Heidi Klum’s son gets a Ferrari for turning 21, but the gift was not exactly spontaneous. Henry Samuel secured the luxury car seven years earlier by beating his stepfather, Tom Kaulitz, in a family Mario Kart contest with unusually expensive consequences.
Klum revealed the history behind the present in a throwback video posted to Instagram on September 12. In the clip, a teenage Henry sat at the family dining table and calmly laid out the terms of the Christmas wager.
“If I lose Mario Kart then I can’t play video games for three months and I have to give Tom a painting of me driving a Lamborghini,” he explained. “But if I win, then Tom has to give me a Ferrari when I’m 21.”
A normal household might have offered extra screen time. This one apparently moved straight to Italian sports cars.
What were the rules of the Mario Kart bet?
Kaulitz added one practical condition before agreeing to the deal: Henry needed to obtain a driving licence.
“You gotta have your license though,” the Tokio Hotel musician said. “If you don’t have your license, you can’t drive it.”
Klum and her children Johan, now 19, and Lou, now 16, agreed to serve as witnesses. The family also settled on 10 Mario Kart races to decide the winner, leaving little room for claims about a single unlucky shell or poorly timed banana peel.
“Happy birthday Henry,” Klum, 53, wrote alongside the old footage. “Today you are 21. Question is …. Who won that very important race?”
The answer arrived in a second video. Kaulitz, 37, had not only remembered the agreement, but had spent the previous year quietly preparing to honour it.
How did Henry receive the Ferrari F430?
A few days before Henry’s birthday, Kaulitz led him outside and revealed a bright red Ferrari F430 convertible with tan leather seats.
“Early birthday present,” Kaulitz told him. “Bought it last year. I had it in the garage the whole time.”
Henry appeared genuinely stunned that a childhood gaming bet had survived seven years, several birthdays and the obvious opportunity for every adult involved to pretend it had never happened.
“This thing is beautiful, oh my god,” he said, holding a hand to his forehead. “This thing is crazy. Oh my god, Tom.”
Henry is Klum’s son with her former husband, singer Seal. The model is also mother to Leni, 21, Johan and Lou. She married Kaulitz in 2019.
The gift settled the old agreement rather decisively. Henry won the races, obtained his licence and reached 21. Kaulitz, to his credit and probable financial discomfort, kept his side of the bargain.
