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 – which was widely reported on at the time. 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.
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. She is pictured with her whole family above
Natalie in a photograph taken just days before she gave birth to eight children
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.
However, Dr Michael Kamrava later defended his practice as fulfilling Natalie’s request and claimed that Natalie knew about the 12 embryos. But she insisted she was unaware of what was going on.
In an interview with ABC in 2010, after being widely condemned by the medical world, he said: ‘It’s been very traumatic and quite unexpected.’
And speaking of Nadya’s case, he added: ‘Because of the doctor-patient confidentiality, I can’t talk about that.’
He added at the time: ‘It was done the right way,’ he said. ‘…Under the circumstances.’
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 with her eight children when they were young
Natalie has described herself as a private person who never wanted to become famous
‘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, per the Channel 5 documentary.
She became pregnant with the world’s first surviving octuplets when Beverly Hills fertility doctor Dr. Michael Kamrava controversially implanted 12 embryos instead of the recommended 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 Lifetime trailer for her new docuseries I Was Octomum and Confessions of Octomum
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.
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.
Noah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, Josiah, Makai, Maliyah and Nariyah, her octuplets, are now 16
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 all survived.
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.
Natalie has expressed deep regret for her time spent in the adult entertainment industry
Natalie relied on her parents and the church, but also parented mostly alone – allowing cameras from a US publication to record her every move. Pictured, her octuplets
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.
Natalie (seen with her octuplets in 2023), 49, has become a grandmother, as she revealed that her son has welcomed a baby girl
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.
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.
