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Though the video wasn't a traditional pregnancy prank -- where someone will pretend to be pregnant to either get a reaction out of their partner or their followers -- they were still criticized for the post.
Heather Rae El Moussa jumped into her comments to defend herself after posting a video she titled, "Pranking my husband that I'm pregnant."
The HGTV star shared a video on Tuesday to her feed, featuring her and husband Tarek El Moussa in their bathroom.
In her caption, Heather said the two were playing a "guess the feminine product" game, when she handed him a fertility tracker and things "took an interesting turn."
"An unplanned prankā¦ š or was it?!š" she added in her caption.
The video shows him looking at the tracker, after incorrectly guessing it was a tampon at first. After seeing the word "fertility" on it, he then began to think it was a pregnancy test -- asking if she was pregnant, as she urged him to open the packaging.
Even after opening it, he was clueless as to what it actually was, before she explained. "You can't do that to me!" he exclaimed.
While the two got a good laugh out of the situation, many of Heather's followers didn't.
Pranks around pregnancy are widely considered insensitive to those who struggle with fertility, with stars including Tori Spelling, Justin Bieber, Shawn Johnson, Catherine Lowe, Arie Luyendyk Jr. and Claudia Jordan all hit with backlash after posting fake pregnancy announcements on April Fool's Day in the past.
Though the El Moussas' video wasn't a traditional pregnancy prank -- where someone will pretend to be pregnant to either get a reaction out of their partner or their followers -- they were still criticized for the post.
Tori Spelling Explains Pregnancy Prank After April Fools' Day Backlash
View Story"I love you guys...but this....I wish you wouldn't prank about pregnancy," wrote one follower, while another added, "Why are we still using pregnancy as a prank?ā¹ļø"
Heather responded to both comments by writing, "this was unplanned from another piece of content we shot." She added, "The way the moment unfolded we thought it was funny given our very public opinions on another baby right now. It was to make light on our own situation and never to offend others."
It seems she later began DMing other followers with similar critiques, telling them to check their messages. Shortly after that, she pulled down the video.
Tarek and Heather are parents to 2-year-old Tristan, while Tarek shares son Brayden and daughter Taylor with ex Christina Haack. Back in March, Heather said she and her husband have discussed having more kids during therapy -- sharing with the Scrubbing In with Becca Tilley & Tanya Rad podcast that she would love another child, while her "husband is very much done."
"So we're very different on what we want for our future, which is hard," she said at the time.
