The Octo-Kids are nearly Octo-Teenagers.
Almost.
The eight children made famous by Nadya Suleman back when she gave birth to them all (AT ONCE!) in January of 2009 stopped by the set of The Doctors this week because their mother was on hand for an interview.
And it’s pretty amazing to see how old they all look now.
Which of the kids pictured here is Noah? Which is Jonah? Which is Jeremiah? Which is Josiah? Which is Isaiah? Which is Makai? Which is Nariyah? Which is Maliya?
We’re not sure.
But the kids turn eight years old in just a couple months.
Why is their mother back on television?
Because “my history was haunting us,” Suleman says in her The Doctors feature.
“I left ‘Octomom.’ I went back to my life as a counselor. I went back and my kids had a healthy, happy life. The problem is, it’s followed us, because people never knew what I did.
“They never knew the true story.”
The true story is that, yes, Suleman did porn and posed naked on many occasions back when her kids were young.
But she has 14 of them (Suleman already had six children when IVF treatments prompted her to give birth to eight more) and had been criticized harshly for being on government assistance.
“I ended up selling myself out, Suleman says in this new interview, explaining how she tried to pay for her family herself via these X-rated activities.
Suleman is adamant that she wants to leave the spotlight behind.
No one hates the nickname Octomom more than she does, the former celebrity claims, adding:
“When [people] do come up and say, ‘Hi, can I take a picture with you?’ and ‘Hi, are you Octomom?’ I say, ‘I no longer go by that anymore, but thank you so much.’
“I’m a mom and I don’t do that anymore.”
Suleman also worked as a stripper awhile back.
She has numerous regrets and is still doing everything she can to turn her life around.
“I’m still in the process of pulling my self worth out of the toilet, I flushed it down multiple times,” she says of her past. “Like all human beings, we make mistakes and we learn, we grow, we change.”
Dare we say it? Nadya Suleman sounds reasonable, mature and well-grounded.
Suleman adds that she takes accountability for “being dumb and irresponsible and selfish” by having such a gigantic family.
She says she has no desire to “burden” tax payers by being on welfare and explains that she is working hard to support her 14 children.
She wants to be known as “Natalie” now and she also wants to make it clear: her kids are fantastic.
That’s an important point of pride for Suleman.
“I own and take responsibility for my poor choices, but it doesn’t take away from how extraordinary these kids turned out to be,” she says.
And, in the end, that’s almost all that matters.