Heidi Klum doesn’t do birthdays halfway, and her son Henry’s 21st just proved it. On Saturday, September 12, the supermodel surprised her eldest son with a red Ferrari F430 — a gift years in the making, tied to a bet that started over a game of Mario Kart.
The Surprise, Caught on Camera
Klum documented the entire moment on Instagram, sharing a video of Henry walking outside with his stepfather, Tokio Hotel guitarist Tom Kaulitz, before coming face to face with the cherry-red sports car waiting in the driveway. “I can’t believe it is that time. You’ve been waiting for so many years,” Klum told her son in the clip. Henry’s reaction was pure disbelief — “Oh my God! Jesus Christ, I don’t even know what to say” — before he walked around the car repeatedly calling it “insane.”
For a look at how other A-list parents have marked their kids’ milestone birthdays this year, our celebrity family and parenting coverage rounds up the most memorable moments.
The Seven-Year-Old Bet Behind the Gift
What makes the story land is the backstory. Klum also shared old footage from years earlier, when a then-14-year-old Henry made a bet with Kaulitz during a game of Mario Kart: if Henry lost, he’d have to quit video games for three months and paint a portrait of himself driving. If he won, Kaulitz would owe him a Ferrari on his 21st birthday.
Henry won the bet. Seven years later, Kaulitz made good on it — reportedly buying the car at an auto show roughly a year ago and keeping it hidden in the garage the entire time so it would still be a surprise when the day finally came.
A Blended Family That’s Grown Close
Henry is the eldest of Klum’s four children with ex-husband Seal, alongside Johan, 19, Lou, 16, and Leni, 22, whom Klum shares with ex Flavio Briatore. Klum married Kaulitz in 2019, and the two have spoken openly about how close he’s grown with her kids — particularly Henry, who reportedly bonds with his stepfather over a shared love of cars. Klum has previously joked that the moment car talk starts between the two of them, she tunes out entirely, since it’s a language she doesn’t speak.
That closeness is part of a broader dynamic Klum has credited for making her marriage to Kaulitz work — she’s said his willingness to embrace her children as a genuine priority, rather than a complication, made the relationship feel natural from very early on.
Why It’s Resonating With Fans
Part of what’s made the story travel so widely isn’t just the price tag on the car — it’s the payoff of a promise made in good faith and actually kept, years later, exactly as agreed. In an era where celebrity gestures can sometimes read as purely for-show, a stepfather quietly buying and hiding a Ferrari for a full year specifically to honor an old bet struck a different chord with fans scrolling through the video.
It’s also a rare, unfiltered glimpse into the Klum-Kaulitz household — one that’s often more private than Klum’s very public modeling and television career might suggest.
For more of the year’s biggest celebrity family moments, browse our full Entertainment section on BusinessToMark.
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