Nadya Suleman, best known as the “Octomom,” shared a photo of her 14 children on Instagram to mark Mother’s Day.
The new photo shows the children gathered around a kitchen table covered with Mother’s Day cards and gifts. Suleman, 43, included a long statement in the caption about how blessed she feels to have her children. She also shared a message to those who experience pain on Mother’s Day.
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“I feel your sadness. Throughout the six years of infertility (including miscarriages) I struggled with nearly 25 years ago, I believed God would never bless me with children,” Suleman wrote. “Unbeknownst to me back then, He had a plan greater than I could fathom. I learned to be patient, trusting, and accepting of the process throughout my obstacle laden journey. I am grateful for the battles I’ve fought, and the challenges I continue to face, as they have forged, shaped and strengthened me into the mom I am today.”
Suleman also offered a prayer for those without their mother on Mother’s Day, noting that her own mother died four years ago.
“Thank you to all my wonderfully loving children, (even to my eldest Eli who despises pictures), for creating beautiful art, writing heartwarming notes, and showering me with love,” she concluded. “You are my life. My heart. I love you.”
Suleman gained fame in 2009 when she welcomed octuplets, six boys and two girls, conceived via in vitro fertilization. Her public attention turned negative after it was discovered that she had six older children. She took several controversial jobs, such as starring in an adult film, to raise money to care for her children.
In an interview with The New York Times in December 2018, Suleman said she was working on a book about her life and the mediastorm she faced after the children were born.
“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. I’ve been hiding from the real world all my life,” she said. “I’m at work on a book. That’s why I want to do this interview. I’ve been writing this manuscript since graduate school.”
Suleman also claimed she suffers from PTSD because of all the reporters who hounded her and claimed tabloids created a “caricature” of her as the Octomom. She also said she suffered a broken back during the last pregnancy and it has only become wrose after she started doing half-marathons.
She also claimed she talked about everything with her children, from her addiction to alcohol and Zanax to her adult film career.
“We talk about everything,” she said. “They know, they went through it with me. It’s a huge weight lifted off of all of them when I went back to who I was. We were struggling financially, but it was such a blessing to be able to be free from that. Those were chains.”
In March, Suleman appeared on Australia’s 7News to mark the octuplets’ 10th birthday. Although she admitted it was “very irresponsible and reckless” to try for another child after having six when she could not support them, she has no regrets.
“I made these poor decisions. I don’t regret my children, any of them,” she said. “I don’t know what I’d do without any of my fourteen kids. But I was so desperate, and so I sold out my character.”
Photo credit: Jonathan Leibson/FilmMagic/Getty Images
