Nadya Suleman, who made international headlines in 2009 after giving birth to octuplets, stepped away from public life in 2013 and has spent the years since raising her 14 children largely out of the spotlight. She now goes by her birth name, Natalie Denise Suleman, lives in a three-bedroom townhouse in Orange County, California, with 11 of her kids, and has been open about the financial and physical toll of her journey.
The Birth That Changed Everything
In January 2009, Suleman delivered eight babies at a Southern California hospital, making her only the second person in U.S. history to give birth to a surviving set of octuplets. She was already a mother of six, all conceived through IVF with the same fertility specialist, Dr. Michael Kamrava. Suleman later said she had six embryos remaining from previous rounds of treatment and asked Kamrava to transfer all of them at once. He actually implanted twelve. A woman her age would normally receive a maximum of three.
The Medical Board of California investigated and found Kamrava’s decision to be an “extreme” departure from the standard of care. His medical license was revoked effective July 2011.
The “Octomom” Years
Almost immediately after the birth, Suleman became a tabloid fixture. She took on reality TV appearances, media deals, and other opportunities to support her large family. She has since described that period as deeply damaging. “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. She said the constant media attention gave her PTSD, and that she felt trapped by the need for income. “There were no healthy opportunities for Octomom. I was doing what I was told to do and saying what I was told to say.”
During this period, she also faced legal trouble. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office charged her with welfare fraud, alleging she had failed to report income while receiving public assistance. The charges included aid by misrepresentation and perjury, with prosecutors seeking roughly $26,000 in restitution.
Leaving the Spotlight
In 2013, Suleman walked away from the media entirely and returned to her previous career as a counselor, working 40 hours a week. She has described the decision as a financial sacrifice but an emotional relief. “It’s a huge weight lifted off of all of them when I went back to who I was,” she said of her children. “We were struggling financially, but it was such a blessing to be able to be free from that. Those were chains.”
She worked steadily for five years until 2018, when she had to leave her job to care full-time for her son Aidan, one of her six older children, who is profoundly autistic and requires total care. He was diagnosed at 17 months after he never made eye contact, never crawled, and never progressed past babbling. “I’d say the greatest struggle for me, and it always will be a struggle, is caring for my son, Aidan,” she has said. His siblings help with feeding, keeping him company, and singing to him. One of his brothers described Aidan as “like our baby.”
Where She Lives Now
Suleman and 11 of her children currently share a rented three-bedroom townhouse in Orange County. Her three eldest children, now adults, have moved out. One of them, Joshua, became a father himself. The family pays half the market rent thanks to a couple from their church who wanted to help. Community members also pitch in with various forms of support.
Suleman has been candid about money. She earns income but has said it falls well short of what the family needs to live comfortably. She once had savings set aside for a home but spent it on her IVF treatments years earlier.
The Octuplets Today
The eight children who made her famous, Noah, Maliyah, Isaiah, Nariyah, Makai, Josiah, Jeremiah, and Jonah, are now teenagers. As of mid-2025, they are 16 years old and in high school. Suleman celebrated her 50th birthday in July 2025 surrounded by all eight of them. The family is set to appear in a Lifetime docuseries called Confessions of Octomom.
Physical Toll and Recovery
Carrying eight babies left lasting damage to Suleman’s body. She developed three herniated discs from the pregnancy, on top of a previous herniated disc from a work injury. She also experienced bilateral sciatica, a damaged sacrum, nerve damage in her extremities, and a torn abdominal cavity. Without regular exercise, she says, the pain becomes excruciating and she can barely move.
To manage this, she strength trains three to four times a week and does an hour of stationary cycling four to five days a week. She has lifted weights consistently for over 30 years and credits the routine with keeping her functional. “Though it seems counterintuitive, the more active I am, the less pain I experience,” she has said. She also follows a plant-based diet.
A New Identity
Suleman has made a deliberate effort to distance herself from the “Octomom” label, asking to be called by her legal name, Natalie. She views the media persona she inhabited from 2009 to 2013 as a survival mechanism she had to shed. “When you’re pretending to be something you’re not, at least for me, you end up falling on your face,” she has said. Her life today is quieter, financially tight, and centered entirely on her children.