How Christina Haack Changed After Her Divorce From Ant Anstead

Christina Haack started dating Ant Anstead in October 2017 and the two quickly tied the knot, marrying at their home in Newport Beach, California on December 22, 2018. They welcomed son, Hudson, in September 2019, marking a new addition to Anstead's two children and Haack's two children, whom she shares with ex-husband, Tarek El Moussa. The news of Hudson's arrival was a wonderful surprise for the happy mom included, as Haack has been open about the struggles she's faced in her fertility journey. However, Haack and Anstead weren't meant to be, and Haack announced that they were separating in September 2020, with their divorce finalized in June 2021. 

The former couple faced some serious challenges during their split and in the years after their divorce. Things were messy for a time and they didn't get along, particularly when Haack embarked on a new relationship with Josh Hall and Anstead moved on with actor Renée Zellweger. The rapid turnover was just one reason that we've learned several relationship red flags to avoid thanks to Haack. And thanks to these divorces, Haack has served up several spicy outfits that scream revenge dressing post divorce. But all this aside, Haack and Anstead's divorce was devastating for the HGTV star and there are many ways that their divorce changed her. 

Following her divorce from Ant Anstead, Christina Haack admitted that dealing with divorce — and having it be a part of her personal history — was a challenge for her. First, there was her divorce from Tarek El Moussa; they separated in May 2016 and their divorce was finalized in January 2018. Following that was her marriage and its subsequent demise with Anstead, which wasn't easy for her to process. 

In September 2020, just after she and Anstead separated, Haack jumped on Instagram and shared some intimate thoughts about the ordeal. "Sometimes our calling is bigger than our plans," Haack began. "I never thought I would have one divorce let alone two. I never thought I would have 2 baby daddies – but sometimes life throws us curve balls. Instead of getting stuck in these 'setbacks' I choose to look at these challenges as opportunities to grow." While Haack was taking a positive approach to the situation, there was no denying that it came with the tough reality of having to live through multiple divorces and co-parent with two different dads. Of course, Haack would have to go through that disappointment all over again when she and Josh Hall later divorced, but at the time, two divorces clearly felt overwhelming and disheartening for Haack.

Christina Haack faced a ton of stress in the process of separating from Ant Anstead and figuring out how to co-parent their son, Hudson. In April 2022, Anstead filed for full custody of their son, claiming that he was the primary caregiver. Anstead claimed that Haack only spent an "average of 9 full days each month over the last 20 months and an average of 7 full days per month in 2022," per People. Haack's legal team promptly responded to this as an inaccurate representation of their scheduling arrangement, and a judge denied Anstead's request for full custody. 

In November 2020, Haack spoke out against accusations that she was an absent parent from both Anstead and online trolls, who assumed she didn't see her kids because she wasn't posting about it online. "This year has been incredibly isolating..." she began in a post on Instagram, and later continued, "When I get told 'you must be an absent mother because you are not with your kids' – smh wake up people. I hardly post anymore ... and I def do not want to post my kids every freaking day to make it a contest of who's a better parent." There was obviously tension with Anstead about their son, and Haack was feeling judgement from strangers on the internet, so it was clearly a tough time and one filled with loneliness.

The period of time following her divorce from Ant Anstead was one of anxiety for Christina Haack. In a wonderfully candid moment with her fans, Haack jumped on Instagram to share that she had struggled with anxiety for a long time. For fans of her HGTV shows, this might not be immediately evident; Haack was clearly successful at masking that stress and inner turmoil, so it was that much more laudable that she shared it publicly, thus reducing the stigma around mental health issues.

Haack admitted that anxiety was so familiar to her that she even sought out situations that created that feeling. "I live in a state of anxiousness and I'm so used to it that when it's not there I tend to feel a void and hop into something that causes the feeling I'm used to," she shared in a post on Instagram in September 2020. "This can be good and bad. And it's one of the things I'm working on breaking the pattern of," she added. Considering the time in which she posted about her mental health, we've got to wonder whether or not her relationship with Anstead was one of those situations that created more anxiety. Whatever the case, Haack was committed to breaking the cycle. 

Not all of the changes that Christina Haack experienced following her divorce from Ant Anstead were bad. In some respects, she was able to make some positive shifts for her own identity and sense of self in the world. Haack changed her last name back to her maiden name to honor her grandparents. It was a monumental shift for her after two divorces. She took Tarek El Moussa's last name when they married, and kept it after their divorce. She changed her last name to Anstead when she had her second marriage, but after that ended, Haack made the decision to change her last name again. For someone with a brand and a career centered on name recognition, this can be a tough decision. 

When Haack changed her name on Instagram, she added the nostalgic explanation behind her decision. "Taking back the family's last name and know my grandparents are smiling from above," she wrote, per People. It was her grandmother, Mildred "Biddy" Haack, who had the greatest influence on the HGTV star. "She was always real in a world of so many fakes," Haack wrote of her beloved grandmother. So her divorce from Anstead allowed Haack to reintroduce herself to the world. 

Christina Haack faced several years of feeling discombobulated and disoriented, and her divorce from Ant Anstead hugely contributed to this tough spell. Her divorce from her first husband, Tarek El Moussa in 2016, followed by her rebound marriage to Anstead, created mayhem for the star. In a clip from "The Flip Off," Haack opened up to El Moussa about all of the strain she was going through. At that particular time, Haack was also going through a divorce with Josh Hall, but the overall energy of chaos preceded her split from Hall and could be traced back to Anstead, too. 

Sitting down with El Moussa, Haack said, "I feel like I'm in a tornado all the time, and I just can't get out of it. Everything since 2016 has been so hard and so horrible," Haack went on, beginning to cry. "It's really taken a really bad toll on me," she added. For Haack, things haven't been easy since her split from El Moussa, and clearly her separation from Anstead didn't bring peace or stability to the situation, either. 

Christina Haack and Ant Anstead took a long time to work things out following their divorce, and it was a rocky road. Oddly enough, it was Haack's divorce from her third husband, Josh Hall, that ended up reuniting her and Anstead. On an episode of "The Flip Off," Haack explained that after news of her and Hall's separation aired, Anstead was incredibly caring, and this changed their whole dynamic. 

"I walked up to (Anstead's) door, he gave me a huge hug. We hadn't hugged in years," Haack explained in the episode. "He just said, 'I'm so sorry for everything you're going through and I'm here for you no matter what you need.' And it was a very nice moment. We had a long talk after. And we decided to put all the BS aside and be good co-parents like Tarek and I are." In that same episode, Anstead admitted that they had a tough time becoming amicable and it took them five years to figure it out. "The relationship that we have now is really, really important. And it's been a transformation," Anstead added. So Haack and Anstead were able to resolve things; they learned how to have a good co-parenting relationship as time went on, and have become friends. That's a lesson that will pay dividends for their whole family.