A WOMAN who became known worldwide for becoming an ‘Octomum’ in 2009 has shared an update as her children turn 16.
Nadya Suleman had six children at the time, conceived by IVF, but decided to have one more.
3
3
Her doctor assumed the 12 embryos she had left were unlikely to survive, so suggested she implant the whole dozen; however, eight of the 12 stuck, and she gave birth to them in 2009 – leading her to be called ‘Octomum’.
Now 49, the mum-of-14’s family has grown even more as her son welcomed a baby girl last August.
Nadya recently took to Instagram to update fans on the family as her IVF octuplets turn 16 this month.
In addition to her octuplets Noah, Maliyah, Isaiah, Nariyah, Makai, Josiah, Jeremiah and Jonah, Nadya is mother to Elijah, 23, Amerah, 22, Joshua, 21, Aidan, 18, and 17-year-old twins Caleb and Calyssa, all of whom were conceived through IVF.
“Healthy, fit family,” she wrote in an Instagram post, alongside photos of her and her kids spending time in the gym, “staying strong and thriving together.”
The single mother left people outraged when she gave birth to the children, with many wondering how she would provide for them.
In 2012, the backlash only grew when she turned to pornography, stripping, and selling nude photos to support herself and her family.
Nadya has since changed her name to Natalie and shares rare updates of her family with fans these days as she opens up about how public attention became difficult to cope with.
“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 told the New York Times in 2018. “I’ve been hiding from the real world all my life.”
She admitted her quick rise to fame caused her to suffer from PTSD.
3
“I would take whatever I could back in the days, and I would let them in,” she said of the influx of reporters that reached out to her at the time.
“I was spiraling down a dark hole. There were no healthy opportunities for Octomom.”
“I was doing what I was told to do and saying what I was told to say,” she continued.
“When you’re pretending to be something you’re not, at least for me, you end up falling on your face.”
Pregnancy Myths explained
There are a lot of strange myths around pregnancy – and some of them may surprise you…
- Is it okay to eat prawns when you’re pregnant?
- Can you have sex during a pregnancy?
- Can you get a tattoo while you’re pregnant
- Is it safe to take paracetamol when you’re pregnant?
- Can you eat mozzarella when you’re pregnant?
In 2013 Nadya decided to stop sex work and has reflected on the difficult period in her life.
Speaking to Sunday Night reporter Angela Cox in 2020, she said: “I think I was young, dumb, irresponsible, reckless.”
In another interview, she spoke about her past and her regrets at some of the choices she made.
She said: “Some of the things that I have done – of course that I’m ashamed of in the past – was just to put food on the table and just to take care of my family.
“My kids get embarrassed because their friends sometimes will say ‘My mum said your mum’s a stripper’.”
On top of the stress of the public attention, Nadya has suffered physical issues from carrying eight children at one time.
She said: “My back is broken because of the last pregnancy.
“Four out of the five discs in my lumbar spine are ruptured, herniated fully. And I have irreparable sacral damage. And I have peripheral neuropathy.
“I haven’t felt my toes on my foot on the right side for many years, and my fingers are numb all the time every day. The pregnancy caused it all.”
