Natalie ‘Nadya’ Suleman, also known as ‘Octomom,’ used Instagram to wish her octuplets a happy birthday on Sunday.
Taking to social media, the 49-year-old parent — who just announced the family’s return to the spotlight — shared a single photo of her eight youngest children along with a sweet caption.
She wrote, ‘Happy Sweet 16th birthday to Noah, Isaiah, Nariyah, Maliyah, Jeremiah, Josiah, Jonah, and Makai! You are loved, valued, and appreciated more than words can express!’
The proud mother gushed, ‘I am so blessed to have you all in my life, and excited and grateful for the journey we are about to embark. God has loved and protected you all for the past 16 years, and has great plans for each and every one of you!
‘I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living, my babies you’ll be.’
Suleman’s babies became the world’s first octuplets to survive childbirth when they were born in 2009.
Natalie ‘Nadya’ Suleman, also known as ‘Octomom,’ used Instagram to wish her octuplets a happy birthday on Sunday
Taking to social media, the 49-year-old parent shared a single photo of her eight youngest children
Nadya gave birth to the group when she was already a mom-of-six to Elijah, 23, Amerah, 22, Joshua, 21, Aidan, 19, and twins Caleb and Calyssa, 16.
And after working to protect her brood over the last decade-plus, she and her family will once again let the public in as they ready a Lifetime movie and docuseries set to premiere on March 8 and March 10 respectively.
‘Today, my family and I are taking our life back,’ she told People magazine on Friday.
The movie is titled I Was Octomom while the docuseries is called Confessions of Octomom. Kristen Lee Gutoskie will portray Suleman in the upcoming film.
Nadya explained, ‘I’ve been saying, I want to keep them safe and protect my kids, and well, they’re older now. They’re turning 16 and making the decision to really do this.’
In the early aughts, she sought out ‘to have one more IVF procedure to try to complete my family of six.’
But once Beverly Hills fertility doctor Dr. Michael Kamrava implanted 12 embryos, Suleman became pregnant with eight babies.
Once her story made headlines, many people criticized the single mom for welcoming more kids after she was already struggling to care for her older six kids.
She added a sweet caption that began, ‘Happy Sweet 16th birthday to Noah, Isaiah, Nariyah, Maliyah, Jeremiah, Josiah, Jonah, and Makai! You are loved, valued, and appreciated more than words can express!’
After working to protect her brood over the last decade-plus, Nadya and her family will once again let the public in as they ready a Lifetime movie and docuseries set to premiere on March 8 and March 10 respectively
Suleman’s babies became the world’s first octuplets to survive childbirth when they were born in 2009
‘There was, of course, all of the details of the death threats and fearing for my family’s life. And then on the other hand, I had to continue to sacrifice my integrity repeatedly to survive and provide for my family,’ Suleman recalled.
She appeared in an adult film and sometimes worked with magazines who published stories about her life in order to earn income.
‘It wasn’t until [the octuplets] were maybe about 4-years-old [that] I finally was able to escape all of that — the attack [it felt like was coming] from the world… and all that global scorn and condemnation,’ she confessed.
She described the harassment she received from strangers as ‘misplaced hate.’
And the star, whose dark hair and full lips used to draw comparisons to Angelina Jolie, said when her youngest kids became toddlers, she ‘could escape and finally go back to the life I had once known before.’
