Heather Rae El Moussa Shares Stepmom Challenges While Raising Her Newborn Tristan
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Her new normal! Heather Rae El Moussa (née Young) loves her baby Tristan, but being a stepmom to her husband Tarek El Moussa’s two children while caring for a newborn is difficult.
“A lot of my time has been with the baby,” Heather, 35, told E! News in an interview published on Monday, February 27.
“Tarek has really stepped up in the daddy role and puts them to bed every night, takes them on little trips and things because it’s hard for me to leave right now. Brayden definitely said he’s missing me. But I know that time will pass. The newborn phase is always the hardest.”
The Selling Sunset actor and Flip or Flop star, 41, married in October 2021 and had their first child earlier this month. While Heather is a first-time biological parent, she is a happy stepmom to Tarek’s two boys, Taylor, 12, and Brayden, 7, whom the California native shares with ex-Christina Hall.
Tarek isn’t the only one who is helping the new mother. With Tristan’s arrival, Heather has depended on both her and the HGTV star’s parents for support.
“We have a lot of help from family,” she noted to E! on Monday. “Our moms have been incredible. I have never appreciated my mom and mother-in-law as much as I do now. It’s just very comforting to have them around.”
While the couple is excited about expanding their brood, that doesn’t mean they’re ready to have another child any time soon.
“Right now, it’s a no for me,” When asked if she planned on growing her family, Heather said she’d wait and see how things go with baby No. 1.
“I’m on maternity leave, but soon-ish I will be going back and focusing on work,” she shared. “I have to see how I can balance everything. Having Taylor and Brayden, a husband, a dog, a career, and a new baby. I’m going to see how we can balance it before we decide.”
Heather spoke exclusively to Us Weekly earlier this month about her first days as a mother.
“I’ve been learning about the body and about babies and what our body does to help your baby survive,” she explained.
“Like, he’ll find my breast and he’ll crawl at my stomach to find it to go feed. And I leak when he’s on me because my body knows he’s on me.
So, it’s just all these things that your body can do that I never got to experience before. I have this whole appreciation of the female body.”
She said that, while her love for her stepkids has grown stronger since her romance with Tarek began, having her own baby was an experience, unlike anything.
“Having my own and carrying him and then going through the labor … it’s just such a beautiful thing that the female body can do,” she explained.
