Ant Anstead is a British car builder and designer, who became popular for his restoration projects in TV car shows “For the Love of Cars” and “Wheeler Dealers.”
Early life and family
Anthony Richard “Ant” Anstead was born on 28 March 1979, in Plymouth, Devon, England. He spent most of his childhood in Ely, Cambridgeshire, and then the family moved to Hertfordshire when he was 10. Growing up, he liked to build things and get his hands on anything that needed fixing, and said that he must have been a nightmare to his parents because of that. He has three brothers, but nothing else is known about his family.
Education background
He finished his secondary education at Richard Hale School in Hertford, and completed his A‑levels at the Haileybury School which is near Hertford.
Career
First steps
Ant didn’t want to pursue further education at a university, so he joined the Hertfordshire Constabulary when he was 18, and was subsequently stationed at Bishop’s Stortford. With the force understaffed, he was the only one assigned to the area, and said that he had to grow up fast during his two years there. After that, Ant was transferred to the Cheshunt Police Station in the Borough of Broxbourne, and after that made it into the Tactical Firearms Unit (TAU) of Welwyn Garden City at the age of 23, and became one of UK’s youngest armed officers
It was during this time when he faced life-threatening situations, and realized what man is capable of. He was assigned to a safe‑house, and spent time with John Duffy, the serial killer and rapist dubbed by the media as the “railway murderer.”
His decision to become a cop was something he never regretted, as he loved being a police officer. However, he quit the force in 2005 after eight years for various reasons, the main one being the birth of his daughter. He made the choice of pursuing another line of work, saying ‘You only get one life, after all.’ In his eight years of service to Her Majesty, he was given two commendations for bravery.
Passion for car building and restoration
His interest in cars started when he was a young boy and played with Lego and Airfix kits.
He was 16 when he built his first off-the-shelf car kit, so he already knew that he wanted to build cars long before he had his driving license, and knew that he could make money out of it since he was 18. Ant would look for a classic car he could buy, then fix and renovate and resell it afterwards – he worked on this in between shifts in the police.
When he left the force, he turned to car building and restoration full-time to make a living. He built recreation cars at first, then replicas. Most of the cars he built later on were by request, with each one custom‑made to suit the owner’s preferences, including the seating position, pedals and steering wheel to make sure that it would be perfect for the client’s frame and size. This means that each car he made was unique, and comes with a photographic build diary.
It was also UK registered, and went through all the tests to ensure that it met the necessary standards set by the UK government. He had a team working with him on the cars, but has said that he developed his own skills over time, by being hands-on in his projects. He started working for Evanta Motor Company Limited in Hertfordshire in February 2009, then became a partner and director.
Further success
“For the Love of Cars”
In 2013, he was approached by Love Productions to become a TV presenter with the English actor and car enthusiast Philip Glenister, as well as do what he loves best, which is restoring cars. “For the Love of Cars” was a show in which they looked for British cars to restore, followed by a test drive then putting it on auction at the Coys at Kensington for the first series, and at the National Exhibition Center (NEC) in Birmingham for the second series.
I never RANT on social media! But this has made me FURIOUS!
Woke up to find this DUMPED on our drive! And I think I know who did it. 😤😤😤😤😤😤😡😡😡🤬 pic.twitter.com/AVsKP55d9W
— Ant Anstead (@AntAnstead) April 30, 2020
It premiered in the UK on Channel 4 in April 2014, and ran for two series for a total of 15 episodes, with the last one aired in June 2015; a special was shown in November 2016. It was a big hit and people were impressed by how natural he was on camera, considering that it was his first time to be on a show. He said that he dealt with real fear such as ‘standing in front of someone who’s armed’ back when he was a policeman, and that made being in front of the camera seem easy, and further added ‘I always remind myself of that, and how lucky I am to be doing what I do.’
His next TV show was in 2015 in BBC Two’s “Building Cars Live”, together with James May and Kate Humble, in which they went to one of the biggest car factories in Britain tor broadcast and talk about the science and engineering of cars.
2016 was also a busy year for him, as he had several shows including Channel 4’s “The World’s Most Expensive Cars”, which he hosted solo. He also tried his hand at co-hosting shows that didn’t have anything to do with cars, such as BBC Two’s documentary, “Chinese New year: Biggest Celebration on Earth,” with Kate Humble; “New York: America’s Busiest City” which was a docuseries about NYC; and “Craft: I Made This.”
“Wheeler Dealers”
The show has been on air since 2003, with car trader, Mike Brewer and mechanic Edd China, with its basic format of Brewer acquiring a car and Chithena doing repairs or improvements on a set budget, and then selling it. Ant joined the show in 2017, replacing China for series 14 and 15.
His most recent show was Motor Trend’s “Ant Anstead Master Mechanic” (2019), in which he paid tribute to the Alpha Romeo 158 Formula One car by building his own race car using spare parts and donor cars, in just 12 weeks.
Career as a book author
Ant wrote the children’s book entitled “Petrol Head Parenting: The Essential Guide to Diagnosing and Nurturing a Petrol Head” with the illustrations done by Noah Elias, published in January 2018. Ant also penned “Cops and Robbers: The Story of the British Police Car”, about the history and development of British police cars, published in May 2018.
Personal life
Anstead married Louise in 2005 after dating for nine years, and they have two children together, namely Amalie who was born in 2003 and Archie who was born in 2006.
They separated in July 2017, and were officially divorced in October that year.
It was in 2017 when Ant called Christina from the hit reality show, “Flip or Flop,” on the phone and they talked for almost half an hour, then after two days, while he was in Las Vegas for a car trade show, he FaceTimed her and they spoke for more than two hours. Two days later, the two met for the first time and started dating; they’ve been inseparable since then. They were married on 22 December 2018 at their home in Newport Beach, California – only 70 of their family and closest friends were at the wedding. The intimate ceremony with a winter wonderland theme was kept secret even from their guests, as they thought that they were invited to watch the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade.
Got me kiddies back ❤️❤️😍
Posted by Ant Anstead on Sunday, October 22, 2017
Their children were part of the ceremony, as each one prepared a little speech, and Archie and Amalie were Ant’s best man/best woman. They have a son together named Hudson London, who was born on 6 September 2019.
Who is Christina Anstead?
Christina Mursinge Haak was born on 9 July 1983, in Orange County, California. She worked in the real estate industry after college, met Tarek El Moussa in 2005, and married him in 2009. They have children together, namely Taylor born in 2010 and Brayden in 2015. The couple had a real estate agency, The El Moussa Group. Together with their business partner, Pete De Best, they started to flip houses in 2010 and split the profit.
In 2011, Tarek, with the help of his friend, filmed the entire process of house flipping and sent the tape to the production company, Pie Town Productions, which loved it. HGTV signed Tarek and Christina in 2012 to do “Flip or Flop” for 13 episodes, in which they would buy a house, fix it up then flip it in each episode. They were paid $10,000 per episode during the first season. The show was a success and they continued doing it.
The couple announced that they were separating in December 2016 after an incident back in May, when a 911 call was made about a male with a gun who was possibly suicidal according to officials. They apparently had an altercation, and Tarek left home to go hiking ‘to blow off some steam’, taking with him a firearm to protect himself from wild animals, not to harm himself.
A helicopter was used to help locate him on the mountainside. He dropped the weapon when the police officers asked him to do so. The couple released a statement saying that it was all a misunderstanding, and that the cops were called in as a caution.
Tarek filed for divorce in January 2017, and it was finalized a year after in 2018; they have joint custody of their kids. They continued working together in “Flip or Flop,” which was renewed for its ninth season and is scheduled to air in August 2020. The El Moussa Group was said to be dissolved.
Christina starred in her own show, “Christina on the Coast,” which showed her renovating the home of her best friend since junior high, and publicist on its pilot episode followed by doing other people’s homes in Southern California. Its initial broadcast was in May 2019 and the second season premiered in January 2020.
'Flip or Flop' star goes solo in 'Christina on the Coast' https://t.co/uDnYhBSbS1 via @nypost @hgtv #ChristinaAnstead
— Michael Starr (@StarrMSS) May 21, 2019
Interesting facts and rumors
- When Ant was 14, he tried unsuccessfully to power up his wooden soap box using a lawnmower he bought at a local market.
- He does car racing and plays football in his spare time.
- His first car was the classic two-seater sports car, MG Midget – he wants to launch a campaign to find it.
Appearance
He is 6ft 2ins (1.8m) tall, weighs 178lbs (81kg), and has an athletic build. He has gray hair and green eyes.
Net worth
Ant is a car builder and restoration expert, who has his own company and has worked on several shows. He has an estimated net worth of over $6 million as of May 2020 according to sources. Christina’s net worth, on the other hand, was estimated at $15 million as of May 2020.