The Untold Truth Of Heather Rae Young
Netflix's "Selling Sunset" doesn't just give us a peek at luxury real estate in Southern California. The show also introduced us to the bevy of beauties who sell said real estate and continues to give us a glimpse into their personal lives. While we might drool over infinity pools and mansions with a view, the group of agents bring heart and life to the reality series. We met the adorable Maya Vander, keeper of the peace, who splits her time between Miami and Los Angeles and has shared her pregnancy experiences with fans. Christine Quinn, the only goth Barbie princess we've ever seen carrying "For Sale" signs, knows how to steal a scene and bring it when it comes to drama. The girl is major — look no further than her black wedding dress — but as she hinted to Us Weekly, her role on the show could change. What's more, Quinn could be bringing bestie Chelsea Lazkani with her to her new brokerage.
Then there's soap opera star Chrishell Stause, whose relationship with Jason Oppenheim ended while cameras rolled. (Don't worry, they're the friendliest exes we've ever seen.) Mary Fitzgerald works hard and has an impressive net worth, made all the more impressive considering the fact that she filed for bankruptcy back in 2017, per The Sun. That drive has certainly paid off for Fitzgerald. But there's one more agent we've come to love: Heather Rae Young, a "Selling Sunset" star who has as unique a story as any we've heard.
Heather Rae Young grew up outside of Los Angeles
While Heather Rae Young can work a mini-dress and heels on any terrain today, our girl had a much more earthy, rural upbringing. She was born in Anaheim, California, and grew up in Running Springs, located in San Bernardino County, where her parents still reside. The teeny town boasts a population of approximately 5,000 people, so not exactly Los Angeles-level bustle. But this was exactly what a young Young needed; she told Motor Trend that she loved her quiet upbringing. "We had snow in the winter and our summers were unbelievable," the reality star said. "Everyone was friendly and it instilled values that come from growing up in a small town." It also meant that Young got to be active growing up. She took advantage of the outdoorsy activities available around her. "I had a national forest as my backyard. How many people can say that?" she said.
The local offerings also proved employable for Young. Her first job was working as a server at a pizza restaurant and later, she checked lift tickets at a local ski resort. While it was great for a kid, Young admitted that she never saw herself staying in Running Springs for long. So, she left after high school. "Even though Running Springs is a great place to raise a family, I knew I wanted something more, and to get that, I needed to move off the mountain," she said in Motor Trend. It was time for bigger things.
How Playboy changed her life
Heather Rae Young's big break came through Playboy in the late '00s. As she told Playboy, she answered a casting call in 2008 and before she knew it, she had landed the coveted spot of Miss February 2010. "I'm so thrilled to be representing the love month because I have tons of love in my life," Young said at the time. "I loved PLAYBOY when I was growing up in those mountains, and now look at me: I'm Miss February!"
It's not so unbelievable to everyone else, considering how beautiful Young is, but her gratitude and enthusiasm for Playboy never waned throughout her adult life. When interviewed by The Sun in November 2021, Young had nothing but happiness for her past with the iconic magazine. "It catapulted my career, it changed my life, it was the most defining moment in my life," she said. Young also shared that she had a positive experience meeting the magazine's founder, Hugh Hefner. "Hef is amazing and very kind," Young told Motor Trend. "He created an industry for women to feel empowered and is every bit the legend." Playboy meant exposure for Young and she shrewdly capitalized on the classic Californian launching pad.
Heather Rae Young gave acting a shot
Heather Rae Young's ambitions with Playboy led to big things in the world of modeling and acting ,and thanks to the magazine, she got a team of people to help her. "I got an agent, a manager and met some amazing people in the industry who guided and helped me book some work," she told Motor Trend.
While she landed some acting roles, that line of work didn't hold a lasting appeal for Young. So, when the luster wore off, she put her energy into pursuing other avenues. She told Women Fitness in 2016, "Worked on a few great sets and movies alongside Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson but when I stopped loving it I quit going to auditions and moved on to other things that I enjoyed."
What she really enjoyed was modeling and, as she learned while on a job for Harley Davidson, riding motorcycles. She said in Women Fitness, "I got my motorcycle license and Harley also gave me a motorcycle. Riding became a huge passion of mine. Life changing for me." It's evident that the modeling world was where Young felt most at home. When Playboy asked her what her ambitions were, Young said not say anything about real estate, but she did share that she'd like to make a mark in the animal rescue world and start a family.
How modeling transitioned into real estate
While Heather Rae Young climbed to the top thanks to modeling, that was not the career that ultimately made her famous. It was the arguably less sexy world of real estate that turned Young into a reality television star and a very rich woman. Yet, she was reluctant to get into it at first. "But you know what? I did it!" she said in an interview with Playboy.
Having experience working with the glitterati comes in handy when you're listing mega-mansions in the Hollywood Hills. "[Modeling] and acting transitioned me into real estate," Young told The Sun in November 2021. "I've met a lot of contacts through my [modeling]/acting career — a lot of wealthy people, celebrities." She admitted that she wasn't shy to use these connections in her early real estate days. "I sold over nine million dollars' worth of real estate within my first four months," the model added.
So when did Young get her license as a real estate salesperson? ScreenRant did a deep-dive into the State of California's legal documents and found that Young was granted the license in 2014. When it comes to the Oppenheim group, Young sits in the middle of the agents in terms of experience. Davina Potratz got her license as far back as 2006, while Christine Quinn and Chrishell Stause are the newbies of the agent world, getting theirs in 2016. But you'd honestly never know based on the confidence of this hard working group.
How she navigates the Selling Sunset drama
One major takeaway from "Selling Sunset" is that tempers can certainly rise on set and the agents occasionally get into fights. It's tempting to assume that some of these feuds are fabricated to amp up the drama. However, as Heather Rae Young told The Sun in 2021, that apparently is not the case. "Everything you see — all the drama, all the fighting — that's all real," she said. "A lot of people think, oh, maybe it's not because it is so catty and dramatic. But we're in a high-pressure industry, in a high-pressure job and it happens."
At the center of many of these fights is Christine Quinn, who's had drama with agents and co-stars Chrishell Stause, Emma Hernan, Mary Fitzgerald, and, of course, Young. Case in point: Young and Tarek El Moussa's beef with Quinn was so major, they didn't invite her to their engagement party or wedding. Of course, Quinn and Young worked together during this time, so one might wonder how that impacted their office dynamic.
"Christine and I can be professional at work," Young told ET in 2021. "We can be cordial to each other. We've been around each other multiple times and things are fine. We're not just fighting and catty and awful to each other. We had a friendship in the past and I don't have to be friends with everyone." Young stressed that she and Quinn respect each other but Young makes a point to keep her distance.
She butted heads with Chrissy Teigen
An ongoing theme with reality TV is wondering how fake everything is. Is the show scripted? Are the relationships legit? Are people friends or enemies? When it comes to "Selling Sunset," a big question was: are they actually real estate agents? At least Chrissy Teigen wanted to know. In August 2020, Teigen tweeted, "I will say, I look at LA real estate a lot and have never seen any of these people lol either have our agents, who I have obsessively asked."
Well, Heather Rae Young was not taking this lying down. During a conversation with KTLA 5, the agent set the record straight. She pointed out that she obtained her license long before the Netflix show began, then listed some of her major sales early on in her career. "You can come to our office and visit us," she went on. "We've all been in the office for years and years and known each other for almost six years. Maybe because she doesn't know us doesn't mean we're not real real estate agents." A fair response.
Others from the Oppenheim Group also piped up after Teigen tweeted doubt about their credentials. Agent Maya Vander told E! News, "Oddly enough, I did sell a house on the same street where she and John Legend purchased a house a couple of months ago." So the Oppenheim Group is around; Teigen just hadn't crossed paths with them in the real estate world.
How Heather Rae Young's ex feels about her show
While it's all about Heather Rae Young and Tarek El Moussa now, the "Selling Sunset" star dated hockey player Nick Ebert, who played for the Belleville Senators and, as of 2022, played for Sweden's Örebro hockey team, per the NHL's official website.
When Season 1 of the beloved Netflix show aired in 2019, Young and Ebert were together, but since the latter was playing overseas, we didn't get much of a sense of him, and shortly after, the couple broke up. In a September 2020 chat with VUE NJ, Ebert wished Young well, admitting that the show blew up even more than anyone anticipated. "I'm pumped for her, how well she's doing now and how much the show has taken off," Ebert said. "It's crazy to see."
Ebert treated viewers to a little relationship history, noting that they first connected when he was playing for the LA Kings and stayed together for three years. Ebert noted that the long distance element of their relationship contributed to their breakup but said that they were also at different places. "Life is timing and the timing wasn't there," Ebert added. Even so, the athlete said that he and Young have managed to create a friendship out of their relationship.
How she met Tarek El Moussa
Love at last. Heather Rae Young and Tarek El Moussa met on the Fourth of July in 2019 while both were boating with friends in Newport Beach, California, per People. El Moussa filed for divorce from "Flipping Out" co-star Christina Hall in January 2017 and hadn't really dated much — at least publicly — since then. But once he connected with Young, the pair moved quickly. As the "Selling Sunset" star recalled to Page Six, her first date with El Moussa went so well that the two FaceTimed each other afterward. In an Us Weekly video, they admitted that they said "I love you" to each other within the first week of their courtship.
They wasted no time taking big relationship steps; right after they began dating, they took a trip to Paris and became roommates. "We moved in together really quick after only a few weeks, and we know each other so well," Young said per Page Six. "He's my best friend. He's an open book. He is who he is and so am I, so everything's been amazing."
El Moussa proposed in July 2020 and a little over one year later, in October 2021, the couple married in Montecito, California, to an Old Hollywood theme, per People. El Moussa added the extra touch of hiring a skywriter to scrawl out a message among the clouds that read, "To my wife, me and you always and forever." Sounds like romance for the ages.
Heather Rae Young's relationship with tattoos
Heather Rae Young's has something of a history with tattoos. In May 2014, long before she hit it big on "Selling Sunset," Young tweeted about getting ink removed and warned people to pause before getting anything too large. "#14 tattoo removal today. Eye on the prize should only be about 4-5 more. Think before u get big color tattoos," she tweeted, adding an emoji of a monkey covering its eyes.
But Young wasn't totally done getting tatted. In February 2021, she posted a photo of new ink on her backside that was dedicated to Tarek El Moussa. "Yes sir, Mr. El Moussa," the tattoo read, per E! News. The post garnered lots of attention, much of it negative, despite El Moussa's positive reaction to it, so Young took it down. Her removal of the post also gained lots of traction and so she spoke with E! News' Daily Pop to give context to the tattoo. "I did it as something special for my fiancé, my future husband," Young explained. "I will be Mrs. El Moussa, so this is my name. And it is a special thing that we do around the house: Daddy is the boss, I'm the queen of the house. We do it with the kids." Young said that he'll say to her, "[Y]es ma'am, Mrs. El Moussa," and she'll respond in kind. Certainly a one-of-a-kind story.
Heather Rae Young's fertility journey
Heather Rae Young has been very open about her fertility journey. When she was in her 20s, she found out that she had a low egg count and assumed that she might have struggles conceiving later on if she wanted to have a family. As such, when Young began a relationship with Tarek El Moussa, they began considering fertility treatment. In January 2022, Young jumped on Instagram to share that there were enough good eggs to hopefully make nine embryos.
But there was big news in July 2022. Young and El Moussa broke the news that they were expecting a baby, and despite their fertility treatments, they conceived their child naturally. "I've been really open about my pregnancy journey," Young wrote on Instagram. "[W]e've been doing IVF and went from having 7 frozen eggs to being told we were only supposed to get 2 follicles to then being able to get 8 to... having an all natural pregnancy."
Young went on to talk about how unpredictable life can be. "You can plan and try to make things happen all you want but what's meant to be will be so to me, our baby is a miracle baby — the odds were definitely against us," she said. On July 24, 2022, Young and El Moussa posted a video clip of their gender reveal party on Instagram, sharing that they're having a boy, who will be a younger sibling to El Moussa's two children, daughter Taylor and son Brayden.
Her relationship with Tarek El Moussa's ex
Tarek El Moussa and his ex-wife, Christina Hall (née Haack), split up in 2016 after welcoming their two children. Christina went on to marry Ant Anstead and welcomed a son, but they soon divorced. In April 2022, Christina married real estate agent Joshua Hall in a small ceremony, per Page Six. Since their split, Christina and El Moussa have coparented their kids, and since Heather Rae Young has joined the picture, she's also interacted frequently with El Moussa's ex.
The two women seem to have an amicable relationship. Christina told Us Weekly and she and Young text frequently to share cooking ideas. "We'll, like, text each other random recipes right now during isolation," Christina said during the pandemic, later adding, "We'll share, like, margarita recipes with each other like a skinny watermelon, so yeah, it's nice. We all get along." What's more, Young told E! News that she asks Christina for advice. "Tarek and I live together, so it's only natural for me as a woman to want to reach out to her as their mom and be like, 'Hey, I'm with your kids. Do you have any tips?'" she said.
That said, it may not always be smooth sailing. in May 2022, the Daily Mail reported that Christina, Joshua, Young, and El Moussa were seen arguing at the former "Flip or Flop" co-stars' kid's soccer game. However, things apparently were sorted out. "A personal matter was discussed and has since been resolved," they said in a joint statement.
Heather Rae Young's net worth
"Selling Sunset" has really paid off for Heather Rae Young thanks to global exposure after years of hard work in real estate. The reality star is sitting pretty now on a net worth of $3 million, per Celebrity Net Worth. To boot, hubby Tarek El Moussa is worth $15 million, so between the two of them, things are very groovy.
Unsurprisingly considering both of their careers, Young and El Moussa like to spend money on real estate. In February 2022, Young shared on Instagram Stories (via People) that she and her husband bought a lot near her childhood home. They purchased this land in addition to their home in Newport Beach, California, per Closer Weekly.
Their original plan was to flip the Orange County home, but the two real estate pros changed their minds and decided to make it their own. The build was not without its challenges. In November 2020, Young jumped on Instagram to show damage to the new constriction. "Well, we haven't had the best of luck with our new home. We bought it and decided to remodel and now it looks like a war zone," she began (via Closer Weekly). "We had some major flooding and water got everywhere and they had to rip up the floors, ceiling and tons of other stuff!! And we are super super behind!" But things worked out and the couple was able to move in and call it home.