Henry Samuel spent seven years knowing that Tom Kaulitz technically owed him a Ferrari. On his 21st birthday, his stepfather finally paid up.
Heidi Klum filmed the moment Henry walked outside on September 12 and found a red Ferrari F430 waiting in the driveway with a large gold bow on the hood. He stopped as soon as he saw it and struggled to get much beyond variations of “Oh my God” while taking in the car.
The extravagant gift was not a spontaneous birthday splurge. Henry won it when he beat Kaulitz in a game of Mario Kart as a teenager, and Klum still had the old video in which her son explained that Kaulitz had promised him a Ferrari once he turned 21.
Kaulitz had not forgotten. He bought the car a year before Henry’s birthday and kept it hidden until the date they had agreed on finally arrived. “I can’t believe it is that time. You’ve been waiting for so many years,” Klum said during the birthday reveal reported by PEOPLE.
Henry Won the Ferrari in a Mario Kart Bet at 14
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The agreement dates back roughly seven years, when Henry and Kaulitz put considerably more than bragging rights on a game of Mario Kart. Klum resurfaced the original video for her son’s birthday, showing a much younger Henry explaining the terms himself.
If Henry lost, he said he would have to stop playing video games for three months and make a painting of himself driving. If he won, Kaulitz would owe him a Ferrari when he turned 21.
Henry won, turning what might ordinarily have been a forgotten family wager into an unusually expensive promise. Klum reminded the two during the birthday reveal that they had made the agreement about seven years earlier and praised her husband for actually following through.
Kaulitz later told a slightly different version of the bet on the Netflix series Kaulitz & Kaulitz, saying he had been trying to establish himself as the “cool stepdad” and remembered the video game penalty as three years rather than three months. The old video Klum posted, however, captures Henry saying three months when the bet was still fresh.
Kaulitz Bought the Ferrari a Year Before Henry Could Claim It
The promise eventually became part of Kaulitz & Kaulitz, where cameras followed Tom and his twin brother Bill as they searched for the car Henry had won years earlier.
During Season 3, the brothers traveled to an auto auction while Tom looked for a Ferrari suitable for the wager. Moviepilot reported that he ultimately spent $152,000 on the car, going beyond the budget he initially had in mind.
There was one benefit to finding it early. Henry was still 20, so Kaulitz joked that he could drive the Ferrari himself for a year before surrendering it to its rightful owner. During Saturday’s reveal, he told Henry he had bought it “last year” and that it had been sitting in the garage waiting for him.
PEOPLE identified the car as a Ferrari F430, the mid-engined V8 model introduced in 2004. Ferrari’s own archive lists the original F430 at 490 horsepower, although the family understandably spent more time talking about the seven-year promise than the technical specifications.
The Bet Became Part of Kaulitz’s Life as a Stepfather
Kaulitz married Klum in 2019 and became stepfather to her four children. Henry, Johan and Lou are Klum’s children with Seal, while her eldest daughter Leni was born during Klum’s earlier relationship with Flavio Briatore and was later adopted by Seal.
Kaulitz has acknowledged that becoming part of a family with four children was not something he had originally planned for himself. On Kaulitz & Kaulitz, he has spoken about adjusting to the role and about wanting to build his own relationship with Klum’s children rather than simply occupying a title.
That relationship was already evident when the original Ferrari bet was made. Kaulitz has joked that he wanted to impress Henry as the fun new stepfather and ended up making a wager that became increasingly expensive once the teenager actually won.
A source close to the family previously told PEOPLE that Kaulitz considers himself an “extra dad” to Klum’s children. Seven years after the Mario Kart game, Henry had proof that at least one of his stepfather’s promises came with a very long memory.
Henry Could Barely Find the Words When He Finally Saw It
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Knowing that a Ferrari had been promised did not make Henry look prepared for the moment it actually appeared in front of him. Klum filmed as Kaulitz walked him toward the driveway, where the red F430 was waiting with the bow across its hood.
Henry stopped almost immediately and began repeating “Oh my God” as he circled the car. “Jesus Christ. I don’t even know what to say,” he told Kaulitz while Klum laughed behind the camera.
The birthday came as Henry has also become more visible professionally. He made his runway debut during Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week in January 2025, later walked in New York and signed with Next Management. He has also said that modeling is only one of several creative fields that interest him, alongside music and fashion design.
None of that seemed to be occupying him once the garage secret was finally revealed. After years of reminding Kaulitz about what he had won at 14, Henry walked around the Ferrari one more time and finally managed a complete verdict: “This thing is beautiful.”