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Dublin: 8 °C Friday 24 May, 2013

‘Octomom’ files for bankruptcy with debts of up to $1m

Nadya Suleman – who already had six children before having octuplets – had previously sworn never to live off handouts.

Nadya
Nadya "Octomom" Suleman at a yard sale held at her home in La Habra, California, in 2010.
Image: Vince Flores/UK Press

‘OCTOMOM’ – the Californian woman who have birth to octuplets in 2008 – has filed for bankruptcy.

Nadya Suleman, who had already been the mother of six children before having her last set of children, was forced into the filing after being pushed into breaking her long-term pledge of never living on welfare provisions.

It was reported in March that Suleman had been forced into receiving welfare from the State of Calfornia, being given $2,000 a month on a credit card which would be closely monitored to ensure that it was only used to pay for food.

Suleman, 36, had posed topless for Closer magazine earlier this year, receiving a reported $8,000 for her appearance – which had apparently been motivated by a chronic need for money to support her children.

Aside from having pledged never to become reliant on government support, Suleman – whose children were conceived through IVF – had also previous pledged never to appear in pornography, a stance she has also now reversed.

“I have had to make some very difficult decisions this year and filing Chapter 7 was one of them [...] but I have to do what is best for my children and I need a fresh start,” MSNBC quotes her as saying.

Asked then about the prospect of appearing in pornography to pay the bills, she said:

You know, if the opportunity comes up, I’ll be the first to admit, I’m gonna eat my words! Because all that matters is that I can take care of my family.

‘Octomom’ gained worldwide prominence in 2008 when her children became only the second set of octuplets in the United States to all survive childbirth.

The octuplets were born when Suleman decided she did not want to dispose of embryos left over from previous rounds of IVF, and had them implanted in her womb.

It was reported that all six of her remaining embryos were planted, with two of them splitting into twins – meaning, curiously, that her set of octuplets includes two sets of identical twins.

Octomom’s status was set to be usurped earlier this week, when a Mexican woman said she was expecting nine children – but her claim later turned out to be a hoax.

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Comments (40 Comments)

  • Clearly not mentally stable. She’ll be used and discarded by the porn industry, silly move.

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  • ‘I’d like to make a stupid decision and make others pay for it.’- Good mantra to live by Supermom.

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    • So wot ur saying is because she made some incredibly stupid decisions with far reaching consequences (and there is no debating how stupid that decision was) she therefore deserves a really shit. life where the only option to support her children that she sees as viable is selling her body. here’s hoping for ur sake you never make a stupid decision.

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    • What’s your suggestion then Niamh? Give her 10k a month? That fact the she will probably now do porn really stands to her character. Where the f@ck are the fathers as well? I’d say the father of the 8 kids is hiding for the fear of the maintenance. I’d also wonder if he had any say on being the father to all these kids as well?

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    • Doubt the father/s were involved. Fro wot i can see she is an attention seeker and if that was the case and she had no dependents. then that’s her own look out but her children need her. i don’t. have the answers but i have made some pretty stupid decisions in my time(none as stupid or selfish as hers), thankfully i didn’t have anyone passing judgement on me or punishing me for the rest of my life.

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    • No one is punishing her. She’s only reaping what she’s sowed and if anything she is punishing her own children for the mistakes she has made.

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    • She can’t unmake. them now. now she has the world and its mother judging her. its not like she murdered someone or abused her kids. there are plenty of ‘parents’ out there way more worthy of judgement. than her.

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    • There is a lot of that going around these days

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  • This is a despicable woman who used IVF and the birth of her own children to try and create a “media” career for herself. As a single mother who already had six other young children and was unemployed and on public assistance programs at the time she took the decision to implant the embryos back into her womb. The house she lived in before all this happened was in default of its mortgage.

    All of her first six children were as a result of abuse of IVF protocols by a now disbarred doctor. This woman apparently still has stored embryos waiting for her in case she wants to try again.

    She wanted to try in-vitro fertilization and her husband at the time refused. He is not the father of any of her first six children.

    Apparently she has a compulsice hoarding disorder and this obviously applies to her children too…utterly disgraceful.

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    • In the same post you said she has a compulsive hoarding disorder, yet called her despicable….
      Can’t have it both ways…

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    • @mattoid…and your point is????

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    • My point is that if you think she has a psychiatric disorder (and I’m not saying she has) then its a bit rich to also describe her as a despicable person (and I’m not saying she isn’t).

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    • How do you possibly arrive at the conclusion that her compulsive hoarding disorder in any way justifies what this woman has done with regard to seeking out media opportunities to further her own cause, not that of her children. It has been well documented that she has alleggedly had plastic surgery to her face, posed semi-nude for a magazine and appeared in a sado-masochistic film, which are all hallmarks of attention seeking behaviour.

      The very fact that she stated that she would never be a drain on public funds was a complete lie as she was already doing so. It is obvious that her “media career” has not turned out to be the money spinner she thought it would be and now has debts in excess of $1 Million.

      You are entitled to your opinion but common sense must prevail for you to see this woman for what she really is. Especially when your comments allow you to sit on the fence.

      There is nothing rich in what I say…merely a deep dispair at how selfish one person can be when it comes to the lives of others. As with most attention seekers she has ignored every decent moral that should exist and brought fourteen…yes fourteen children into this world with no way of paying for them, never mind nurturing them.

      But thats ok….the taxpayer in the good old US of A will take care of her when the media are not interested.

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    • mattoid 01/05/12 #

      Grant, get over yourself. You were the one that suggested that the reason she has so many children was because of a hoarding disorder.

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    • How’s that fence?

      Rather uncomfortable I would imagine.

      Read peoples comments before replying…saves us all the effort of explaining things to you.

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  • Classic case of a disillusioned fame hungry attention seeker.

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  • Surely the pro life loons will give her a dig out wouldnt it have been murder if she hadn’t implanted the embryos?

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  • It’s just a really really sad story…there are no winners..

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  • Jaysus! I think that after having six kids all at once I’d NEVER want to get pregnant again for fear of the same happening…..very stupid decision she made but I do feel sorry for those kids. They have a very poor future a head of them if she can’t support them financially. We’ve got a toddler and another on the way and it’s pretty tight financially as it is. Couldn’t imagine trying to support 6 and deciding to go again which led to another 8!!!!!!!!! She’ll have to do more than show off her tits to support these poor kids!

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    • I completely agree that she has made a completely selfish irresponsible decision. She is clearly mentally unwell However public assistance is to support the children who are innocent once the children are born the state has a responsibility to ensure if parents do not provide for them that the state does. Removing children into care is not the answer the care system in America is horrific where foster care is privatised. Even if she is an attention seeker no one has suggested that she does not love and care for them as best she can

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    • I never said anything about her mental health. She said herself she didn’t want to live off state benefits. I definitely never said or implied she should hand the kids over to foster care and I also didn’t claim that she didn’t love or care.
      I just think she made a very stupid and irresponsible decision which she didn’t plan out correctly and that these poor kids are looking forward to a life of poverty if she doesn’t go to even more extreme lengths. Just to make sure that you don’t take me up incorrectly again,I do NOT mean tgat she should turn to prostitution!
      I gave no idea how anyone can afford to keep such a large family in clothes,education,food and health care without either being a millionaire or claiming everything they can off of the state.
      We’re only just going to be able to support our 2 kids comfortably and my husband has a very good job. It’s bloody scary the position she has gotten herself into

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  • Really feel sorry for the children with a mother like that.

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  • @Niamh. She is in a world of her own making. Now the taxpayer will have to pay for her mistakes. She is the one who made the ‘stupid decision’…let her pay on her own.

    I think Thomas Jefferson said it best “To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of actions with which he disagrees and abhors is sinful and tyrannical”

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  • America :-)

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  • She shouldn’t have to resort to pornography no more than some women are forced into prostitution to feed their kids. Them again this might be her strategy, I.e. if she doesn’t get help she’ ll go down that road and it will be everybody else’s fault.

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  • Ok have 14 children and ask the state actually ask everyone else to pay for them. Chinas one child policy has some substance when you look at people like this.

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  • Poor, poor kids, never asked to be born.
    What a bleak future they have, far better off being adopted to stable families that can provide them with attention, shelter, protection and love.

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    • How do you know they don’t receive all of the above at home with their mother? Just because she is poor doesn’t mean that she can’t provide love attention and stability. Its a bit over the top looking to have them adopted off.

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    • Kitalpha, Please explain how 1 mother and no father can provide the care and attention that 14 children under 6 yrs of age need and deserve?
      Doesn’t even amount to 1hour/child/day if she she did nothing else but spend time with these children.
      This is a woman who recently stated in an interview that she regretted doing it, didn’t know what possessed her to go through IVF treatment again as she wasn’t ” very maternal”, her words.
      Selfish woman indeed, even her own mother thought so at the time of the birth of the 8 babies.

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  • Not sure if there is a big demand for stretch mark fetishes

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  • Not going to be the most intelligent of statements I’ve ever made but should convey my feelings properly, she’s an idiot, her “porn” career will be short as most blokes wouldn’t ride her for practice. I feel genuinely sorry for her children, she’s a disgrace.

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  • Wouldnt be surprised if a sextape of her comes out over the next 2-3 weeks. Regardless of the fact her not being able to maintain a financial stability for her kids and even if she is a bit mad, she is doing this because it might be the quickest and easiest way to provide for her kids. She seems like a caring mom but is going about it the wrong way.

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  • Paul 01/05/12 #

    I don’t think she set out to be an attention seeker or to have another 8 kids but she’s accepted her lot and is doing what any loving mother would do, trying to support them in any way she can even if it means going into the gutter film industry.
    What would you do (she cant turn back the clock) given her choice

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