’22 Kids and Counting’ Mom Shares Controversial Method That Led to Pregnancy Scare

Sue Radford is opening up about a pregnancy scare that rocked her family just before her 50th birthday.

On August 22, Channel 5 TV and the Radford family jointly shared the trailer on Instagram that sent fans into a frenzy. In it, Sue Radford realized she could be pregnant while planning her 50th birthday with her famously large family.

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The clip showed Sue sharing that her “hormones are crazy” just before a woman was heard saying, “I think it’s really risky for you to stop the pill.” After some intense music, the cameras cut to Sue telling her husband, Noel, 54, that her period was late. Both Sue and Noel expressed jaw-dropping shock before the trailer ended without answers.

The follow-up episode revealed that Sue was not pregnant. And she and her husband shared that the scare was amplified because Sue had decided to stop taking birth control due to unpleasant side effects. Instead, they used the rhythm method, which is a controversial method that tracks cycles and temperatures to determine when pregnancy is possible. Even under perfect circumstances, it is only 75% to 85% effective.

As the title of the reality series suggests, the Radford couple has 22 children, ranging from 5 to 36. However, they suffered a heartbreaking loss when Alfie, their 17th child, was stillborn in 2014.

The pregnancy scare came after Sue and Noel insisted that they did not want to have more children. Their youngest, Heidi, started school last September, and Sue was relieved to finally have some free time, with all of her kids either grown and moved away or in school.

“Britain’s biggest family will not be getting any bigger!” Noel announced during the episode. “It’s been a little bit of squeaky bum time, but we’re not in that situation, so I don’t need to worry about it.”

He went on to share that Sue made a mistake while tracking her dates, and they no longer “trusted” the method, so they’ve made some changes to ensure this would not happen again.