Octomom Nadya Suleman brings her kids—and plenty of chaos—to the "Today" show (Video)
By Lylah M. Alphonse, Shine Staff
Octomom Nadya Suleman appeared on the "Today" show today, along with all of her 2-year-old octuplets and her 9-year-old daughter, Amerah.
With Ann Curry and Amerah sitting in chairs and Suleman sitting cross-legged on the floor, toddlers playing and crawling on and around her, Curry asked the 36-year-old mother of 14 how she manages to earn enough money to support all of her kids and whether she feels "a mother's guilt about not being able to give them enough attention."
Suleman sounded increasingly distracted and frustrated as her octuplets, bored with the toys and the interview, start exploring the studio, but she tried to fully answer all of Curry's questions. "I have been having a real job, actually, since last summer, as a fitness trainer" Suleman told her. "I'm in the process of earning my personal training license, but again that's peanuts compared to the total amount of dollars I will need to support all the kids every month." Her expenses run about $15,000 a month.
She insists that she and her manager are considering suing InTouch Weekly for slander, saying that she never sat down for an interview with the gossip magazine and that their recent article, in which she was quoted as saying "I hate babies," is a lie.
"I love my children," she said. "I would do anything for my kids. I live for my kids."
But when Curry asks her about "a mother's guilt," Suleman gets obviously annoyed. "I have learned to move past that," she said. "I personally cannot waste my energy just fixating on the past and my past choices, regardless of if they were good or bad choices, because how is that advantageous to them?"
About five minutes in to the nine-minute interview, with Noah, Maliyah, Isaiah, Mariyah, Makai, Josiah, Jeremiah, and Jonah crawling behind the set, crying, and climbing on chairs and desks-9-year-old Amerah tries hard to help staffers round them all up-Curry observes, "We are obviously experiencing a little bit of what you experience all the time, without help, as you've pointed out."
But Suleman insists that what looks like typical toddler behavior isn't, in fact, the norm in her house. "They've had two hours of sleep," she said. "This is the behavior for two hours of sleep. This is their first time traveling."
"At home? These are incredibly well-behaved children," she added.
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