Inside Octomom Nadya Suleman's Family World as a Mom of 14 Kids

Nadya Suleman didn't intend to have eight more children, bringing her grand total to 14.

But after another round of in vitro fertilization resulted in the single mother having the world's first set of surviving octuplets on Jan. 26, 2009—birthing the nickname "Octomom" in the process—the mentality in her household had to be the more the merrier.

In addition to now 15-year-old octuplets Noah, Maliyah, Isaiah, Nariyah, Makai, Josiah, Jeremiah and Jonah, she's the mother of Elijah, 23, Amerah, 22, Joshua, 21, Aidan, 18, and 17-year-old twins Caleb and Calyssa. All of her children were conceived through IVF.

And not only are the miracle eight in high school, but her family tree has also sprouted a new branch: Joshua became a dad on Aug. 30.

"Thank you my son and my lovely daughter in law for giving us this beautiful gift!" the 49-year-old grandma (who started going by Natalie Suleman years ago) posted Sept. 22, captioning a photo of an infant's foot under a pink blanket. "We are so blessed that she is a new addition to our family! Baby girl you are so very loved and we can’t wait to watch you grow!!"

While she still includes "octoMOM" in her Instagram bio, her family photos boast all the hallmarks of normalcy—birthdays, Christmas, Mother's Day, first day of school, girls' night out, gym sessions, etc.—which is a striking contrast from her proverbial 15 minutes as a viral phenomenon. And with it, becoming the inevitable target of scorn and scrutiny.

"I'm not a celebrity," she told Oprah Winfrey in 2010 after writing to the talk show host to request an appearance to share her side of the story. "I'm a pseudo-celebrity catapulted into this big media mess. Did I want it? No. Was I in denial thinking that it wouldn't happen? Yes."

Oprah noted being skeptical before agreeing to interview the seemingly attention-hungry mom.

Rather, Nadya insisted that "14 hungry mouths" were the motivation behind her various endeavors, such as posing in a bikini to show off her postpartum weight loss.

While Oprah interviewed her remotely, the Oprah cameras captured a day in the life at home with her 14 kids and three daytime nannies.

She spent about $1,000 a week on groceries, Oprah noted in the 2010 segment, which showed Nadya's eight 12-month-olds eating at a special table with built-in high-chair seating. (In a "typical week," they were going through 21 dozen eggs and 20 gallons of milk.) 

"It's a huge family," Nadya acknowledged, adding with a laugh, "a ridiculously huge family."

She said there were "so many reasons" why she didn't stop at having six kids, noting that "perhaps selfishness" and "trying to compensate for being an only child" factored into her decision to keep going.

Her doctor—the same one who did all of her previous IVF treatments—implanted her with six embryos that had been left over from the batch that produced her twins, then implanted another six when, according to Nadya, he told her the first six didn't take.

"I maybe wrongfully looked outside of myself," she told Oprah, "when I should have been filling that in from within." She coveted connection, she continued, and that "felt safer with children than with a significant other, more predictable." (She married Marcos Gutierrez in 1996 and they separated in 2000. "They are not my kids," Marcos, who filed for divorce in 2006, told Inside Edition after the octuplets were born, "but I wish her the best." He said his ex was "a great person with a great heart.")

She clearly didn't have much time for herself, but she told Oprah she kept it together by "taking deep breaths throughout the day and staying connected to my kids."

After relying on government assistance, she had a stint as an exotic dancer and made an adult film, Octomom Home Alone winning Best Celebrity Video at the 2012 AVN Awards. But she stuck by her vow to never star in a reality show with her children. "I fully exploited and dehumanized myself with the porn and the stripping," she told DailyMail.com in 2016, but that was to avoid putting her kids "in front of the camera."

Once the rapt fascination with her life choices tapered off, however, Nadya settled into not exactly obscurity, but at least into the routine 24/7 business of looking after 14 children.

"Everyone thinks I had all these donations and help but I didn't," she told DailyMail.com. "I did everything on my own and paid everything out of my own pocket so I was Octomom for four years. The last two years of it were so dark. I descended down a very dark and destructive path."

She'd admittedly had some cosmetic procedures, "but not half of what the media have said I had," she explained. "I had a breast augmentation after breastfeeding three kids, which I paid for myself as I was working. I had a tummy tuck after the octuplets after a media outlet promised me $100,000 to pose nude."

She maintained that, other than lip injections in 2008 that "looked horrible," but which she had done again in 2009 because a media outlet paid her to do it, she had not had work done on her face.

Through it all, she "stayed strong" for the children, she continued: "My kids know what I did as Octomom, I tell them the truth. I've told them I've done some very bad and shameful things and they say, 'It's okay, Mom, we love you anyway and we'll always love you."

She added, "They know I did it for them. We don't have kid conversations, we have deep and intellectual conversations about all of this. They are so smart and so aware."

The Fullerton, Calif., native had a bachelor's degree in child development and she was working by then as a family counselor.

Her typical day started at 5 a.m. and there were four stops on her morning school run. Then she worked, did afternoon pickup, made dinner, bathed the younger kids in pairs and was in bed at around midnight. A two-hour nap once a week was her big indulgence.

She went vegan in 2016 and had her kids adopt the lifestyle as well, writing on Instagram that December that she chose to "raise them AWARE, and most of all compassionate toward all living, sentient beings." (She no longer recognizes it as Thanksgiving, but a look at her Native American Heritage Day dinner in 2023, courtesy of "head chefs Jonah, Nariyah, Noah, and Jeremiah," showed a meat-free table.)

She subsequently claimed she never got sick, crediting clean eating and exercise. She may have had a raspy voice, but, as she told the New York Times in 2018, "I think it's from being loud and yelling for what feels like the last 18 years. I have 14 children!”

Nadya had shared when she was first in the public eye that Aidan was autistic, but in August 2019 she divulged that he required full-time care.

He is "non-verbal, requires feeding, changing...bathing, and one-to-one supervision, as he has no safety awareness and would walk aimlessly into traffic," she wrote on Instagram. "I, his mother, am, and always have been, his ONLY care provider. This 'job' is my life (other than caring for 13 other children singlehandedly). My children are my LIFE."

More recently she shared that fitness had become a family affair.

"I've been asked for years how I stay physically strong and healthy (and mentally sane), in spite of my stressful, busy lifestyle with such a big family," she wrote on Instagram in June 2023. "Lifting weights has been my method of constructively channeling stress, consistently, for over 30 years.

To ease chronic back pain and other physical issues related to her pregnancies, she tried to strength train three to four days a week and do an hour of cardio on a stationary bike four to five days a week.

"Fortunately, my kids have adopted the same active lifestyle," she noted. "My oldest three weight train, far heavier than I, and more frequently."

Elijah quickly surpassed her in the gym, she added proudly, and had since encouraged her "to lift heavier, using proper technique, which has improved my strength and performance."

Meanwhile, she respects her older kids' wishes when they ask her to not post their pics, noting when she shared a shot of the octuplets headed off to their first day of eighth grade that the others had requested she keep their respective first days within the family.

But just like any mom—of one, two, three or 14—she loves to mark milestones with sweet photos, even if just throwbacks from when the kids were little.

For Elijah's 21st birthday in May 2022, she called her eldest child "one of the most humble, genuine, kind, and loving human beings" she knew.

Marking Amerah's 20th in July 2022, she wrote, "It feels like yesterday you would play dress up as a princess, and now you have grown up to be a queen. I love you more than words can express and support you in everything you do. You are smart, strong, genuine, loving, compassionate, and not only my daughter, but my closest friend."

And for Caleb and Calyssa's 16th birthday in October 2022, she complimented her son on growing into "a loving, caring, highly intelligent, comedic, quick witted, perceptive, and devoted young man," while his twin sister was "a kind, loving, compassionate (towards all living things), intelligent, beautiful young lady," as well as a "talented writer and artist."

Meanwhile, in celebrating Joshua's 21st on Aug. 20, she gushed about him being "smart, funny, hard working, loyal, humble, and now a devoted husband and soon to be father."

And, she quipped, "Maybe one day you’ll allow me to actually share an updated picture."

But having 14 children has made for an endless slew of Kodak moments nonetheless, so keep reading to see more of their sweet family photos:

Throwing it back to when her octuplets where newborns and her six older children were able to sit still for approximately eight seconds.

Gap ad in the heyday of khakis or a flashback to Christmas 2012?

Mom marked twins Caleb and Calyssa's 16th birthday in 2023 with this adorable throwback pic.

Getting eight children to line up and smile for a pic sounds like a Christmas miracle to us.

The Sulemans are a cat family, so Maliyah took the opportunity to do some dog-sitting.

Nadya snuck a rare recent pic of eldest son Elijah onto her feed in honor of his 21st birthday in 2022.

Sometimes having a large family can really feel like running a zoo, as Nadya reminded us in wishing Noah, Maliyah, Isaiah, Nariyah, Jeremiah, Jonah, Josiah and Makai a happy 12th birthday.

Showing off a cat and crafts on the couch.

Nadya's eldest daughter Amerah got her 21st birthday picture all to herself.

Jonah, Nariyah, Noah and Jeremiah were in charge of the family's vegan feast on Native American Heritage Day in 2023.

Mom took Amerah and Calyssa out for ramen (vegan, of course) in August 2023.

The family loves their fur babies too.

Eight was enough for this family photo in March 2022.

Joshua, sporting the temporary face tat, and big brother Eli were about to take flight in this throwback pic their mom shared.

Maliyah and Nariyah were a coordinated sister act.

Noah and Jonah got ready to dig in.

Mother's Day is never lonely for Nadya, here celebrating with her octuplets and their big sister Amerah in 2022.

In lieu of 48 candles, the kids brought balloons for their mom's birthday.

The Suleman octuplets enjoyed baked goods on their 14th birthday.

While her kids smiled for the camera, Mom snuck in a wish on her 49th birthday in 2024.