HGTV new star Heather El Moussa is responding to the backlash

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Heather Rae El Moussa

With a new baby and a new HGTV show, Heather Rae El Moussa says she doesn’t have time for the ‘hate’ directed at her online. Married to longtime HGTV personality Tarek El Moussa since October 2021, with whom she now stars in ‘The Flipping El Moussas,’ the new mom says she’s so ‘obsessed’ with six-week-old son Tristan Jay, that she is focused on him and not online negativity.

The 35-year-old real estate agent, who has also starred in Netflix’s Selling Sunset since it premiered in 2019, is used to the online criticism that often accompanies being in the public eye. In a new one Interview with the British digital magazine BlushEl Moussa said she’s doing her best to ignore the naysayers as she adjusts to life as a new mom and one of HGTV’s newest stars.

Heather Rae El Moussa says she’s trying to avoid drama

GettyHeather and Tarek El Moussa with some of their castmates from Selling Sunset.

In her interview with Blush, El Moussa said she was pleasantly surprised that most social media followers were kind to her boy, who was born on January 31, since she usually gets so much backlash for her posts.

With more than three million Instagram followers, El Moussa has plenty of fans who love getting glimpses of her often glamorous life, but she also regularly receives hostile, hateful comments about everything from her voice to her looks, including many comparisons to her husband’s ex-wife and former “Flip or Flop”. co-star Christina Hall. Even her mother-in-law recently tried to advocate for her, slamming back at Facebook users who left unkind comments.

“I get a lot of hate for so many things in general, and you’re not going to please everyone,” El Moussa told Blush. “Also, I don’t just post things for other people, I post things for myself.”

“I’ve never been the type of girl who experiences a lot of drama,” she added.

However, she has been known to stand up for her friends when she sees them being bullied online. When El Moussa posted photos from her baby shower in November, many people chided her friends for being too glamorous or scantily clad for the event. Her Selling Sunset co-star Chrishell Stause received so much criticism for her outfit that El Moussa took the time to respond to the commenters.

“I see a lot of negative comments and just don’t understand why so many people choose to live with such negativity and tear people down when the day was so perfect,” she wrote. “Who cares what my friends wore? They are all beautiful and I want them to feel empowered. And no, it wasn’t a ‘normal baby shower’, but what is normal…?? Let’s really lift each other up and stop the mean comments that tear a woman down. Isn’t there enough hate in the world already?”

El Moussa told Blush: “I think as you see me in ‘Selling Sunset’ I’m good friends with all the girls. I’m the one who keeps the peace. I try to see every point of view. I speak when I am supposed to speak.”

Heather Rae El Moussa is happy that most of her followers seem to appreciate her posts in real life as a new mom

Since giving birth to baby Tristan, El Moussa has said her entire focus is on her little one and wants to be honest with you about how the first few days of motherhood are for her. On February 15, when the couple announced Tristan’s nameEl Moussa said they received a “very positive response” from fans.

“I think everyone’s just excited to finally hear his name,” she said, aware that followers had grown impatient after waiting 15 days for the couple announce the name and share photos of his face that appeared first in Us Weekly.

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

In the weeks since, El Moussa has tried to honestly share her postpartum experiences, including the challenges of breastfeeding and juggling the pressures of work — inclusive need to film segments for their two shows. On March 11, as she had to get dressed to film scenes for The Flipping El Moussas and leave baby Tristan at home, she wrote about how hard it was leaving him behind.

“I’m done in these pics because I have a few more scenes to finish for Flipping El Moussas but it’s really killing me to leave him,” she wrote. “The first time I was apart from him for 4 hours I cried because honestly Tristan surrounds my whole world and it’s hard for me to think about anything else.”

She added, “I’m only sharing this because I don’t want to post a finished photo of myself without also sharing something real.”

The majority of people responded with empathy or shared their own early motherhood stories, but El Moussa still received backlash from some at the post.

For example, one person wrote, “But hey, I gotta keep the spotlight on Heather. Soon the nanny 💯 will take over and you’ll be shoving selfies in our faces again. Am I wrong?”

El Moussa also gets a lot of criticism her March 14 post featuring two images from a photoshoot with her baby Tristan swaying while wearing a light blue tulle dress with puff sleeves. Many claimed she shouldn’t be in his newborn photos, calling her appearance “selfish” and “bizarre,” while others slammed the dress.

But any pushback from online followers doesn’t seem to dent the rising popularity of El Moussas’ new HGTV series, which will air Thursday nights. Three weeks into their first season, first ratings via ShowBuzzDaily show that the final episode, which aired on March 16, drew more viewers than the previous two weeks – despite the first round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament monopolizing the ratings. “The Flipping El Moussas” made the top 10 non-basketball shows on TV that night.