Red Flags In HGTV Star Christina Hall's Marriage To Josh Hall We Missed

Christina Hall is soon to be thrice divorced. On July 16, 2024, Josh Hall filed for divorce after two years of marriage, listing the day of separation as July 8. She subsequently filed her own divorce petition, though she listed the separation day as July 7. The news came as a surprise to many. After all, the "Christina on the Coast" star had suggested everything was fine in the Hall household days before the filings. But the red flags were there all along.

In a July 2, 2024, interview with E! News, she listed the ingredients that made their relationship work. "Just trying to keep communication open, and then just having the alone time when we can — whether it's date night, going on little trips, just things like that," she said. However, the issues were reportedly already there. "[They] had issues in the marriage for quite some time," a source told People. And it's looking like they're headed toward a contentious divorce.

Josh is seeking spousal support, which Christina has asked the court to deny, USA Today reported. He also wants the rights to the TV shows they produced together. With the couple set to release "The Flip Off" in 2025, that aspect of the divorce can prove complicated. That's even more true because Christina has no prenup with Josh, which could cost her big time. It could prove an ugly ending to what Christina hoped to be the marriage that stuck. While disappointing, fans noticed issues from the go.

The fact that Christina Hall has been married three times in just a few years has had fans speculating about the prospects of her third marriage to Josh Hall. It turns out that he was among that crowd. In March 2023, Josh shared three pictures a year apart since they met in early 2021 to show the evolution of their relationship. But the caption was pretty telling. "How long will this one last?" he wrote on Instagram. Christina didn't let it go unnoticed. "Better be [forever]!!!" she wrote (via Us Weekly).

Back then, many fans guessed this relationship was going to stick. "Well she has smiled before in her photos with her [exes] but she has never looked happy. Now she is smiling and truly looks so incredibly happy!" one user commented. After news of the divorce, social media users returned to the post to point out the irony in his caption. "No[t] long it looks like," one responded. Another added: "I guess your question has been answered."

A year later, Josh still seemed surprised that the relationship was still on. "Still going strong," he captioned a March 2024 Instagram post to mark the fourth year of knowing each other. Some followers reminded him they hadn't been together long enough for that statement to make sense. "Why is it 'STILL'.... Well, 3 years is STILL the honeymoon phase I guess.... gimme the 'STILL' when it's 15 years from now!" a user commented. 

Even before Josh Hall filed for divorce in mid-July, Christina Hall had dropped a few hints suggesting the marriage was on the rocks. Fans noticed it, too. At some point before the filing, Christina removed Josh's name from her Instagram bio, a Reddit user noted on July 9, 2024. The netizen also pointed out she had deleted some pictures of him. The Reddit user wasn't alone. "Where's Josh are you separated?" one Instagram user asked on July 12, 2024. Another expressed similar sentiments a day earlier. "What happened to Josh?"

But she really got to work after the divorce became real, deleting every trace of Josh until Christmas 2023(seen above). Even then, the vestiges of her soon-to-be ex-husband from 2023 are either work-related or group, family photos. While he still features somewhat prominently through 2022, Christina has deleted milestone posts. That includes the one about how the two met, which featured a long caption detailing her mental state.

"I met Josh when I wasn't in a state of fear or fight-or-flight," she wrote in July 2021, explaining she had been working on herself (via People). The Instagram post with their Hawaii wedding ceremony photo is also gone, People noted. Christina and Josh had a secret wedding in 2021 but celebrated with loved ones a year later. "My dream man on the dreamiest island," she captioned the now-deleted post. "Maui holds a special place in my heart. What an amazing night filled with love."

Christina and Josh Hall married just seven months into the relationship. While news of their wedding didn't surface until April 2022,  Josh's divorce filing revealed the pair actually tied the knot in October 2021. That means they sealed the deal days after she announced their engagement that September. And that came two months after fans learned of Christina's new beau at all. Fans worried about the timeline, but Christina wanted to hear nothing about it.

In January 2022, Christina responded to the criticism on Instagram. "Too fast, too soon, too blah blah blah.. that feeling of pure bliss / those deep convos, love is what it is," she wrote in the since-deleted post (via People). Fans didn't just have issues with how fast Christina's relationship with Josh evolved, but also with how quickly she moved on from Ant Anstead. When Christina met Josh in March 2021, she had been separated from her ex for just six months.

She had filed for divorce just the previous November. She was still officially married during the early days of her new relationship, though she only went public with it a month after the divorce was finalized in June 2021. But she contended that had nothing to do with why she kept Josh private early on. "[I] wanted to keep him for myself and get to know each other before the tornado (media attention) hit," she wrote in the post about the beginnings of their relationship.

With hindsight on their side, fans began to see that Christina Hall tried to paint a picture of Josh Hall that was perhaps too perfect. That was especially true when it came to his relationship with her youngest, Hudson, whom she shares with Ant Anstead. "I saw the signs for some time and never thought it would last from the beginning. She was campaigning for the longest time excessively posting Josh with Hudson to prove he was a good stepdad then silence," one Reddit user argued.

Christina's efforts to portray hers as the perfect family appeared to have intensified when Anstead requested full custody of their son on the grounds she exploited him on social media for profit in April 2022. A day later, Josh praised Christina's parenting and seemingly placed himself at the center of the blended family. "Never did I think taking on 3 kids from 2 other males would be easy. What I was sure of, the woman connected to them was worth it all," he captioned the Instagram post.

Josh went on to promise he'd model healthy patterns for them. "What I will be is the best example of a quality human being," he added. Now, fans worry that Josh's short presence in the children's lives will have more negative than positive consequences. "Poor little Hudson...Your little shadow...Feels like he's gonna miss you the most," one Instagram user commented on one of Josh's posts.

Christina Hall's relationship with Josh Hall shared some similarities to her relationship with Ant Anstead. It didn't go unnoticed. "Her relationship w Josh was copy paste of Ant. Same vacations to Cabo, same going on and on about how fate brought them together. Getting married quickly. They were both even cops!" one Reddit user noted. She did in fact wed Anstead pretty quickly — though not as quickly as she wed Josh. Christina went public with her relationship with the British presenter in January 2018.

By the end of that year, they were a married couple. Like her wedding to Josh, Christina and Anstead married in a secret ceremony. They tricked their loved ones by inviting them to a boat parade, which turned out to be a wedding. Christina also did attribute their relationship to fate. In October 2018, Christina celebrated the first anniversary of their meeting with a since-deleted Instagram post (via House Beautiful) describing how their connection started over the phone and FaceTime first.

"Two days later we met for the first time and we've been inseparable ever since. #FATE," she wrote. And, yes, both Anstead and Josh used to be cops. Anstead joined the police force in Hertfordshire Constabulary in 1999, when he was 18. He received commendations for guarding the serial killer John Duffy. Similarly, Josh worked in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for 16 years. Readers can make of that what they will.