'Octomom' Nadya Suleman says 'I definitely regret' not suing her fertility doctor

USA Today

09-03-2025

'Octomom' Nadya Suleman says 'I definitely regret' not suing her fertility doctor
Show Caption
Hide Caption
Gypsy Rose Blanchard pregnant. Here's who father is
Gypsy Rose Blanchard was previously engaged to Ken Urker while completing her eight-year prison sentence. Now the couple is having a baby.
Natalie "Nadya" Suleman, the woman who became known as "Octomom," is telling her story over 15 years after she became the subject of intense media backlash surrounding the birth of her 16-year-old octuplets.
Suleman is opening up in a People magazine interview published on Thursday about being coined "Octomom" following the 2009 controversy involving her IVF doctor.
Suleman is reentering the cultural conversation, after leaving the spotlight in 2013, ahead of a new Lifetime biopic "I Was Octomom" and companion docuseries "Confessions of Octomom," which premiere respectively on Friday and Monday.
"I don't think I'd do too much differently," Suleman revealed to People. "I do regret not suing the infertility doctor," Dr. Michael Kamrava, who implanted her with more embryos than typical for in vitro fertilization treatments.
"I definitely regret that because his insurance would've been the one paying, and it would've been some millions, and it would've been helpful for my family," the mom of 14 said.
Suleman and Kamrava, who implanted her with six times the normal amount of two embryos, received harsh media backlash after reports surfaced after Suleman gave birth in 2009 to the first-ever surviving octuplets amid a strained financial situation. She is also mom to six older children.
'Octomom' Nadya Suleman is a grandmother after son, daughter-in-law welcome baby girl
After lying about the number of embryos he implanted in Suleman, Kamrava was stripped of his medical license.
"I regret that I kind of threw myself under the bus to cover for him, and I shouldn't have, but I was grateful. I wouldn't have had any of my kids if it weren't for his innovative technique. No one else in the world did this type of procedure so I didn't have it in my heart to sue him," Suleman added.
Suleman told People that she wanted "just one more" baby, but Kamrava implanted her with 12 embryos after originally telling her told her he'd only implanted six embryos.
"But I did sue the hospital because they breached HIPAA," Suleman says of hospital workers who allegedly leaked her name and medical information to the media. "They're the reason why I ended up in the public eye."
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, also known as HIPAA, protects patients' health care information from being released by healthcare providers like doctors without permission and consent.
'Octomom' Nadya Suleman opens up about motherhood
Suleman stressed during a People video interview that she chose to do a docuseries instead of a reality TV show due to the developmental effects of reality television on children. But she's describing herself as "grateful."
"Natalie Suleman is just a mom of many and she is very, very, very grateful," Suleman described herself to People. "We are a loving family and we're there for each other. All of my kids are just very humble, grounded, kind people with good hearts."
Suleman admitted to the outlet that she chose to have so many children out of fear of loneliness.
"I wasn't happy as an only child, and clearly I projected my dream onto my kids and wanting a big, well, not this big of a family, but I did want seven kids," she told People.
"But it's not enough to say I wanted a big family because I was lonely," she added. "There is an amalgamation of factors. I wanted kids to create maybe a safe and predictable little world that I lacked growing up. So then of course, I projected onto my future family."