Tarek El Moussa was just as surprised when he learned of Christina El Moussa‘s winter wonderland wedding on the internet.
The Flip or Flop star recently revealed the moment he found out about his ex-wife’s surprise wedding, and his unexpected reaction to the news.
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“It was actually the night they got married,” the El Moussa told PEOPLE, recalling when he found out of Christina tying the knot with now husband, Ant Anstead. “I was sitting on the couch and then I started getting texts from people showing me a photo online of her wedding. That’s how I found out.”
At the time, he admitted to being shocked by the news, adding, “I would say it was kind of out of the blue.”
However, the HGTV host recalled not feeling angry or resentful at the news.
“When I first got them, I just sat there for a few minutes and thought about things, and it was kind of like a release. It was kind of like, I was really okay with it. I was happy with it,” he said.
After a few minutes, El Moussa decided to reach out to Christina, with whom he shares two children — Taylor, 8, and Brayden, 2.
“I messaged both of them,” he said. “I said congratulations the same night.”
The happy couple replied to the message with a simple, “Thank you.”
El Moussa told the outlet that learning of Christina’s wedding helped him close the chapter of their 7-year relationship, following their tumultuous 2016 separation adding how it made him realize “100 percent closure.”
“It was a moment of clarity, actually. I was at peace, it was weird,” he said.
The occasion also helped him realize he had some work to do on himself in order to move on.
“It just kind of [made me realize] it’s time for me to work on me and keep going with my new life, which I’ve already done.”
Christina and Anstead tied the knot in a surprise ceremony at her home in Newport Beach, California, in front of 70 of their closest friends and family. The couple invited their guests under the pretext of attending another event in the Newport Beach area in order to keep the event under wraps.
“It was just perfect for us. Everything we wanted,” Christina told the outlet when news of the wedding ceremony first broke.
The couple started dating in fall 2017 after being introduced by a mutual friend. Anstead also has two children, Archie, 12, and Amelie, 15, from a previous marriage.
