Watch: Tarek and Heather Rae El Moussa Reveal Why They Surprised His Daughter With Lavish Birthday Gift
For Tarek El Moussa, getting his daughter Taylor a flipping amazing 16th birthday present was obvious.
After The Flipping El Moussas star gifted his and ex Christina Haack’s eldest a luxury car for her milestone birthday in August, he shared exactly why he, his wife Heather Rae El Moussa and Haack felt Taylor deserved the very best on her big day.
“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 exclusively told E! News in a joint interview with Heather at Page Six’s 2026 Virtual Reali-Tea Awards in New York City Oct. 6. “So, dad, stepmom, mom, we all surprised her.”
And accolades aside, Tarek—who also shares son Brayden, 10, with Christina as well as 3-year-old son Tristan with Heather—noted she’s also just “the best kid.”
“She didn’t ask for it,” he emphasized. “We gave it to her. There’s a big difference.”
As Heather put it, “She’s a good girl. She deserves it. She works really hard.”
Plus, she didn’t take the gift for granted.
“She’s very grateful,” Heather added. “She cried. It was really sweet. We surprised her, and she started crying.”
The Flip Off stars banded together to surprise Taylor with a light blue SUV this past summer, which Heather chronicled in a joint Aug. 13 Instagram Reel where the teen can be seen getting emotional as she takes in the extravagant present.
Photo by Santiago Felipe/Getty Images
“What’s more of a surprise… the car for Taylor or the fact that the three of us actually pulled this off?” Heather captioned the post. “The car is so well deserved, we love you so much Tay.”
As for whether the other kids in their blended family have new wheels in their future?
“My stepson, he is probably the bougiest one out of all of them,” Heather joked to E! News of Brayden. “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,” she added, “so he’s gonna want something nice, but they gotta work hard for it.”
Photo by Jerritt Clark/Getty Images for “Selling Sunset”
That’s especially true for Heather and Tarek’s “threenager.”
“So, I thought, ‘Oh, babies are so easy’ because he was really good, and I was like, ‘Oh, our teenager is way harder.’ Now it’s flip flopped,” Heather explained. “She is like chill, easy. He is 3 and a half. He’s wild, but it’s so fun.”
And while life with a toddler can be a battle, with Heather noting that their son “argues with me all day,” she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Toddlers are so fascinating to me,” she said. “I think they are just so adorable, so fun, and it makes life enjoyable every day.”
“We could be having the worst day, stress, like awful things, and you come home and his hugs and kisses and love—it’s everything,” she added. “It’s better than anything in the world.”
For a deeper dive into Tarek, Heather and Christina’s blended family tree, keep reading…
Instagram/Heather Rae El Moussa
Instagram/Heather Rae El Moussa
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