HGTV Stars: What's Behind Their Split

Tarek and Christina El Moussa had actually been living apart and dating other people for months before announcing their breakup, sources tell People. HGTV's Flip or Flop stars haven't cohabitated since at least May, right around the time Tarek took off with a gun in what the couple called an "unfortunate misunderstanding." The couple's children, 6-year-old daughter Taylor and 15-month-old son Brayden, have been living with Christina while spending time with Tarek each week. Christina has recently gotten into a romantic relationship with another design industry professional, and Tarek is also dating other people, but sources say that has nothing to do with the split or with what happened in May. After the May incident, Christina, 33, and the kids went to live with their nanny until Tarek, 35, moved out of the family home a month later.

But at the time, that wasn't public knowledge, and three months after the gun incident, the couple talked to People about the years of stress caused by renovating their Yorba Linda, Calif., home—stress exacerbated by the fact that Christina decided she wanted to go a different direction with the home's look after 25% of the original renovation work had already been done. "To make a happy wife and a happy life, we started over," Tarek told People in August. People also runs down the troubles they've gone through over the past few years: Tarek's cancer battle, a two-year struggle to have their second baby, and back surgery for Tarek. Now that their seven-year marriage is officially over, sources tell E! it had been clear on the set of their show for months that there are problems: They reportedly alternated between fighting or refusing to speak to each other while not on camera, and had to be kept apart during breaks from filming. (A source claims "champagne tastes" were another problem.)