Christina Hall of HGTV fame and her ex-husband Ant Anstead are squaring off again on social media over their three-year-old son Hudson. But in their latest public dispute, HGTV’s Hall has received some eyebrow-raising words of support from her former sister-in-law — the sister of her first husband and former “Flip or Flop” co-star Tarek El Moussa. Here’s the latest…

Christina Hall Blasts Expert’s Essay On Children of Reality Stars While Ant Anstead Praises It

HGTV/Discovery+/YouTubeChristina Hall, Ant Anstead

An essay published on Psychology Today’s website by sociologist Hilary Levey Friedman, whose bio states she’s an “expert on popular culture encompassing childhood and parenting,” is at the center of the latest feud between Hall, who stars on HGTV’s “Christina on the Coast” and Anstead, a British-born car expert who’s hosted multiple TV shows in the U.S. and the U.K.

The couple split in 2020 after a year and a half of marriage and have been embroiled in an increasingly nasty custody dispute since April 2022, when Anstead requested that the courts review their custody arrangement and consider giving him full custody. The couple worked out most of their issues in private mediation, but Anstead returned to court in September, saying that they hadn’t reached a consensus on one point: he said Hall was “exploiting” Hudson by featuring him in paid advertisements, promotions, and TV shows without his approval.

Hall, who is now married to real estate broker Josh Hall, blasted Anstead in a response to the court, which is public record, and again on Instagram. Eventually, she announced she was going to stop posting photos of Hudson in any manner on social media and said he also would not be included in future episodes of her shows.

In replies to fans’ comments about the situation on social media, Anstead made it clear he was glad about her decision but maintained that he had only been concerned with Hudson appearing in paid posts and programming, not “organic” photos of family time with him or Hall. Nonetheless, he was slammed by her fans as a “hypocrite” in early October when he shared a photo of Hudson on his Instagram feed.

On October 24, 2022, Psychology Today published Dr. Levey Friedman’s essay, entitled “The ‘Reality of Kids on Television,” in which she mentioned the dispute over Hudson among her examples of children of celebrities who are featured in reality TV shows and social media promotions without any existing legal boundaries.

In the essay, she wrote about the Coogan Law, which ensures that any child performer’s earnings must be placed in a trust, but points out that kids on reality TV or paid social media aren’t protected by child labor or performer laws – a point that Anstead has made in the past, saying he hopes to help change. Levey Friedman went so far as to say new legislation could be called “Hudson’s Law.”

Anstead and Hall both saw it and seemed to share the article independently of each other. He shared a screenshot and link to it in his Instagram Stories, calling it “brilliant.” Hall shared a screenshot in her Instagram feed with a lengthy post about it, calling the essay “disgusting” and “poorly written.” She also shared it to her Instagram Stories.

“You could have read the public court filings from both sides before writing this,” Hall wrote, directing her comments at Levey Friedman. “Most of it is completely inaccurate and sounds more like a tabloid than something would expect from a Ph.D.”

“Leave me out of your propaganda,” she continued. “Hudson’s Law?! Really? That is absurd. You don’t know anything about my household. Hudson is MY son. I’ve always protected him and always will.”

Hours later, Hall updated her post and wrote, “It was just brought to my attention Hudson’s father is promoting this article on his page, but with clap hands … This makes this even more bizarre and disturbing.”

Christina Hall Receives Words of Support From Former Sister-in-Law

HGTV/YouTubeAngel El Moussa sits with her brother, HGTV’s Tarek El Moussa, during one of his TV shows

Hall’s fans flooded her post with ardent support for the mom of three, who also shares 12-year-old daughter Taylor and seven-year-old son Brayden with her first husband, HGTV’s Tarek El Moussa. She and El Moussa kept filming “Flip or Flop” after their 2018 divorce but have had their own bitter disputes play out publicly, up until the series finale of their show aired in May 2022. However, both have agreed to feature their children on social media and their shows since they were little, so that has not been an issue for the two.

El Moussa, who got remarried in 2021, got to know Anstead through family get-togethers and custodial exchanges with the kids. After Hall left Anstead, the two men continued building their friendship.

In April 2022, Us Magazine reported that Anstead and El Moussa shared similar interests, in addition to a shared ex-wife, and that they’d recently gone with a group of friends to Arizona to race cars at Radford Racing School, which Anstead is heavily involved with. In fact, Anstead is business partners and good friends with entertainment lawyer Roger Behle, whom El Moussa has said is “like family” to him ever since he became his lawyer over a decade ago.

Given those connections, some fans were surprised to see El Moussa’s sister, Angelique (or Angel), voice her support for Hall in the comment section of her post about the Psychology Today article, especially since she seems to be very close with her brother and his wife of a year, Heather Rae El Moussa.

Angel, who owns a hair salon in Anaheim Hills, California, wrote on Hall’s post that the article was “pretty pathetic.”

“Wow this is low,” she wrote. “Women are supposed to lift other women up , especially in motherhood. Pretty pathetic. We all know the truth @thechristinahall (with 3 red heart emojis added). Don’t listen to losers that will do anything for attention.”

Hall replied with a “thank you” and a red emoji heart, while fans who noticed the exchange liked the comment or added their own two cents.

One wrote, “Love that you stand up for Christina!!!!!” while another posted several fire emojis and wrote, “Angel’s comment , very unexpected twist!!!”

Fans also flung obscenities and insults at Levey Friedman and Anstead, tagging them in their comments and flooding their Instagram feeds with insults. When Levey Friedman turned her Instagram feed from public to private, Hall’s fans moved over to Twitter to drop insults there, calling her “disgusting,” “evil” and a “hypocrite.”

One person did support her tweet where she shared her essay. That Twitter user wrote, “Thank you so much for this article, ignore the low information haters. They’re missing the point about what’s best for kids.”

According to her bio, Levey Friedman teaches at Brown University and holds degrees from Harvard University, Princeton University, and the University of Cambridge. She is also pursuing a degree at the Roger Williams University of Law and was President of the Rhode Island chapter of the National Organization for Women from 2018-2021.