HGTV star Tarek El Moussa has opened up about how an “eerie email” from an eagle-eyed fan led him to discover that he was suffering from Stage 3 cancer—revealing how the out-of-the-blue message ultimately saved his life.
El Moussa, 44, who was diagnosed with thyroid and testicular cancer in 2013, lifted the lid on his terrifying health scare in a video posted to his Instagram, explaining why he chose to push through with filming on his HGTV projects, even after doctors revealed that he had cancer.
“A fan’s email saved my life,” he shared. “Going into Season 2 of ‘Flip or Flop,’ I remember getting an eerie email from my production company saying they had received an email from the network.
“The email said, ‘I’m a registered nurse from Texas. I noticed there’s a lump on Tarek’s neck. This is not a joke. He needs to get it checked out.'”
El Moussa, who was married to Christina Haack at the time, explained that he had actually already been to see his doctor about the lump, only to have been told it was nothing to worry about, revealing that he was prescribed “nose spray and allergy medicine.”
However, after receiving the fan’s warning, he decided to have another doctor take a look—a checkup that resulted in a biopsy.
“They did a biopsy. It came back as atypical, meaning it could or could not be cancer. I went in for exploratory surgery, which means they were just gonna open me up, see what’s going on. I woke up five hours later. My entire family looking down on me, crying,” he explained.
The surgery confirmed that El Moussa had Stage 3 thyroid cancer that had spread to his lymph nodes—and he was forced to undergo another procedure during which his thyroid and nodes were removed.
But the health scare left the reality star concerned that other red flags might have been missed in his medical records, revealing that he went back over his past tests and results—in which he found an “irregular testicle exam.”
Eager to leave no stone unturned in his health journey, he flagged the exam results to his doctors, who were able to book him in for a last-minute ultrasound.
“I was at my thyroid cancer appointment. Last minute, they had an opening at the ultrasound down the hall. So, I go down the hall for the ultrasound,” he said.
During the ultrasound, he said he quickly struck up a conversation with the technician. However, the man performing the ultrasound then got “real quiet,” leading El Moussa to believe something was wrong.
“I knew something was wrong. 20 minutes later, I found out I had testicular cancer. So now, I’m 31, two different cancers, thinking I’m gonna die. I’m a young father,” El Moussa—who welcomed his first child, daughter Taylor, with Haack in 2010, said.
When El Moussa told HGTV the news, he recalled that network producers assured him that they could end the show, which he starred in alongside Haack.
However, he said he was determined not to give up—revealing that he joked the cameras could follow him through every aspect of his treatment, provided they kept rolling.
“My response was, ‘The show’s not done. We’re gonna film my a** rolling into the surgery. I’m gonna film until the end,'” he recalled.
“It was really important to me that I didn’t quit, to prove to myself and my family that nothing would stop me from building what I was building.”
El Moussa has been in remission for over 10 years and says he now looks back on that time with pride, not just because he overcame the disease, but because he did so while also growing his business.
“[I am] most proud to say that the year that I had the surgeries and I fought the two cancers and I was in hospitals, I quadrupled the size of my house-flipping business,” he revealed.
El Moussa and Haack went on to welcome their second child, son Brayden, in August 2015, just one year after he was given the all-clear. After the couple split in 2016, El Moussa went on to wed “Selling Sunset” alum Heather Rae Young in 2021. The couple welcomed their first child together, son Tristan, in 2021.
El Moussa, Young, and Haack now all star in the series “The Flip Off” together.
Haack previously confirmed confirmed that Season 2 of HGTV’s “The Flip Off” is officially in production.
In a highly anticipated Instagram update, the 42-year-old revealed that the threesome and Haack’s boyfriend, Christopher Larocca, had finished their first day of filming for the new season on Monday.
In August, it was revealed that the show was being renewed for a second season, at a time when HGTV abruptly canceled several programs, including Haack’s solo show, “Christina on the Coast.”
The news of the filming status comes after “The Flip Off,” which premiered this year, was greenlit for a second season.