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Wow. We hardly recognize her.
By Caithlin Pena — Written on Aug 09, 2020
Where is Octomom now?
In 2009, Nadya Suleman's life changed when in vitro fertilization allowed her to give birth to octuplets. And already being a mother to six children before the arrival of the eight babies, the world's attention started to focus on "Octomom" and her 14 children.
In a 2016 interview, she looked back on her Octomom past and revealed why she had decided to leave it all behind.
Suleman, who also changed her first name to "Natalie" in 2016, said that she had originally only wanted one child from the IVF treatment, but the doctor implanted 12 embryos, believing that most would not survive.
And as the story goes, most of them didn't... except for eight. Jonah, Nariyah, Josiah, Maliyah, Isaiah, Noah, Jeremiah and Makai were the result.
But Nadya's Suleman life was not as glamorous as the media had portrayed it to be back then.
"Everyone thinks I had all these donations and help, but I didn't — I did everything on my own and paid everything out of my own pocket, so I was Octomom for four years," she said. "The last two years of it were so dark. I descended down a very dark and destructive path."
According to Suleman, having 14 children and being unemployed is what had pushed her to start doing porn movies, stripping, and bikini shots, in order to be able to put food on the table.
"I fully exploited and dehumanized myself with the... stripping. I was so desperate; we were on the verge of homelessness, so rather than put my kids in front of the camera I decided to put myself out there," she revealed.
Due to the shame and disgust towards herself, Suleman claimed to dabble in prescription drugs like Xanax in order to "numb" herself. In 2013, Suleman quit and turned her back on Octomom.
She then became a counselor and family therapist, as well as a single mom.
"I want that horrible, despicable character Octomom to be an example of what not to be," Suleman had admitted. "No one hates Octomom as much as me."
In 2019, some reports claimed that Suleman wanted to make a "return" to the spotlight and star in a reality series. A source at the time revealed, "She’s tried to keep her octuplets and other six kids out of the spotlight. Now she’s ready to make a comeback, but her brand is still so toxic that no network is interested!”
However, Suleman herself has never expressed any further interest in going back to that kind of life. In fact, she seems to have continued doing just the opposite and stuck to her path of turning her back on being Octomom.
Although she does have social media, she seems to mostly have continued to keep out of the public eye. She has shared updates about her health and fitness journey on Instagram.
In January 2020, she wrote in a post, "By sharing some of my fitness history I hope to inspire supporters, who may be struggling with their own fitness journey. Since discovering the gym, in 1991, I have learned the value of constructively channeling stress, anger, emotional pain etc. into working out."
She also sometimes shares updates on her children.
In August 2019, she opened up about her son Aidan's developmental disorder. She posted a video to Instagram with the caption:
This is my baby Aidan. He is 14 years old, severely autistic and requires total care. Aidan relies on me, his mom, to completely assist him in meeting all his needs in activities of daily living. Aidan is non-verbal, requires feeding, changing (he is not potty trained), bathing, and one to one supervision, as he has no safety awareness and would walk aimlessly into traffic.
I, his mother, am, and always have been, his only care provider (I only trust my kids to help out, and on rare occasions a sitter I’ve known over a decade). This 'job' is my life (other than caring for 13 other children singlehandedly). My children are my LIFE. Aidan has been off two months for summer and attends a special needs school during the year. I love him with all my heart, and will care for him until I die.
I drive Aidan and ALL my children in the same van you hateful, volatile humans vandalize and leave threatening letters on. Aidan is with my other children when you selfishly choose to film them with your iPhone or even have the audacity to fly a done above them with a camera pointed directly onto them."
Suleman received a lot of positive comments back from her followers.
Suleman has also shared some less serious posts about her children, but she still usually gives her followers advice and updates. In one post from June 2020, Suleman explained in detail what she and her family eat, and how some of her children have even started to cook.
She has also posted other updates about milestones, like her kids' first day of fifth grade back in August 2019.
In the caption, she wrote, "First day of fifth! I love you, each and every one of you, unconditionally. You are all becoming some of the most kind, selfless, caring human beings I have ever known. Thank you kids for being so patient with mom and posing for this last second, first day pic!"
Well, we're happy to see that she's slowly gotten her life back together. After all, nothing is stronger than a mother's love for her children.
Caithlin Pena is a writer and editor for YourTango who enjoys books, movies, and music and writes fictional short stories as a hobby.
Editor's Note: This article was originally posted in September 2016 and was updated with the latest information.