OCTOMUM Nadya Suleman has revealed the only regret she has after delivering eight babies at once.
Nadya famously welcomed octuplets in January 2009 after undergoing multiple back-to-back rounds of IVF with the help of Dr. Michael Kamrava.
Nadya Suleman, who has changed her name to Natalie, gave birth to octuplets[/caption]
Despite telling Suleman he had implanted only six embryos, the now-disgraced specialist actually implanted 12 well above the standard practice of two.
Nadya, who already had six children at the time, was hoping for just one more baby but ended up with one of the greatest medical undertakings in recent memory.
Thinking back on that time of her life, Suleman, now 49, told People she does not “think [she’d] do too much differently” but revealed her one regret.
“I do regret not suing the infertility doctor,” she admitted in an interview published Wednesday.
“I definitely regret that because his insurance would’ve been the one paying, and it would’ve been some millions, and it would’ve been helpful for my family.
“I regret that I kind of threw myself under the bus to cover for him, and I shouldn’t have, but I was grateful,” she continued.
“I wouldn’t have had any of my kids if it weren’t for his innovative technique. No one else in the world did this type of procedure, so I didn’t have it in my heart to sue him.”
In addition to her eight 16-year-olds, Suleman is the mum of Elijah, 23, Ameerah, 22, Joshua, 21, Aidan, 18, and 17-year-old twins Caleb and Calyssa — all of whom she conceived via IVF from Kamrava.
Although Kamrava did not have to pay for his negligence, he was ultimately stripped of his medical licence.
However, Suleman did take legal action against the hospital where she gave birth “because they breached HIPAA” by sharing her name and medical information with the press.
“They’re the reason why I ended up in the public eye,” she said.
Suleman was thrust into the spotlight more than 16 years ago for making history as the only person to give birth to the world’s first surviving octuplets: Noah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, Josiah, Makai, Maliyah and Nariyah.
The single mother left people outraged when she gave birth to the children, with many wondering how she would provide for them.
In 2012, the backlash only grew when she turned to pornography, stripping, and selling nude photos to support herself and her family.
Nadya has since changed her name to Natalie and shares rare updates of her family with fans these days as she opens up about how public attention became difficult to cope with.
“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,” she told the New York Times in 2018. “I’ve been hiding from the real world all my life.”
She admitted her quick rise to fame caused her to suffer from PTSD.
“I would take whatever I could back in the days, and I would let them in,” she said of the influx of reporters that reached out to her at the time.
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“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,” she continued.
“When you’re pretending to be something you’re not, at least for me, you end up falling on your face.”
In 2013 Nadya decided to stop sex work and has reflected on the difficult period in her life.
Speaking to Sunday Night reporter Angela Cox in 2020, she said: “I think I was young, dumb, irresponsible, reckless.”
In another interview, she spoke about her past and her regrets at some of the choices she made.
She said: “Some of the things that I have done – of course that I’m ashamed of in the past – was just to put food on the table and just to take care of my family.
I haven’t felt my toes on my foot on the right side for many years, and my fingers are numb all the time every day
Nadya Suleman
“My kids get embarrassed because their friends sometimes will say ‘My mum said your mum’s a stripper’.”
On top of the stress of the public attention, Nadya has suffered physical issues from carrying eight children at one time.
She said: “My back is broken because of the last pregnancy.
“Four out of the five discs in my lumbar spine are ruptured, herniated fully. And I have irreparable sacral damage. And I have peripheral neuropathy.
“I haven’t felt my toes on my foot on the right side for many years, and my fingers are numb all the time every day. The pregnancy caused it all.”
This article originally appeared in Page Six and was reproduced with permission
The octuplets are now 16 years old[/caption]
The mum admitted she had previously been ‘reckless’[/caption]
