Nadya “Octomom” Suleman’s kids are speaking out for the “first time” about the “unfair” treatment their mother received over the years in a new movie and docuseries.
Nadya, who made history for having the world’s first set of surviving octuplets, and her children are the subject of an upcoming Lifetime movie and docuseries, titled I Was Octomom and Confessions of Octomom, which will premiere on March 8 and March 10, respectively.
“I’m just very excited,” Nadya’s daughter Nariyah told People in an interview published on Friday, January 24. “Our mom would finally be able to say her side of the story, because I feel like it was very unfair how she was terrorized and hated for just being a mother. And she had to sacrifice so much just for her children.”
Nadya, 49, rose to fame in 2008 after her pregnancy went viral. She was implanted with 12 embryos by Dr. Michael Kamrava, despite medical guidelines advising no more than two embryos be implanted at once. As a result, the California Medical Board revoked his license in 2011. The octuplets remain the longest-surviving octuplets in medical history.
The California native was already the mother of six children — Elijah, Amerah, Joshua, Aidan and twins Caleb and Calyssa — before giving birth to her octuplets: Noah, Maliyah, Isaiah, Nariyah, Makai, Josiah, Jeremiah and Jonah in January 2009. All 14 of her children were conceived via in vitro fertilization, and she has never revealed any details surrounding the paternity of the children.
“I’ve been saying, I want to keep them safe and protect my kids, and well, they’re older now,” Nadya told People. “They’re turning 16 and making the decision to really do this.”
Nadya faced swift backlash after news of her pregnancy became public, with many questioning her motives since she was already struggling to care for her six children before the birth of the octuplets.
“The movie follows my journey, starting with my decision to have one more IVF procedure to try to complete my family of six,” she explained. “I wanted only one more, to becoming a single mom of 14 and all the trials and tribulations, the challenges and struggles, what I had to do to continue to fight for my family.”
Nadya called her early struggles “complete pandemonium” and said she would often receive death threats. She said she was also forced into situations where she “sacrificed” her “integrity,” highlighting examples like her participation in adult films to help support her large family.
“The main reasons for me in sharing my true story, my perspective is to help people, to help women in particular who are struggling with one child or none, to maybe inspire them to pull out the strengths inside that they didn’t know they had to progress forward, to keep progressing in their life,” she explained. “My kids are going to share for the first time. Also, my older kids are speaking in the public eye and they did not want to. And actually, I didn’t even want [to speak out] to be honest.”
