Tarek El Moussa [left] has filed for divorce from his wife Christina El Moussa [right] after he caught the mother-of-two cheating with with their contractor Gary Anderson [photo center]

The connection apparently began when they hired the “older, wealthy divorcée” Gary Anderson, as a contractor to redo their pool in 2015.
“Christina grew close to Gary,” the insider tells In Touch exclusively. “Tarek was suspicious that she was getting involved with someone but had no concrete evidence.”
That changed in May. “Tarek saw Christina’s phone and [believed] there was some inappropriate texting going on between Christina and Gary,” the insider notes, adding that incident led to Tarek blowing up and storming out of their home with his guns.
Christina has since confirmed she’s dating Anderson.

Tarek and Christina El Moussa present the picture of the happily married couple working their business together in on HGTV’s “Flip or Flop”

Crises apparently was no stranger to the marriage that was described by an insider as a facade from day one. The fact appeared to be borne out by earlier reports that  “HGTV [is] livid with Tarek and Christina. Flip or Flop just won’t be the same if they’re not together, so execs desperately want them to reunite to save the show. If they can’t do that, the network wants to make it seem like they’re getting along, at least until their contract is over. They were given an ultimatum: Either finish out your contracts or we’ll take you to court [for breach of contract]. The network basically said, ‘You guys need to work together, be seen together as a family, walk down the street together.’”
Thus chastened the couple attempted to appear to be cooperating , in front of the cameras at least, a state of affairs rumored to be nothing new for the couple.
“They would literally fight in that house and then sit down at their computers and post everything nice for the world to see,” one of their neighbors told In Touch. “They were living a double life. They weren’t only working on a reality show — they were putting on a show.”
In spite of network attempts to stymie the hemorrhage after the gun incident, six months later Tarek and Christina who have a 6-year-old daughter, Taylor, and 2-year-old son, Brayden, announced they were separating on Dec. 12. Inevitably the public came to know that the cops showed up to their Orange County, California home months prior on a call involving a possible suicidal male with a gun.
TMZ reported that Tarek was seen running out of his house and down a trail with a gun in his hand at the time, with Christina emerging outside the home later in tears and shaking. Officers caught up with Tarek and took the gun away and later seized five guns, including an AR-15, from their home.

The man turned out to be Tarek and he said he was carrying the gun to ward off animals during a hike and was not a danger to himself.
Contractor Anderson was also reportedly at the home at the time of the incident.
“Like many couples, we have had challenges in our marriage,” the pair said in the statement at the time.
“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 statement continued.
Tarek also briefly dated the family’s nanny and both the El Moussas have admitted to dating other people since the split.
The estranged pair has two children together, Brayden, 1, and Taylor, 6.

Throughout the drama, both Tarek and Christina have noted that their main priority is their children.
“During the process, we are committed to our kids and being the best parents we can be,” they said in the statement. “We will continue to work through this process civilly and cooperatively, and plan to continue our professional life together.”