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Christina Anstead Is 'Creating Her Own Happiness' amid Split From Husband Ant, Says Best Friend

Hannah Chubb
·6 min read

Christina Anstead’s best friend is speaking out about how the HGTV star is doing amid her split from husband Ant Anstead.

“Even though this is a really difficult time for Christina, she’s doing her best to tune out all the noise and focus her energy on her children and her work,” Cassie Zebisch, Christina’s longtime best friend and publicist, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “Even during the most challenging times, her resilience continues to inspire me every day.”

On September 18, the Christina on the Coast star, 37, shocked fans when she posted a statement announcing that she and her Wheelers Dealers host husband, 41, had separated. The pair had been married less than two years, and have a 1-year-old son, Hudson London.

Christina also shares daughter Taylor, 10, and son Brayden, 5, with her ex and Flip or Flop co-host Tarek El Moussa.

Ant Anstead Instagram Christina and Ant Anstead with their children

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RELATED: Ant Anstead Celebrates 'Beautiful Daughter' Amelie's 17th Birthday amid Split from Ex Christina

Zebisch shared that Christina has been focusing on “creating her own happiness and she remains positive while she surrounds herself with people who are uplifting her and letting her know she’s going to be okay."

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“Her children are happy and healthy and that all that matters,” Zebisch added. “She’s really taking this time to focus on what’s important in her life and she knows that she has tremendous support from all her close friends and family. Despite the false stories that are continuing to circulate about her with unnamed sources, she is doing her best trying to ignore it.”

Both Christina and Ant have recently spoken out about the messages and comments they have been receiving since news broke of their split.

Noel Vasquez/Getty Ant Anstead and Christina Anstead

On Monday, Ant asked fans to keep their opinions to themselves after he shared a black-and-white photo of himself and Hudson to Instagram and comments quickly came pouring in from fans offering advice about his and Christina's relationship.

Within a few hours of posting, he turned off all comments and amended the caption to read: “This was a father-son moment! But due to some mean people I have turned comments OFF! While we both appreciate words of support, Please stop trying to diagnose from afar. It’s not fair."

He continued, "Christina is fine. I am fine. And we remain good friends and will navigate this at our pace. Compassion and kindness is all that’s needed. X.”

RELATED VIDEO: Christina Anstead and Husband Ant Split After Less Than 2 Years of Marriage

Last week, the mom-of-three took to her Instagram Stories to share that she decided to do a mass unfollow on the app so that mean-spirited commenters can't find her friends and family members. She is currently following zero people.

On Saturday, Christina shared a post to her Instagram page with a lengthy caption, telling fans that they don’t know everything about her and her life, and asking for their compassion.

″I never thought I would have one divorce let alone two,″ she said in the post. ″I never thought I would have 2 baby daddies — but sometimes life throws us curve balls. Instead of getting stuck in these 'setbacks', I choose to look at these challenges as opportunities to grow.″

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For those of you who don’t know me (or think you know me) let me reintroduce myself. I hate crowds, I love traveling, all things spiritual, the ocean and deep one on one conversations. I never thought about being on tv. I wanted to be a sports agent like Jerry Maguire. But I always loved looking at houses with my parents especially model homes and I always wanted to be my own boss... So in college when I was called (intuitively) to get my real estate license at a local community college I followed my intuition. I got started in real estate at 21 which led to selling houses which led to flipping houses which led to Tv. Now while I never wanted to be on tv, stepping out of my comfort zone and into the unknown has always been my thing. I live in a state of anxiousness and I’m so used to it that when it’s not there I tend to feel a void and hop into something that causes the feeling I’m used to. This can be good and bad. And it’s one of the things I’m working on breaking the pattern of. Sometimes anxiety and pursuit of new dreams leads me down amazing paths, other times it leaves me feeling lost and in a state of fight or flight / or crying in my closet. Tv changed my life and I am grateful for the life it’s provided, the experiences, the friends I’ve made along the way. Sometimes our calling is bigger than our plans. I never thought I would have one divorce let alone two. I never thought I would have 2 baby daddies - but sometimes life throws us curve balls. Instead of getting stuck in these “setbacks” I choose to look at these challenges as opportunities to grow. So while some may judge me and throw around rumors about me, most of you support me. And that says a lot about this world and where we are headed. I’m messy, I’m real and I’m working on healing. I’m surrounded by extremely powerful women who help me cope, build me up and push me to be better. If you’ve DM me or text me - I haven’t written back because I’m taking time to clear the “noise” and focus on myself and the kids. I appreciate the support and I hope my story inspires you to not be so hard on yourself for the decisions / choices you’ve made. We are all a work in progress. ✨♥️

A post shared by Christina Anstead (@christinaanstead) on Sep 26, 2020 at 8:05am PDT

Christina and Ant began dating in October 2017, less than a year after Christina’s public split from El Moussa in December 2016. Her divorce was finalized in January 2018, 11 months before she wed Ant at their home in Newport Beach, California.

RELATED: Ant Anstead Asks Fans to ‘Stop Trying to Diagnose' Reason for Split from Christina: 'Not Fair'

On Sunday, Ant spoke out about the split for the first time.

″Anyone who really knows me knows that I don't like to share private matters publicly. I have remained silent while holding on to hope. I never gave up on us. I pray Christina's decision brings her happiness,″ Ant captioned a black-and-white selfie of him and the HGTV star.

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Anyone who really knows me knows that I don’t like to share private matters publicly. I have remained silent while holding on to hope. I never gave up on us. I pray Christina’s decision brings her happiness

A post shared by ant anstead (@ant_anstead) on Sep 26, 2020 at 2:47pm PDT

The former couple welcomed their first child, son Hudson, in September 2019. A source recently told PEOPLE that the pair had been struggling with their relationship for a year following their baby boy's birth.

The Christina on the Coast star was left feeling ″lonely and unhappy″ with her home life, the source said, adding that ″Christina found it difficult to balance everything" and "their marriage was struggling."