THE WORLD ACCORDING TO Heath

Selling Sunset’s Heather Rae El Moussa on self-love, flipping houses, and first-time motherhood

IT’S the day after Heather Rae El Moussa announced the name of her baby boy to the world: Tristan Jay El Moussa. He’s the first baby of the Selling Sunset star, along with her investor husband, Tarek, and the pair are adjusting to their new life, scheduling work commitments around sleeps and feeds.

Heather has always been the glamorous, nononsense member of the real-estate show, that’s subsequently transformed into an empire. She’s business-minded and independent - but for now, she’s putting down the diamonds and keys to some of Hollywood’s biggest homes to cuddle up on the sofa with her baby, and to make the most of their time together.

“I absolutely am obsessed with him. I love being a mommy to a newborn”, she says.

“At night, Tarek holds him and we sit in bed together. And that’s our quality time with Tristan. But I just love looking at him, watching him every day.”

She adds: “Going through the newborn stage is a whole different thing. And, you know, carrying the baby and going through the birth, I’ve just realised how incredible the female body is.

“I have such a new appreciation for moms and what moms go through, and I’m just loving it. It’s hard, but so fulfilling, and so beautiful.”

Baby Tristan got his name from a combination of his dad and grandfather. Tristan was initially supposed to be Tarek’s name, while his middle name, Jay, is the middle name of Heather’s dad.

“We’ve had a very positive response. I think everyone is just excited to finally hear his name”, she admits.

“I get a lot of hate in general, for so many things, and you’re not going to please everybody. Plus I don’t post things just for other people, I post things for myself.”

“We wanted to keep things a little bit private in the beginning, especially because we’re just so busy.”

However, it’s not stopping the couple from embarking on their ‘weekly date night’, even if it is just sneaking out for two hours at a time for now. The pair met in 2019 and got engaged just one year later, so are still very much living with cartoon hearts above their heads.

“We went on one date night for Valentine’s Day. And I’m not gonna say it was easy. It was definitely tough leaving the baby and we went super early and got home by eight o’clock”, Heather says.

“It’s been challenging since Tristan has been here because I haven’t had that quality time with Tarek, like we used to. So it’s just adjusting to the new life.”

“My heart is at my house right now with Tristan. So even when I was at dinner, and as much fun as I had with Tarek, I still was thinking about the baby and wanted to be home with him. As time goes on, I think I’ll feel more comfortable going out getting a little dressed up. But right now I’m just really enjoying being at home.

“I’m doing like at home spa days right now with the time that I have, but right now the focus isn’t on me”, she adds.

“I definitely will take my showers which is really nice, and I’ll use a body scrub or put a mask in my hair, use my under eye cream, and my eye patches…my time will come again!

“I think it’s important to still feel beautiful. I’ve been living in sweats and robes and slippers the last few weeks since the baby’s been born. I’ve been getting some longer stretches of sleep from him to do my own thing now, and it’s nice to still put on some makeup and put on a pretty dress and feel glamorous.”

However, most of the real estate agent’s social media content has for now at least, transformed from red carpet-ready, to safe space for other new mums to connect and share what they’ve been through.

“I wanted to show women my challenges through postpartum, and really be as candid and open as possible. I’ve been very open throughout the pregnancy and very open about my IVF journey - things aren’t spoken about enough, especially breastfeeding”, she says.

Now 35, Heather froze her eggs in the hope of one day starting a family, after discovering in her twenties she had a low egg count. Yet, she ended up falling pregnant naturally, which she’s dubbed a ‘miracle’.

“I love speaking to other women about their journeys, too. I’m not just there to post about myself, but I like to hear advice and hear from other women.”

“I was really amazed at how your body changes and what it goes through - I’m not working out, I’m just breastfeeding right now. I’m proud of my body and what it’s gone through.”

Despite Tristan being her first baby, Heather’s already got her practice in with Tarek’s kids, Taylor, 12, and Brayden, seven, and hopes to raise the family’s new addition the same way.

“I’m definitely on the stricter side!”, she jokes. “I’m very relaxed and can be chill, but I’m strict because I truly care about raising good humans. We’re protective of the kids.

“But then again, we’re also very loving and understanding and we have open communication, so we’re very close with them, and that’s how it will be with Tristan as well. We want them to come to us and be able to talk to us, and so far it’s working out great.

They love having a new baby brother to play with too: “Braden definitely doesn’t fully understand the newborn stage. He’s expecting him to play with him and do the things he wants to do! They came to the hospital the day he was born and held him, and they just think he’s the cutest thing.”

Outside of the crazy world of motherhood, Heather is still very much involved with The Oppenheim Group and Selling Sunset, with season six of the show hitting Netflix very soon, complete with two special episodes coming slightly later.. Season seven is currently in production.

“I was filming and working throughout my pregnancy, and it was tough to even move, or walk, or sit up, or get out of bed, or sit down to use the restroom. Just basically, I couldn’t even put my shoes on”, she says.

“I was able to film a little bit of season seven and I was filming right up until maternity leave [of season six].

“That just had to do with challenges around houses not being finished on time, and me suddenly going on maternity leave. A few different factors came into it.”

Luckily for fans, baby Tristan may even get to dip his toe into showbiz for the first time in the seventh season, with Heather teasing it could be his introduction to the show.

“There might be a little surprise. But I definitely do plan on having the girls meet him, on or off camera. But you know, I’m really close with all the girls and they want to meet him so bad.”

That’s not to say everyone will be in on the celebrations, however. Selling Sunset is notoriously dramafilled (whether staged or not), and Heather most-notably found herself centre-stage of a feud with co-star, Christine Quinn, which saw the pair butt heads on a number of occasions.

“I’ve never been the type of girl to have a tonne of drama. I think as you see me on the show, I’m good friends with all the girls. I’m the one that keeps the peace, I try to see everyone’s point of view - I speak up when I’m meant to speak up”, Heather rationalises.

“I’m married. I have kids, I live down in Orange County - I don’t have a lot of time for drama, but I’m always going to be there for my friends if they’re going through something or if they are fighting over something.

“As far as the OGs go, as I like to call them, we’re all very close. Mary and I are very close. I’ve known her for such a long time and we talk all the time. Same with Chrishell. It’s exciting going through this journey together, because we all started this together. It’s made us even stronger.”

Viewers of season five will remember the show ending on Heather and Tarek’s lavish wedding ceremony in Santa Barbara, complete with a dress designed by Galia Lahav. Naturally, Christine wasn’t invited, but we got to see it play out on screens with the rest of the Selling Sunset cast - and Heather insists that was their big day, and it wasn’t just for TV.

“We wanted it filmed like our wedding video, that was very important to us. The cameras were very far away so we didn’t have them in our faces and none of the guests were bothered by cameras. We weren’t bothered by the cameras.”

So, what can we expect from future seasons?

“I think season six was probably one of my favourite seasons to film just because you get to see my pregnancy, and having Bree [Tiesi] on the show - we got really close. You see our relationship develop, you see challenges with some of the girls and plenty of fights, obviously.

“I really hope that through this show people realise real estate is the best business in the world. It’s endless opportunities, but between investing in real estate and buying your own properties there are a lot of hardships.”

“It’s hard working with homeowners who aren’t realistic about dropping their prices, and the market isn’t on fire the same way it was six months ago - and we definitely show more of those challenges in season six of the show”, she adds of some of the biggest challenges facing luxury real estate agents right now (and that’s before we’ve even got to Davina Potratz’s infamously unsold $75 million house).

“You have to be very disciplined and organised and on top of everything, because you’re dealing with people’s financials! Even smaller listings, they mean just as much to me and The Oppenheim Group…we don’t treat any of our clients differently whether it’s a $1 million house or a $25 million house, and that’s really important.” to know that they can do it. They don’t need a husband. They don’t need a man, they can do it on their own”, she says.

Heather Rae Essentials has been born out of her love for skincare, and never finding brands that were honest about the qualities and quantities of ‘buzz’ ingredients in their products.

The line will start with eight key staples (including a body scrub which is already the hot topic of Heather’s bathroom), that are hydrating, firming, and most importantly, clean.

“Having a baby, I wanted to know that what I was putting on my body was just as healthy as what I was putting inside my body and eating”, she testifies.

“I wanted to know the ingredients I was wearing, and a lot of products aren’t transparent. So I’ve been really working on this for over a year.”

Ahead of its release and living in her new baby bubble, it’s given Heather a lot of time to think about what she wants for herself. And businesses aside, it’s clear that there’s one thing that remains consistent: Selflove.