Tarek & Heather Rae El Moussa Defend Daughter’s Extravagant 16th Birthday Gift

Tarek and Heather Rae El Moussa have no regrets about how they celebrated their daughter’s 16th birthday with Christina Haack.

Tarek and Haack were married from 2009 to 2018 and share two kids: daughter Taylor and son Brayden. Tarek married Heather in 2021, and the couple welcomed their son, Tristan, in 2023.

One month before Taylor’s milestone 16th birthday, the co-parents teamed up to surprise the teen with her very own car. “What’s more of a surprise… the car for Taylor or the fact that the three of us actually pulled this off?” Heather captioned an August 13 Instagram video of the trio’s gift reveal. “The car is so well deserved, we love you so much Tay.”

According to Entertainment Tonight, the proud parents gifted Taylor a BMW X5 M, which sells at a base price of $130,000. In a new interview with E! News, Tarek and Heather defended their daughter’s pricey birthday present.

“Well, it turns out, as a father, when your daughter kicks ass, gets a 4.2 GPA, is MVP of the soccer team, you really want to surprise her,” Tarek told the outlet. “So, Dad, Stepmom, Mom, we all surprised her. … “She’s so happy. And honestly, she’s the best kid. She didn’t ask for it.. We gave it to her, and there’s a big difference.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Heather Rae El Moussa (@theheatherraeelmoussa)

Heather added, “She’s a good girl. She deserves it. She works really hard. … She’s very grateful. She cried. It was really sweet. We surprised her, and she started crying.”

When asked if the gift sets a precedent for the pair’s other kids, Tarek quipped, “Depends if they want a BMW or a Chevrolet.” Heather stated, “My stepson [Brayden], he is probably the bougiest one out of all of them. He’s so cute, and he works hard, too. And then, our little 3-and-a-half-year-old is obsessed with cars and trucks and everything, so he’s gonna want something nice. But they gotta work hard for it.”

As the mother and stepmother of a 16-year-old and 3-year-old, Heather said she’s been surprised by which age is harder to navigate as a parent. “I thought, ‘Oh, babies are so easy,’ ‘cause [Tristan] was really good. And I was like, ‘Oh, our teenager is way harder.’ Now it’s flip-flopped,” the Selling Sunset star revealed. “[Taylor] is, like, chill, easy. He is 3-and-a-half. He’s wild, but it’s so fun. So, we’re all over the place. It’s pretty crazy.”

She went on to share, “Every day, I’m either kicked, I’m hit. I got a black eye the other day. He headbutts me. He argues with me all day. Yeah, my husband, too. But you know what? Toddlers are so fascinating to me. I think that they are just so adorable, so fun, and it makes life enjoyable every day. … We can be having the worst day, stress, like, awful things, and you come home, and his hugs and kisses and love, it’s everything. It’s better than anything in the world.”

Tarek gushed over his wife, stating, “She’s literally, like, the best mom ever. She’s so sweet, so kind, so loving. Honestly, I couldn’t be more proud of my wife.”

After teaming up for Taylor’s birthday surprise, Tarek, Heather, and Haack will soon compete against each other on Season 2 of HGTV‘s The Flip Off. The series follows the group as they work to earn the biggest return on investment for their separate house flips.

The Flip Off Season 2, TBA, HGTV