Latest news with #Octomum
Daily Mail
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
World's longest-surviving octuplets speak publicly for the first time as they defend their controversial single mother who gave birth to them using IVF despite already having six other children at home - before turning to porn and rehab to cope
The world's longest-surviving octuplets have spoken publicly for the first time to defend their controversial single parent, who was once dubbed the most hated mother in America after giving birth to them. Natalie 'Nadya' Denise Suleman, 50, from Fullerton, California, became famous in 2009 for welcoming eight babies at once using in vitro fertilization (IVF) after her physician implanted 12 embryos in her womb. Her story shocked the world, however, public opinion rapidly turned against the woman American media nicknamed Octomum, after it emerged that she had six other young children, no partner and was receiving welfare benefits. She would soon become one of the world's first 'influencers', with a US publication 'paying for access' to Natalie's daily life, resulting in critics claiming she was neglecting her children, who were filmed using their toilets outside, graffitiing and smashing holes in walls. But despite her fame, the mother struggled to support the additional children almost from the beginning. She defaulted on payments on a house she bought in 2010, and the lender foreclosed. She has earned money by doing a porn video, posing topless for various publications, dancing in a Florida strip club and taking part in so-called celebrity boxing matches. She has previously relied on welfare benefits, however it's unclear when or exactly how long for. In 2012, she checked into rehab for an anti-anxiety drug (Xanax) addiction. A year later, she stepped away from the spotlight and returned to her 'old profession as a therapist working 40 hours a week' and wore face coverings whilst in public to avoid unwanted attention. Now, after spending 13 years 'hiding' from the public eye, the mother of 14 has returned to the limelight - this time alongside her children, who have spoken out on TV for the first time to praise their parent. Noah, Isaiah, Nariyah, Josiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, Maliyah and Makai are only the second full set of octuplets to be born alive in the US - and not all of the previous set survived longer than the first week. Like Natalie's six older children, the octuplets were conceived by in-vitro fertilization. After learning that her physician had actually implanted 12 embryos in her womb, the state Medical Board revoked his license. The mother has never disclosed the identity of the father but it's said that all 14 of her offspring have the same sperm-donor parent. Natalie and the octuplets have re-entered the public eye in a new Lifetime documentary called I Was Octomom, which was released in March, alongside a partnering docuseries called Confessions of Octomom. For UK audiences, footage from the productions featured in Channel 5's Octomum: The World's Most-Hated Woman?, which premiered on Sunday. Speaking to the camera alongside her 16-year-old octuplet siblings, one of Natalie's daughters praised their controversial mother, saying: 'Our mom's a very caring person. 'She's very kind and funny. She loves to make sure that everybody's safe. Everyone says she's overprotective, but I say that she's over caring, and I'd rather have a mother who obsesses and over cares than a mother who doesn't care at all.' Discussing her offspring, while sitting next to two of her eldest children, Natalie said: 'They have grown into incredibly well adjusted, just kind humble, grounded, loving human beings.' Her story shocked the world, however, public opinion rapidly turned against the woman American media nicknamed Octomum, after it emerged that she had six other young children, no partner and was receiving welfare benefits. Pictured on her eight children's 13th birthday 'See, she thinks she messed up. She really didn't,' insisted one of her daughters, to which the mother replied: 'Oh well, I thought I did, but no.' Discussing the children's appearance in the documentary, one of Natalie's harshest critics, celebrity psychiatrist Carole Lieberman, admitted: 'The children seemed more put together than I would have expected. 'She has kept them safe and healthy, and she does deserve credit for that,' added the expert, who years earlier had wrote to Child Protective Services, claiming Natalie was not psychologically stable enough to be a mother to six children, never mind 14. The psychiatrist's letter was in response to a frantic emergency call that the mother had made while pregnant with her eight children being shared by the media. In the call, Natalie said her young son had gone missing before he soon turned up at home, having gone on a walk. After the audio was released to the press, more and more people questioned the mother's ability to raise her 14 children safely. At the height of the controversy, Natalie received death threats, Child Protective Services were called and critics suggested the children should be adopted. Even the singleton's mother questioned her decision, while her father staunchly supported her and helped her purchase a four bedroom home. Prior to this, she had been living in her parents' three-bed house with her six older children. Following the birth of the octuplets, it emerged that Natalie conceived the babies after her fertility doctor Dr. Michael Kamrava implanted 12 embryos in her womb, even though he initially told her he only put in six and the recommended amount is just two. Natalie 'Nadya' Suleman has been offering glimpses into the lives of her and her 14 children after spending 13 years in 'hiding' from the public eye. She is seen above in the trailer for her new docuseries Such a scandal ended with the doctor's medical license being revoked - and the Octomom confessed in March to People magazine that she regretted not suing the doctor. She said: '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. 'I regret that I kind of threw myself under the bus to cover for him, and I shouldn't have but I was grateful,' said Natalie, who suffered with endometriosis, which made getting pregnant naturally a challenge. She continued: '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.' Natalie's first child through IVF, Elijah was born in 2001. Then she welcomed Amerah in 2002, Joshua in 2003, Aidan in 2005, followed by twins Calysah and Caleb in 2006. In 2008, she returned to Dr Kamrava for another round of treatment after the doctor told her she had frozen eggs left, and she didn't want them destroyed, reported Sunday's Channel 5 documentary. Crisis manager Wendy Feldman told the production: 'The doctor who did that for his own experiment. That's a monster. You have to look at her as the victim of first the doctor, and then public opinion.' However, Dr. Kamrava later claimed that Natalie knew about the 12 embryos and he was fulfilling her request. But she insisted she was unaware of what was going on. The mother joked to People magazine this year that she 'may have possibly overachieved with kids' as she 'didn't intend on having this many,' saying that when she went in to have IVF for the pregnancy that resulted in octuplets, her goal was to have 'just one more.' As for why she wanted to build a large family in the first place, Nadya partially attributed her ambitions to her own childhood, since she wasn't happy as an only child. Her octuplets were born by caesarean section at 31 weeks in LA - and miraculously were all healthy. Hearing such a rarity had been performed, news stations from across the world descended on the hospital where Natalie gave birth, trying to discover all they could about the mother who so desperately wanted to stay anonymous. Eventually locals revealed that the singleton already had six children at home and journalists eventually tracked down the then 33-year-old, who was receiving disability allowances and lived with her parents. Such was the interest in the mother's story, that when her children were finally able to head home from the hospital, several weeks after the birth, Natalie needed a police escort to get through the large crowds waiting outside her house. Once home, the mother was provided free nannies and childcare by a charity. However, Natalie sacked the staff months into their role, claiming they were spying on her. The nannies hit back on national TV, claiming the parent was an unfit mother, the house was chaotic and that Natalie hardly spent any time with her children, instead relying on others to look after them. So instead, Natalie relied on her parents and the church, but also parented mostly alone - allowing cameras from a US publication to record her every move. But eventually, the deal with the press came to an end and the mother-of-14 was left heavily in debt. Relying on food stamps and welfare to feed her children, she held garage sales, sold pictures of herself for $10 and promoted beer. She would eventually go onto try and become a celeb boxer before turning to porn, releasing one video, filmed on her own. But it is a decision she deeply regrets - and it only added fuel to the fire of hate closing in on her. While the mother - and as of recently, a grandmother to one - has expressed regret with her decision to work as a stripper and a nude model, the trailer for her Lifetime documentary revealed her children also sharing their perspective on her brief adult content career. 'When someone comes up to you at school and asks you "is your mom a stripper?" You don't know what to say,' one of her older sons said in the trailer. 'I did whatever I needed to do to make ends meet. And that was shaming myself, sacrificing my integrity,' she said. 'I had just given birth to eight, I could not financially afford them. I was struggling,' Natalie added in the trailer. 'I was really desperate to make any money.' She had previously described the life she was 'leading was not only destructive' but also very 'dark.' 'It was the antithesis of who I am as a person,' she said. In 2013, Natalie stepped out of the spotlight to find peace as she returned to her 'old profession as a therapist working 40 hours a week'. The Lifetime trailer also featured Natalie behind the wheel, driving around Los Angeles while dressed in a face covering, sunglasses and a hat to remain unrecognisable. The protective barrier 'helps with her social anxiety' she explained to People. 'Nobody knows - they look and they look away,' she said. 'It doesn't draw any attention because people don't want to look and stare.' In the interview ahead of the docuseries release, Natalie shared that becoming famous - or infamous - was never a part of her plan. Natalie - who has been married once but claimed it was essentially loveless, and now reportedly identifies as asexual and has abstained from sex for 25 years - described herself as a 'socially awkward, painfully shy introvert' - the opposite of what one would expect given her life's trajectory. She sued the hospital she gave birth at for violating HIPPA, accusing them of leaking her information and launching her into the spotlight to begin with. The mother also revealed that she paid for the IVF herself using money she had saved up while working as a psychiatric technician at a state psych hospital. 'I've been waiting a very very longtime to tell my true story and I believe the world is ready to hear it,' Natalie said in the LIfetime trailer.
Daily Mirror
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
'Octomom' now from 'most hated mum' to porn, bankruptcy and welfare fraud
She became one of the most criticised parents in the world after giving birth to eight babies at the same time and after her life unravelled, Nadya Suleman went into hiding Nadya Suleman notoriously became the mother of the first surviving octuplets in history back in 2009 - a result of having 12 embryos implanted in IVF. Already the mother of six children, the mum hit the headlines when she give birth to eight babies - Noah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, Josiah, Makai, Maliyah and Nariyah - following just one unconventional pregnancy. When Nadya, who now goes by her birth name Natalie, became famous she embarked on ventures as diverse as pornography and boxing, being careful to trademark her " Octomom" nickname. The mother-of-14 had been unemployed when she fell pregnant. By 2013, Nadya had stepped away from the spotlight in a bid to protect her children and her privacy before returning in a US documentary series called "Confessions of Octomom". Here, we take a closer look at her journey since finding fame... READ MORE: 'I gave birth to a giant baby - he's almost as big as my toddler' Born in Fullerton, California, a fertility specialist called Dr. Michael Kamrava had performed in-vitro fertilization to help Suleman have her previous six children. In 2008, the Beverly Hills doctor implanted her with 12 embryos simultaneously, with eight of them resulting in live births. Nadya later told The New York Times that she had wanted to have twins, not octuplets but her doctor, whose medical licence was later revoked, insisted his patient had pushed for the mass implantation. The number of embryos implanted in "Octomum" was highly controversial, due to the significant medical risks they posed to both mother and the babies. The controversial figure even claimed her pregnancy had "zero complications", although her swollen stomach was so big it broke her ribs before she went into labour. It was reported that 46 doctors and nurses performed a C-section on Suleman when she went into labour at 31 weeks. Nadya's babies were all underweight when they were born, with the smallest weighing 1lb 8oz. Nadya soon went public with her controversial journey to motherhood and faced an intense backlash. "Octomum" was quickly branded "America's most hated mother" but she went onto gain commercially too, signing up for a reality show in the UK which never aired and posing semi-nude in magazines. By 2012, she had progressed to starring in an X rated movie, a nude photoshoot, a celebrity boxing match and work as a stripper. Now 50, Nadya filed for bankruptcy the same year and checked into rehab for exhaustion, anxiety and stress and by 2013, she had removed herself from the spotlight. "I was pretending to be a fake, a caricature, which is something I'm not, and I was doing it out of desperation and scarcity so I could provide for my family," she would later tell The New York Times. "I've been hiding from the real world all my life". In January 2014, Nadya was convicted of welfare fraud for not reporting nearly £20,000 of income she earned in 2013. She was sentenced to two years of probation and 200 hours of community service in addition to being ordered to pay back the money. "Octomum" now works as a counsellor and says she is open with her children about her past sex work. Her octuplets celebrated their 16th birthday in January and the family live in a three-bedroom townhouse in Orange County, California, with their cats Penelope and Mimi. "My family's life literally revolves around God, food and fitness," Nadya wrote on Instagram in 2022. "In that exact order." The father of all of the mum-of-14's children is a sperm donor whose identity has never been publicly revealed. Nadya said she paid him for his services, calling it a "business arrangement". Last year, Nadya revealed she had become a grandmother. And she told she regretted not suing the infertility doctor she insists implanted her with more embryos as he said he would. "I regret that I kind of threw myself under the bus to cover for him and I shouldn't have but I was grateful," she said. "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."
News.com.au
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Inside Octomum Nadya Suleman's three-bedroom apartment
'Octomum' Nadya Suleman has revealed she is feeling more 'blessed' than ever as she rings in her 50th birthday alongside her 14 kids inside the family's three-bedroom California apartment. Suleman, from Fullerton, made history in 2009 when she gave birth to the world's first surviving octuplets, who were conceived through in vitro fertilisation. However, her moment in the spotlight was quickly shrouded in controversy amid growing outrage over her parenting skills and financial woes, Realtor reports. At the time, the mother of 14 — whose Lifetime biopic, 'I Was Octomom,' and accompanying docuseries, 'Confessions of Octomom,' hit screens on March 8 and 10, respectively — was accused of receiving and using government assistance to conceive her children, sparking fierce scrutiny. After remaining out of the spotlight for 12 years, Suleman, who now goes by the name Natalie Suleman, broke her silence to slam 'lies' that were spread about her. Now, Suleman is slowly allowing fans a more intimate glimpse into her life, with her most recently sharing her 50th birthday celebrations with her followers. The mum took to Instagram on July 13 to share an adorable snap of herself on her birthday surrounded by eight of her kids, noting that, while the eldest of her children were not pictured, they were all involved in the celebration. In the caption, Suleman gushed about her children as she thanked them for making her day so 'special,' adding that she 'couldn't imagine spending my birthday anywhere but home.' 'Couldn't imagine spending my birthday anywhere but home, surrounded by loved ones. Thank you kids for making this day so special; and to my eldest (who are not in the photo per usual), thank you for the unique gifts, though I'm most grateful for your quality time and love,' she wrote. 'These moments I spend with you all each day make me so happy and blessed to be your mum. I love you.' The proud mum previously laid bare the truth about her living situation in a wide-ranging interview with People back in March. Suleman — who revealed that her three eldest children had moved out of the family home — explained that she and 11 of her kids are currently residing in a rented three-bedroom townhouse, having secured the property at a 50 per cent discount from 'good Christian people' in their community who wanted to lend a helping hand. They 'offered us to live here [at] half the rent just because they're good Christian people. People at church have made a positive difference,' she revealed, adding that her family currently receives 'support' from various members of their community. However, while Suleman was open about her experience with financial hardship, she vehemently denied all claims that she relied on taxpayers' money to fund the birth and care of her octuplets, as well as their six siblings. 'That was a lie. I did not use taxpayers' money,' she said. 'I'd saved so much money working as a psychiatric technician at a state psych hospital. I saved well over $100,000 ($A153,000).' According to Suleman, she made the decision to invest all of her savings into IVF rather than buying a house, including $US60,000 ($A91,000) that she had inherited. 'I used all of that money. Instead of buying a house, I bought in vitros,' she admitted. 'I also had an inheritance close to $60,000 that paid for it, too, which I'm not proud of. It should have gone for my older kids. I also got student loans, but I paid for everything, period.' Suleman's current living situation, though cramped, seems to be one of the most secure she has enjoyed over the past 15 years, having been forced to move out of her former four-bedroom, three-bathroom home in La Habra, California, in 2012, when it went into foreclosure. Months later, she moved into a pad in Palmdale, California, which she rented with the paycheck she received from her adult film work. According to TMZ, she paid $US2,150 ($A3300) a month for the five-bedroom, three-bath house through March 2013. After moving out of that property, Suleman is understood to have headed to Orange County, where she is now living in her townhome apartment thanks to the kindness of a fellow churchgoer. As for how she has managed to survive over the years, the reality star defended her decision to participate in X-rated adult films, nude photo shoots, and exotic dancing engagements, insisting that she was willing to do whatever it took to provide for her kids. She admitted that she 'never wanted fame' but did 'whatever I needed to do to make ends meet. And that was shaming myself, sacrificing my integrity. 'The life I was leading was not only destructive, it was dark,' she added. 'It was the antithesis of who I am as a person.' She revealed that she did not hide her scandalous profession from her children, adding that a 'huge weight' was lifted when she told them. In 2013, Suleman decided to live a more private lifestyle and went back to work as a therapist. In September 2024, Suleman became a grandmother for the first time, revealing in an Instagram post that her son, Joshua, had welcomed a baby daughter with his wife the previous month.
