wife, to my children, to my mom, to my dad, kind of to everybody, because when you're going through multiple cancers back to back and your hormones are off, and you're in surgeries and you have no thyroid, you do things you wouldn't normally do. Not that it's an excuse, but I just wasn't the best guy during those years."
Related: Your Biggest Questions About Joanna Gaines, Answered
22. Tarek El Moussa spent time in juvenile detention for attempted murder.
File this one under things no one expected: In Flip Your Life, Tarek reveals that he spent time behind bars in juvenile detention as a teen: He was part of a gang brawl, leading to his arrest. It definitely looks like he's flipped his life around in a big way since then.
23. He once lived in an apartment that literally had been bulldozed.
Tarek recalled in Flip Your Life that when he was 20, he and his roommate refused to vacate their apartment when the building changed management. As a result, their apartment was partially bulldozed while they were out—and they still didn't leave!
Even though his and his roommate's belongings were covered in drywall, Tarek convinced his roomie to stay for another month, even though they were exposed to the elements. Adding insult to injury? While they weren't home one day, thieves stole almost everything they owned.
24. He wakes up very early.
"My favorite time of the day is between 4 and 6:30 a.m. because that's when I get to work in peace and quiet with no distractions," Tarek told Business Insider. "During that time, I really think, I create, I plan, I come up with ideas. It's pretty incredible what you can get done when everybody else is sleeping."
25. Tarek and Heather Rae El Moussa had a whirlwind romance—in part because of tabloid attention.
Tarek has said that the moment he saw Heather Rae in July 2019, he knew (or "hoped") she was "The One," and their relationship moved quickly. According to Business Insider, TMZ "outed" the pair when they were only own their second date, so they ran with it and went all-in immediately. He explained, "We got together a few days after our first date, moved in together and never looked back."
26. Tarek and Heather Rae El Moussa married after dating for two years.
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The pair tied the knot on Oct. 23, 2021., in Santa Barbara, California. They originally planned to marry in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, but changed their minds.
27. Tarek El Moussa owns more than 200 rental properties.
More like landlawd.
Tarek revealed on the Multi-Family Investorpodcast in 2022 that he owns a total of around 200 rental properties across several states, including 80 in Oklahoma and between 30 and 40 homes in California. That is a lot of passive income.
Related: 31 Facts You Never Knew About Property Brothers Jonathan and Drew Scott
28. He has his own real estate investment firm.
Tarek launched TEM Capital in 2022, which focuses on commercial real estate. This venture is separate from his residential real estate company, aptly named Tarek Buys Houses, as well as HomeSchooled by Tarek, which teaches the ins and outs of real estate investing, and his and Heather's solar company, Solar Vision. Phew!
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29. His biggest strength in real estate is surprising—and sweet.
Tarek and Heather Rae work together on The Flipping El Moussas and The Flip/Off, and they wouldn't have it any other way.
"We collaborate on all of our projects, and I think it strengthens our relationship because we're a team, and we do everything together, and we work together, we grow together, we learn together and we have a lot of fun together," Tarek toldHello!.
While Heather insists his biggest strength is in the "numbers" side of house-flipping, Tarek says, "My biggest strength is I listen to my wife."
30. Tarek El Moussa has a numbers-first approach to flipping houses.
"Sometimes you can make a house look way cooler, but you make less money. I'm not a designer, I'm an investor," he told The List. "So for me, it's all about making money and also making great houses. If there's one feature in every house, I wouldn't say there's one feature that I really, really enjoy doing, but I feel like every house should have a sizzle feature, whether it's cool lighting, whether it's wallpaper, whether it's different appliances. I feel like every house should have at least one thing that separates it from the competition."
31. He says there are two main incentives to being on TV.
The biggest perk to being an HGTV star, Tarek joked to The List: "It's easier to get dinner reservations."
The actual most meaningful plus, however, is being able to share his life publicly.
"It gives me a platform to inspire as many people as humanly possible. I know I've saved some lives with my cancer stories, so that was a very important thing to me," he said. "That meant a lot. I feel like it's given me a platform to really help people."
32. He doesn't watch his own shows.
Tarek told Us Weekly that while he never rewatches his own shows, Selling Sunset is his guilty pleasure binge-watch. We wonder why!
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