Tarek El Moussa Claps Back at Commenters Trolling His Socks: 'I Suffered from Clasped Veins'

The HGTV star is in the middle of his three-week honeymoon to the Maldives and Dubai with new wife Heather Rae Young

Photo: Heather Rae Young/Instagram

Tarek El Moussa has some choice words for Instagram commenters who trolled the travel socks he's wearing on his honeymoon with new wife Heather Rae Young.

The Flipping 101 star, 40, and the Selling Sunset realtor, 34, got married on Oct. 23 and left for the three-week-long honeymoon to the Maldives with three days in Dubai on Oct. 30

In an Instagram post of the couple standing outside Raffles The Palm Dubai, where they stayed on Thursday, El Moussa is wearing a pair of black knee-high compression socks, commonly used during air travel to prevent swelling and for various other health reasons.

Some commenters on the post decided to poke fun at the clothing item. "Nice socks!! Lol," wrote one. While another asked, "Are you wearing compression socks?"

Heather Rae Young/Instagram

El Moussa responded to the criticism in a now expired Instagram story writing, "The first comments on that post of mine are about my socks ... not about how beautiful Dubai is or anything of substance." He reprimanded the commenters for "Immediately judging" and asked them, "why don't you consider the alternative first?"

He then clarified his reason for sporting the item is a health condition: "I wear these socks because I suffered from clasped veins and when I fly I have to wear them to prevent blood clots. I have thick skin so go say whatever you want but in the future you might want to rethink judging someone for wearing something that physically helps them."

Heather Rae Young/ instagram

The real estate expert has faced his fair share of health troubles over the years. He has beat cancer twice (thyroid and testicular) and overcome a traumatic back injury. He was also recently diagnosed with celiac disease.

Last year, he opened up to Daryn Carp on an episode of PEOPLE TV's Reality Check about how Heather (who is now using her married name Heather Rae El Moussa) has been a positive influence on his health throughout their relationship.

"Heather has made a lot of changes in my life. She feeds me, cooks for me, she tells me what to eat, she makes sure I'm taking my vitamins. She's all over it," he said at the time, noting that in 2020 he felt "healthier than I've ever been in my life."

Heather had only nice things to say when she shared the same honeymoon photo of the pair, talking about how astonished the two are by the desert city's beauty.

"We heard amazing things from friends of ours but we were still so blown away by how beautiful Dubai is and we were both immediately obsessed with the architecture of the city," she wrote in the post.

Before taking off to the Maldives and Dubai the couple, who lives in Newport Beach, California, gave PEOPLE all the exclusive details about their "epic" trip.

"We decided we wanted to do a long honeymoon, just because these last few months have been insane, busy, and we haven't had a moment to breathe," said Heather. "So we wanted to take a long honeymoon to just enjoy. Enjoy being married."