KNOCKOUT

HGTV Star Cited for Battery After Las Vegas Fight

The real estate investor was reportedly defending his elderly father when he knocked another man unconscious at a Las Vegas hotel last week.

Flip or Flop star Tarek El Moussa is facing legal trouble after getting into a physical altercation at a Las Vegas hotel last week.

El Moussa was issued a citation for battery on June 5 after allegedly kneeing another man in the head, briefly knocking him unconscious, TMZ reports.

The fight occurred at The Palazzo at the Venetian Resort on the Las Vegas Strip, where El Moussa, 43, was reportedly traveling with his wife, Selling Sunset star Heather Rae El Moussa, 37, and their respective parents.

Witnesses told TMZ that the altercation started because El Moussa was “protecting his elderly father,” and that it escalated quickly, ending with the other man looking “bad” and severely beaten.

According to Page Six, police arrived at the hotel around 11 p.m. on Thursday and took a report, but did not arrest El Moussa or the other man, who refused medical attention. El Moussa was then cited for battery.

A former real estate agent, El Moussa rose to fame on HGTV alongside his then-wife, Christina Haack, 41. From 2013 to 2022, the pair co-starred in Flip or Flop, which followed them as they flipped homes in Orange County, California.

Haack and El Moussa, who share daughter Taylor, 14, and son Brayden, 9, underwent a notoriously rocky split after seven years of marriage in 2016, right in the middle of Flip or Flop’s ten-season run.

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Shortly before the couple announced their separation, Sheriff’s deputies and a police helicopter rushed to their Orange County home after receiving a call that El Moussa had fled the house with a firearm and was possibly suicidal.

El Moussa was quickly found and returned home. He agreed to surrender his guns to the deputies, but has maintained he was never suicidal.

The Flip or Flop stars finalized their divorce in 2018, and El Moussa went on to marry Heather Rae Young in 2021. The pair welcomed a son, Tristan, in 2023.

However, El Moussa and Haack have continued to appear together on HGTV consistently since their split. After co-starring in Flip or Flop for another six years after their split, the pair now helm a new series, The Flip Off, in which El Moussa and Heather Rae compete against Haack to flip houses for the biggest financial gain.

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El Moussa also stars in two lesser-known HGTV series without his ex-wife. He’s hosted Flipping 101 with Tarek El Moussa, in which he mentors aspiring house flippers, since 2020, and has appeared alongside Heather Rae in The Flipping El Moussas since 2023.

Meanwhile, Haack—who is currently single after splitting from her third husband last year—has hosted a Flip or Flop spinoff, Christina on the Coast, since 2019.

Law enforcement sources told TMZ that El Moussa was issued a citation for his role in last week’s fight, a common approach to misdemeanor battery cases where the victim was not seriously injured and the perpetrator did not use a deadly weapon.

According to Las Vegas criminal defense firm Hofland & Tomsheck, misdemeanor battery charges in Nevada can carry a jail sentence of up to six months or a fine of up to $1,000.

However, the fight didn’t stop Heather Rae from celebrating their trip on social media. Before the incident was public knowledge, the Selling Sunset star took to Instagram on Saturday to share a montage of the family trip’s highlights—which did not include the fight—alongside a caption that began, “Not our average Vegas trip.”

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