Heather Rae Young had a boyfriend (now ex) who was a professional hockey player when she first met her now-husband Tarek El Moussa. She was in a long-distance relationship with Nick Ebert in the first season of Selling Sunset. Later on, Heather Rae Young broke up with her hockey player boyfriend because the relationship had too much going on (long distance, age difference, and career incompatibility). 

Heather Rae Young and Tarek El Moussa are one of the cutest couples on television. The reality stars have been together for just four years but it seems like forever and we cannot imagine either of them with anyone else but themselves. It’s amazing how they have forged an inseparable bond in such a short time and because of that, it seems like they have been together since we can remember when that’s not true.

When Heather first met Tarek, she turned him down when he asked her out on a date because she had a boyfriend then. You might remember from the first season of Selling Sunset that she was trying to navigate her long-distance relationship with (ex) boyfriend Nick Ebert at the time. Here’s everything to know about Heather Rae Young’s relationship with the hockey player and why they broke up!

You might also want to take a look at the relationship status of Uhm Jung-Hwa and Ana de Armas.

Heather Rae Young Was Dating a Hockey Player Boyfriend When She First Met Tarek El Moussa!

Even though it might seem that Heather Rae Young (@theheatherraeelmoussa) and Tarek El Moussa (@therealtarekelmoussa) have been together for as long as we can remember because of how cute and compatible they are, it’s not true. Refresh your memory and remember the time they had been dating other people. Do you remember that Young had a boyfriend who was a professional hockey player when she first met Tarek in 2019? She was in a relationship already which is why she turned him down when Tarek asked her out.

If you don’t have a proper memory of that hockey player boyfriend who is now her ex, it might be because he never appeared on Selling Sunset. But rewatch the first season and you will remember that Heather Rae Young was trying to navigate her long-distance relationship with Nick Ebert who, at the time, was playing in Sweden. He was later scouted to play in Slovakia and Heather often flew to Slovakia to meet him.

The long-distance was taking a toll on the relationship as we can see on the first season of Selling Sunset. One of the episodes where the interaction between Young and Ebert was shown gave an insight into how their relationship was slowly crumbling because it was too much work for both of them to make it because of the distance. Nick Ebert revealed to Heather Rae Young via an infamous FaceTime call that he would be playing hockey in Sweden for the next two years. This information about her boyfriend’s extended move led Young to reevaluate their relationship.

Heather was working as a real estate agent and based and living in Los Angeles whereas her ex-boyfriend was constantly moving for his hockey career and they were very rarely together. Because Nick Ebert’s career required him to move a lot, their relationship became more and more demanding. It was more work and such relationships never last long. So, they broke up and it was all for good because Young found the one after – Tarek El Moussa.

Why Did Heather Rae Young Break Up With Her Hockey Player Boyfriend?

The one thing regretful about Heather Rae Young‘s hanging on to her relationship and trying hard to make it with her former boyfriend -hockey player Nick Ebert – was that she couldn’t be with Tarek El Moussa sooner and she lost some time she could have been with him. Eventually, Young broke up with Ebert and got with Tarek but still. We could all tell they were headed that way. It just took a little time is all.

The long-distance eventually caused the relationship between Young and the hockey player to run its course. There was no animosity and no bitter ending and both of them were very understanding about the decision to end their relationship. Nick, her (ex) boyfriend even said that they still had a friendly relationship and they kept in touch because they had been together for three years before they broke up for good.

In an interview with Inside Vue, Nick Ebert shared the reason for his split with Heather Rae Young and revealed that long distance wasn’t the main reason they broke up. The hockey player also factored in career incompatibility and age difference (Young was six years older than her former boyfriend) and said,

We were just at different times in our lives. Maybe she wanted a little bit more and maybe I wasn’t there. Whatever the case was, I was too young for her, she was a little bit too older for me … timing wasn’t there.

Nick Ebert also revealed that Young wanted him to appear on Selling Sunset but he didn’t because as he explained, the hockey world is very different from the reality television world and he didn’t want to affect his career in any way by appearing in the reality show.