Tarek and Heather Open Up About Their Big Win on 'The Flip Off' Season 1

In HGTV’s new show The Flip Off, dueling divorcees Tarek El Moussa (The Flipping El Moussas) and Christina Haack (Christina on the Coast) are pitted against each other in a house renovation competition based in Southern California. The show featured some dramatic moments: In Episode 1, Christina announced her separation from then-husband and flipping partner Josh Hall. By the finale, the show even ended with a surprise nobody saw coming: The once combative family members are now confidants.

Throughout the six episodes, Tarek and Christina, Tarek’s wife and flipping partner Heather Rae El Moussa, along with Christina’s ex-husband Ant Anstead, give viewers an intimate look into their personal lives, highlighting the emotional ups and downs that ultimately brought their families together. “This challenge was healing and life-changing,” shares Tarek. “It brought peace to our family on all sides. We’re much closer now because of this experience.”

Ahead, HGTV sits down with Tarek and Heather to find out what it feels like to be crowned “The King and Queen of Flipping.”

Tarek and Heather in Conversation With HGTV

HGTV: Congrats on the win! When you sold your flip, you made a profit of $431,000 and an ROI of 38.51% — not bad! Did you ever expect to see these kinds of numbers, especially when you didn’t spare any expense transforming your house?

TAREK: We definitely spent more than we had planned, but it paid off in the end. What we did throughout the project was track our costs, look at the comps and study the sales in the neighborhood. So, if we saw a sale coming in at a higher price, we felt comfortable spending more money to increase our sale price even higher. I thought our profit was going to come in around $300,000, not $400,000. We did really well on the deal!

HEATHER: The only time we were worried was when we found out Christina was listing her house low, and then we wondered if we were listing too high. But listing high ended up paying off for us.

HGTV: There were a lot of humorous moments on the show, along with some hysterical verbal jabs, including Tarek saying, “I’m being judged by my ex-wife’s ex-husband!” Was it fun letting loose in this series?

TAREK: People who know us know we’re about humor, being witty, cracking jokes and having a good time. It was so much fun filming the show because we all got to harass, tease and pick on each other but in a lighthearted way.

HEATHER: I feel like you got to see our real personalities and how we act. We got to be ourselves. They kept those great moments that were pure gold — Tarek and I laughed watching all the episodes. It was all in good fun. Hopefully everyone will understand the humor.

HGTV: Some of the bantering between Tarek and Christina felt like brother-and-sister fighting. After one of the competitions, Tarek says to Christina, “I’m going to block you,” and Christina responds by saying, “I already blocked you.” Heather, is this routine convo between these two or did they play it up for the cameras?

HEATHER: No, this is real. This is how they are with each other and what I have to deal with. I have to tell Tarek, “Be nice. Enough!” It's not all the time like that, but there’s a lot of banter back and forth between them and a lot of picking on each other. While filming, I was always the one to wrangle everyone in to focus on the tasks at hand.

HGTV: During the judging for the kitchen, Tarek you became so nervous, Christina remarks, “I’m getting anxious just sitting next to you.” Your competitive spirit was physically affecting you. How important was it to you to win this first challenge?

TAREK: It was very challenging because of the fact we were in a competition and even more challenging because the competitor was my ex-wife! Winning the first challenge was the most important thing in the world. I’m known as the guy who flips houses! Sometimes I can be a little brash and arrogant, so if I were to have lost that challenge, it would have been pretty bad.

HGTV: Is there anything you would have done differently design-wise if you had the chance? Is there anything you loved so much you’d incorporate it into your own home?

HEATHER: Honestly, I wouldn’t change anything. I’m obsessed with everything we did in this house. It was a dream house for us. We thought through everything we did — I’ll even stand by the wallpaper on the ceiling in the bedroom, as it was bold and gorgeous. The judge (Ant) just doesn’t have good taste! It’s hard to pick my favorite thing because everything we did was so unique and beautiful, but the dining space with the fireplace and the custom plaster and the woodwork in the kitchen — those were my favorites.

TAREK: I would say 100% the room with the fireplace and the custom fluting and wood-paneled walls, but I was also excited about the table and bench that were built into the kitchen island. It killed two birds with one stone — maximizing space and it looked gorgeous. It was the first time we’d ever done that.

HGTV: There was definitely a competition between Christina and Heather when it came to design. At one point, Christina says the show should have been called The Design Off. Heather, how focused were you on nailing the design?

HEATHER: I mean it’s a competition, and I’m here to win and that was Tarek’s and my mindset going in. We wanted to win every challenge and the ROI. Of course, I wanted to beat Christina in design, as she’s a known designer and I’m newer at it. I wanted to show what I’ve been working so hard at. Tarek and I have now flipped over 20 houses … It was great to showcase my talent and beat her four times. It felt really good.

HGTV: Some of the judges changed the rules mid-competition. Heather Dubrow (The Real Housewives of Orange County) didn’t judge your dining area, saying the competition wasn’t apples to apples. Jeff Lewis (Flipping Out) eliminated all the categories, saying it wasn’t a fair competition because you got a great buy in a better neighborhood and Christina had to spend a lot of money on infrastructure. Do you think all these last-minute rule changes were fair?

HEATHER: It was frustrating because you go into the competition with these strict categories, which Tarek and I took very seriously, as we do in any competition. So, when things started to get thrown out and judges [said] things weren’t fair, well it was fair! We all went into the competition with the same set of rules. The truth is we were allowed to find a house at any price point, in any neighborhood. Christina chose her house, and we chose ours.

TAREK: God no, they weren’t fair! We spent so much money on our dining room and on that fireplace. And then for Jeff to throw everything out? But at the end of the day, it's a competition about who can find the best house, pull off the best remodel and sell it for the most profit. Across all three categories, we won.

HGTV: Ant, Christina’s second husband and a judge on the show, chose Christina as the winner of the bedroom challenge, saying, “I’m going to stand by the mother of my kid.” How did it feel losing that challenge based on that criteria?

HEATHER: Obviously, we support co-parenting and we support [them] getting along again for Hudson’s sake and that’s great. We are also co-parenting with Christina and have a great relationship with her, so, first and foremost, we’re happy they’re in that position now, but this is a competition and in the end nothing personal like that should be brought into a competition, especially as Ant said he was going to be fair. His decision should have been based off the work, not the relationship.

TAREK: I call bullshit! I was so pissed off, you have no idea. It wasn’t real judging. They have a baby. I can’t have a baby with Ant! We were never going to win … That’s my two cents!

HGTV: For the primary suite challenge, Christina’s mom, Laurie, was supposed to be the judge and then Dominique, your mother/mother-in-law with whom Christina is close with, entered the picture. What were your thoughts?

HEATHER: We didn’t know Dominique was a judge until she walked in the door at Christina's house! That was a big shock to us. The whole time we thought we were being judged by Laurie. The show doesn’t show how close I am with Dominique. I speak to her every day, I’m with her all the time, she’s an incredible grandmother and mother-in-law. We were excited she was a judge, we film with her all the time and like to have fun with Dominique. She can take it.

TAREK: Both moms have good vision and it was a blind judging, so they didn’t know whose house was whose. We relied on the quality of our work and our transformation, knowing it would pay off. And it did!

HGTV: Ant and Jeff were giving Christina some confidential intel. Ant says to her, “You need to up your game a bit to pull it out of the bag,” and Jeff tells her, “Those two they think they have it in the bag, but you might win.” Do you feel Christina got extra sympathy chips for what was going on in her personal life? Or is Christina just very persuasive?

HEATHER: I feel like people are going to say, "You guys had each other," but she had a team that included builder Michael Lange and designer Kylie Wing working alongside her the whole time. By removing Josh, it was actually better and easier for her to flip that house. Obviously, she was going through some personal things in her life at the time, but she’ll say it herself — doing this show kind of revived her and brought her back to life. She was in a good place, going through stress, of course, but she was having fun with the competition. I don’t know, maybe they gave her the sympathy vote, but I don’t think she needed it.

TAREK: She’s a wizard! If you get near her, it’s over. She’ll get the web on you and you’ll do what she wants. She got them in the web!

HGTV: The drama surrounding Christina’s separation during filming couldn’t have been easy for anybody. Did you feel the show provided a welcome distraction?

TAREK: Yes, absolutely. It was a really good distraction for Christina because we were all super busy competing. It brought us all together, we got even closer and we supported her in a way we probably wouldn’t have if we weren’t working and spending so much time together.

HGTV: Heather, you and Christina both come off as having a lot of respect for each other. If you weren’t married to her ex-husband, would you be friends?

HEATHER: We laugh, we have fun, we have girl talk. We just went to dinner with her boyfriend and we recently filmed some stuff together for Heather Rae Essentials, my beauty line coming out. The goal is always to have some boundaries, but I do like her a lot.

TAREK: They’d be besties.

HGTV: We saw your kids — Taylor (14), Brayden (9) and Tristan (2) — on the show. It must have been cool for them to watch their parents square off in a good way.

HEATHER: Because of the show, Christina and I got to know each other on a deeper level. Before it was mostly co-parenting, talking about the kids, seeing each other at games and school stuff. I feel like everyone is in such a great place with each other. It’s a nice feeling to have a sense of peace and calm. And the kids feel that as well. We’re all a great family unit and on the same page. I hope other families out there who are co-parenting and dealing with what we’re dealing with can get to a place like that because everyone will be so much happier, and it’s all for the children.

TAREK: It was honestly the best thing we ever could have ever done. It was healing and life-changing. It just brought everybody so much closer. Obviously, with kids, we will be together the rest of our lives, so this entire thing ended up being a blessing. In the end, the kids are going to benefit; we’re all going to benefit.

HGTV: The team who came out on top won bragging rights and a first-class vacation paid for by the loser. Tarek, after it was announced your team won, you turn to your kids and say, “Your mom is sending us on a five-star vacation.” Do you know where you’ll be going?

TAREK: The most expensive place we can find.

HEATHER: Maui or Cabo!

HGTV: It was hard not to notice you guys were always holding hands throughout the B-roll tapings. Studies show couples who hold hands tend to have increased feelings of connection. Is this something you often do?

HEATHER: We love cuddling, holding hands and we love being together. I think it really comes across that’s who we truly are. We film multiple shows together, we work together and we genuinely enjoy being together. We’re best friends.

TAREK: She can’t keep her hands off of me! We love each other so we’re affectionate, we’re always holding hands, we’re always together, that’s what it’s supposed to be about.

How to Watch The Flip Off

The Flip Off is available to stream on Max and discovery+ — where you can also binge-watch Flip or Flop and Tarek and Christina’s other solo series, Flipping 101 with Tarek El Moussa, Christina on the Coast and Christina in the Country. Follow Tarek, Heather and Christina on Instagram at @thetarekelmoussa, @theheatherraeelmoussa and @christinahaack.