A little over 15 years ago, Natalie ‘Nadya’ Suleman (Octomom), was on every magazine cover and talk show in America. She made history, giving birth to the world’s first surviving octuplets.
Her story got a little dark following the dramatic birth. There were a lot of rumors being spread about her, with some claiming she was unemployed and living with her parents. They also claimed she was trying to have more children, so she could get more money from the government.
Now, 16 years later, she’s setting the record straight in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE. During the interview, she shut down the rumor that she was using government assistance to conceive children.
I did not use taxpayers’ money. I’d saved so much money working as a psychiatric technician at a state psych hospital. I saved well over a hundred thousand dollars. I used all of that money. Instead of buying a house I bought in vitros. I also had an inheritance close to $60,000 that paid for it too, which I’m not proud of. It should have gone for my older kids. I also got student loans, but I paid for everything, period.
Of course, things only got harder for her financially after giving birth to eight more children. In total, she had 14 mouths to feed, so she did anything and everything to get money, including starring in a solo adult film.
She told PEOPLE that she never wanted fame, but she had to feed her children…
I’ve never wanted fame. That said, I did whatever I needed to do to make ends meet. And that was shaming myself, sacrificing my integrity. The life I was leading was not only destructive, it was dark. It was the antithesis of who I am as a person.
She managed to get out of the spotlight in 2013 and started working full-time as a therapist. “For years I was typecast as the welfare recipient, unemployed mother, all of which is wrong,” she noted.
More power to her! It’s nice to see her speaking her truth.
