North West & More Celeb Kids Takeover Instagram
When it comes to birthdays, it’s the more the merrier in Nadya Suleman‘s household.
The 47-year-old, who was famously dubbed “Octomom” after giving birth to octuplets, treated her eight youngest kids to a vegan doughnut feast ahead of their 14th birthday. As seen in a video published by TMZ, Noah, Maliyah, Isaiah, Nariyah, Jonah, Makai, Josiah and Jeremiah were serenaded by the family before digging into the sugary confections.
“Make a wish,” Suleman, who now prefers to be called Natalie, gushed as her kids blew out the candles on their plant-based treats. “Yay!”
In addition to her octuplets, Suleman is also mom to six older children: Elijah, 21, Amerah, 20, Joshua, 29, Aidan, 17, and twins Calyssa and Caleb, 13.
Suleman’s eight younger kids were conceived through in vitro fertilization after a California specialist implanted 12 embryos. The octuplets were born through C-section on Jan. 26, 2009. At the time, they weighed between 1 lbs., 8 oz. and 3 lbs., 4 oz.
And though the astonishing birth of her babies thrust Suleman into the public spotlight, fame was something that she never wanted. As she explained in a 2018 profile with the New York Times, “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.”
Looking back at the media attention on her family, Suleman told the outlet she suffers from PTSD as a result of “all the reporters coming in over the years.”
“I would take whatever I could back in the days, and I would let them in,” she recalled. “I was spiraling down a dark hole. There were no healthy opportunities for Octomom. I was doing what I was told to do and saying what I was told to say. When you’re pretending to be something you’re not, at least for me, you end up falling on your face.”
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In recent years, Suleman became more open to sharing details about her kids through her own way: social media. Last year, she praised her octuplets for “growing into some of the most kind, humble, grateful and loving human beings I have ever known.”
“Each of you possess rare and unique characteristics, and are unlike any other child of your age, particularly in our society today,” she wrote on her Instagram in January 2022. “You are selfless, altruistic, nonmaterialistic, and loving, fearing, followers of God. I have never seen children who love and want to serve others, (particularly those less fortunate), so boldly and confidently like each and every one of you do.”
The mom added, “I do not know what I could possibly have done to deserve being blessed so bountifully.”
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