Huda Mustafa has finally reunited with her daughter after the season 7 finale of Love Island USA.
“We’re both finally back from vacation at the same time,” Huda, 24, wrote over a photo of her and her daughter, Arleigh, 5, via Instagram Stories on Sunday, July 20. “We needed these hugs. Happiest girls in the world.”
Huda also shared a sweet video of their reunion, in which she woke up a sleeping Arleigh — who was clearly overjoyed to see her mom. The two hugged and laughed together as a touching song played.
Huda also shared the video to TikTok, writing, “Baby girl is finally back from her vacation and so is mommy, this is the day I’ve been waiting for.”
The Love Island USA finalist — who lost the prize money to winners Amaya Espinal and Bryan Arenales — had been in Fiji filming the show over the last six weeks, but returned to the States last week. On Tuesday, July 15, she spoke to Us Weekly exclusively about being a single mom to Arleigh, whom she shares with ex Noah Sheline, and why it was important for her to put herself out there on the reality dating series.
“When I did the interview for Love Island, I had the mindset of, ‘I’m a mom. That’s fine. I’m a single mother. That’s also fine.’ That doesn’t mean that you have to halt your life or you have to stop your dreams from coming true,” she told Us. “She still does have a 100 percent of my focus, but now that she’s a little bit older, it’s easier for me to navigate self-care and doing things that I wanna do.”
Huda said she made sure her daughter knew how much she missed her by recording voice notes and videos for her to listen to and watch while she was away. She also left gifts for Arleigh.
“I wanted to make sure that she was well taken care of and that she didn’t forget that her mommy loves her,” she said. “[And going on the show], I wanted people to understand that you can be a single mother and still do the things you wanna do in life. It doesn’t make you a bad mom.”
Although Huda connected with both Jeremiah Brown and Chris Seeley in the villa, she ultimately came home single — but with 4 million followers on Instagram and 5.4 million on TikTok.
Huda told Us, “I think it was a good decision [to go on the show], honestly. I mean, I can provide for my daughter more than I could ever before. And that is truly a blessing. I’m more than thankful for that. Did I ever think that that was gonna happen? No, not at all. The whole goal of walking in there was to find the love of my life.”
Huda added that she has a “really, really good coparenting relationship” with Sheline and that he was supportive of her going on Love Island USA.
“People go on shows all the time, and it’s just because this is the one show where you don’t have your phone, it doesn’t make it wrong. It’s just like taking a mini vacation,” she insisted.
In a tell-all interview on “Call Her Daddy” Thursday, July 17, Huda explained that she shares primary custody of her daughter but has her “the majority of the time,” Sunday to Friday.
“I’m with her 24/7,” Huda told host Alex Cooper. “I do the pickups and drop-offs at school. I pack her lunches. You know, I’m there to give her a pep talk if the kids are being mean to her in class. Like, I’m there for her through and through.”