Yahoo Lifestyle Octomom Natalie 'Nadya' Suleman's Kids Asked If They Were 'Test Tube Babies' — Here’s How She Responded (Exclusive)
The mother of 14 says she's always been upfront with her kids about their complicated story
Natalie 'Nadya' Suleman doesn't shy away from tough questions, especially when they come from her 14 kids.
The mother and many of her children, including the world's first surviving octuplets, opened up to PEOPLE this week about how they have learned of their complicated story.
"I'm honest, I'm very transparent with everyone," Suleman, 49, says. When the time came to explain things to her octuplets, "I told them that they come from an anonymous frozen donor and I bought one, it was one dad."
In regards to how different the eight look, she explains, "I'm very mixed, my ethnicities. And so the more diverse and ethnic you are, the more of the phenotype variations manifest. So, there's one donor, it's frozen because I bought one valid sperm, so I know it's one donor. And I saw them actually, I saw the creation in the lab in the petri dish."
Seated next to her mom, Suleman's daughter Nariyah, 16, quips, "We're non-organic." It's not the first time the octuplets have poked fun at their origin story.
Says Suleman, "They'll joke, 'Oh, so we're test tube babies?' and I'm like, 'Yeah, and you're more than that.' But we joke about it. And with my older six, it was one donor as well. So one and one."
Neither her older six children nor the octuplets have ever had contact with the men responsible for helping their mother conceive, though in the new docuseries, "we delve into a lot of the details of the donors and how they feel and their experiences."
Lifetime
Natalie 'Nadya' SulemanThe octuplets currently attend virtual school, but in years prior when they did attend in-person classes, they recall being the topic of conversation.
"We all went to one table because we're always together and people just mainly just kind of thought that we were different," recalls Maliyah, 16, of their school experience. "So then when some kids found out and some kids already knew, they were just always calling us by Sulemans or octuplets all the time. So, yeah. But we did find some friends and they didn't care at all."
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Adds Nariyah, "When we were younger, we didn't really notice that we were the octuplets. Our mother has always kind of protected us and she told us that we're the eight, but we didn't know how different it was."
She continues, "We were raised normally and given a normal childhood, but later when we were 10, 12 years old, we started realizing more because people at school would tell us and keep reminding us that we're different."
That said, they were able to take it all in stride, because "everyone is very, very strong." It's a trait she says comes from their mother. "It's obviously a lot more difficult for our mom. And if it wasn't for her, then none of us would be here."
I Was Octomom premieres March 8, while Confessions of Octomom premieres March 10, both on Lifetime.
Read the original article on People
