Christina Haack opened up about a shocking ’emotional embrace’ she had with her ex Ant Anstead last year amid his romance with Renee Zellweger.
The 41-year-old reality TV personality recalled how she unexpectedly reunited with her second husband and how they embraced after four years apart.
Last year, she said Anstead, 45, unexpectedly surprised her with a ‘huge,’ heartfelt hug after he learned about her split from her third husband Josh Hall in July 2024.
Haack — who recently debuted her new boyfriend, the CEO and president of Network Connex, Christopher Larocca — and Anstead were previously married for less than two years before they separated in 2020 and divorced in 2021.
They share joint custody of their five-year-old son Hudson.
In Wednesday’s episode of the HGTV star’s show The Flip Off, she opened up about the interaction.
Christina Haack opened up about a shocking ’emotional embrace’ she had with her ex Ant Anstead last year; pictured January 2025 in Los Angeles
This comes amid his romance with Renee Zellweger
‘Ant and I split up when Hudson was one and now Hudson is five,’ she said in a clip.
‘During the time between his first birthday and, I would say, his fifth birthday, we did not communicate a lot,’ she recalled.
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After they parted ways in September 2020, they were embroiled in a contentious custody battle for years before they finally settled in December 2022.
‘After Josh and I split up, I went over to [Ant’s] house to pick Hudson up because I was taking him to a birthday party,’ she said.
‘And when I walked up to the door, he gave me a huge hug,’ she continued.
‘We hadn’t hugged in years.’
She said that was a turning point in their relationship after that heartwarming moment and nice gesture from her ex.
‘He just said, “I’m so sorry for everything you’re going through and I’m here for you no matter what you need.” It was a very nice moment,’ she recalled.
The 41-year-old reality TV personality recalled how she unexpectedly reunited with her second husband and how they embraced after four years apart; pictured May 2019 in Universal City
Last year, she said Anstead, 45, unexpectedly surprised her with a ‘huge,’ heartfelt hug after he learned about her split from her third husband Josh Hall in July 2024. This comes after Haack joked about replacing her ex Hall with Anstead — who has been dating Zellweger since 2021; pictured March 2024
Haack was married to Hall for nearly three years before they both filed for divorce in July 2024.
The pair have been in entangled in a messy legal battle ever since and will be going to trial to reach a settlement.
‘We had a long talk after and we decided to put all the BS aside and be good co-parents, like Tarek and I, for Hudson.’
Haack and her first husband Tarek El Moussa — who is now married to and shares a two-year-old son named Tristan with Heather Rae El Moussa (née Young) — share two children: daughter Taylor, 14, and son Brayden, nine.
Later in the same scene, Haack calls her ex to ask him if he would make an appearance on her show was a guest judge.
The new series follows Haack and her design team as they compete in a house flipping competition against the El Moussas, her first husband Tarek and his now-wife Heather.
Tarek and Heather previously opened up about how they were shocked that Haack had recruited her second husband Anstead for the show.
They told People in February that they were caught off guard because they did not know Haack and Anstead were even on speaking terms after their messy divorce and custody battle.
Haack — who recently debuted her new boyfriend , the CEO and president of Network Connex, Christopher Larocca — and Anstead were previously married for less than two years before they separated in 2020 and divorced in 2021; pictured December 2019 in Newport Beach
They share joint custody of their five-year-old son Hudson
Later in the same scene, Haack calls her ex to ask him if he would make an appearance on her show was a guest judge. The new series follows Haack and her design team as they compete in a house flipping competition against the El Moussas, her first husband Tarek and his now-wife Heather; pictured in January 2025 portrait
‘All of a sudden they’re besties,’ Tarek said as he recalled his own reaction to seeing Haack and Anstead on set together.
Heather said that it ‘really threw us off’ because they were under the impression that they ‘weren’t talking.’
‘She started following him on Instagram and we were like, “What? What’s going on?” It really was like that for us,’ she said about watching their mended relationship ‘unfold in front of our eyes.’
‘You see it transpire on TV and we’re so thrown off by the situation. I think we texted her, “Why are you following Ant? What’s going on?”‘
This comes after Haack joked about replacing her ex Hall with Anstead — who has been dating Zellweger since 2021.