Life & Style has more new video featuring an exclusive interview with Angela Suleman, the mother of "Octo-mom" Nadya Suleman. Here Angela talks about Nadya's personality before and after the birth of the octuplets. She also shares her thoughts on whether Nadya and the babies' father would ever get together in the future.
Click here to see Life & Style's previous video interviews with Angela.
Angela Suleman, the mother of "Octo-mom" Nadya Suleman, shares her thoughts on-camera with Life & Style about her famous daughter: the havoc Nadya and her children wreaked at Angela's home; her regrets on not being stricter with her daughter; and Nadya's unique personality. Check back here on Friday for new videos featuring more of Life & Style's interview with Angela.
Where there's a group of kids, there's bound to be chaos. But nothing prepared Angela Suleman -- mother of "Octo-mom" Nadya Suleman -- for the destruction caused by Nadya and her 14 children, who left her home wrecked and her life in ruins. Angela invited Life & Style reporter Rachel Teitelbaum to her Whittier, Calif., house on July 9 to see the damage for herself. There, in an exclusive interview, Angela opened up about the emotional -- and financial -- pain Nadya and her family have caused her. "My house is in shambles," Angela says. I'm so disappointed."
The smell of sour milk from an old spill permeates the air throughout Angela's modest three-bedroom home. In the living room, clothing, books, toys and papers are scattered everywhere. Doorways are scratched, the walls are covered with crayon and there's Silly String on the ceiling. The sofa is torn and full of holes. The bedrooms, bathrooms, yard and garage are in equally disastrous shape. The entire mess, says Angela, stems from a 2-month period beginning in late 2008 when she cared for her daughter's six older children while Nadya was in the hospital getting ready to have her octuplets. After the babies were born and released from the hospital, Nadya brought them back to Angela's home, where Nadya stayed until her house -- a brand-new 2,500-square-foot four-bedroom abode -- was completed.
Angela doesn't seem to think the kids, who ranged in age from 2 to 7 at the time, were the problem. Instead, she blames Nadya for not teaching them how to behave. "There isn't much discipline, unfortunately," Angela says. "Half the time, she didn't know what they were doing." When Nadya finally moved out, she left the home in tatters for her mother to deal with. "Everything here could eventually be cleaned up," Angela notes. "But I'm an old lady with a bad back. I'm not cleaning up after them."
For more photos of Angela's trashed home, pick up this week's issue of Life & Style, on newsstands now.
Photo Credit: Matei/Bauer-Griffin
After weeks of speculation, Nadya Suleman confirms to Life & Style exclusively that she will be doing a television show with her 14 children!
"Yes, it is official. I'm going to be doing a show, but it's not a reality show," Nadya tells Life & Style. "What I'm doing with this TV show is basically creating documentaries about the lives of my children. It's going to be an ongoing thing, and it will follow them from now until they are 18. It's being done by Eyeworks; they're in the UK. It will air in the UK and then we'll see if the US is interested."
Nadya adds that the documentary style of the show won't infringe on her family's privacy: "The producers will come here to film six times a year. They'll come by and take some footage and then they'll go. They won't be invading my life or my children's lives."
Plus, the filming will help this busy mom remember the important milestones for her children. "It will give me the opportunity to have incredible home movies that, believe me, I don't have the time to make myself. Having this documentary crew allows me to focus on raising my children and still have great movies of them."
For more on Octo-mom, pick up the latest issue of Life & Style, on newsstands now!
Photo Credit: INF Photo
Seventy-seven days after their birth, the Suleman octuplets are finally being reunited! The 8th baby, little Jonah Angel, is on his way home, Nadya Suleman tells Life & Style exclusively.
"Jonah is coming home tonight. He's great; they kept him because he was too small but he's strong. It really is a miracle. I'm so excited. Tomorrow, I will have my full family here for the first time. It is a great feeling."
Jonah arrives home 12 days after the rest of his siblings to complete the chaotic family of 14 children. He was the smallest of the octuplets, weighing in at just 1 pound, 8 ounces, when they were born on Jan. 26.
For more on the octuplets, pick up the latest issue of Life & Style!
Photo credit: Filmmagic
8-PAGE FEATURE INCLUDING EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS & TELL-ALL INTERVIEW WITH OCTO-MOM, NADYA SULEMAN
In a two-hour sit-down interview with Life & Style, Nadya opens up about the choices she's made, the father of her children and reveals the truth behind all the rumors..
Nadya Suleman's home in La Habra, Calif., should be a scene of chaos, yet when Life & Style arrived on April 4, things were quiet and serene. Nadya seemed less concerned with her appearance than spending time with her kids. "This is who I am," Nadya says. "There are so many lies out there, and they're all just so different from the person I really am." Here, in her first extensive print interview, Nadya finally sets the record straight for Life & Style.
L&S: You've never talked about the birth itself. What did it feel like to give birth to eight babies?
Nadya: It was extraordinarily painful. With that many babies, it feels like your insides are being torn apart. The babies were ripping apart my organs. Afterward, people thought I went into hiding. I wasn't in hiding -- I was in pain. I could hardly move.
L&S: Did you ever dream of having a family the traditional way?
Nadya: No. I was married at one point, but it didn't work out. I decided to go on my reproductive journey alone. But people think I just woke up one day and decided to start a family. I've been trying to have kids since I was 19 years old! I'm 33 now. I'd just been saving my money. I was a psychiatric technician -- almost every day I was working 16-hour days. For years, I worked non-stop until I saved for the first four in vitros.
L&S: How did you approach the babies' father to donate the sperm?
Nadya: Years ago, I said, "Hypothetically speaking, would you ever help a friend have children?" He said he would. And I said, "Then help me." And he did. I kept going back to him, and year after year, he kept helping me. He was upset when I did it again. He said the same thing everyone else did: "You have six beautiful children -- why do you want more?"
L&S: Baby No. 8, Jonah, is still at Kaiser Permanente Hospital waiting to be released. What's wrong?
Nadya: He has a little cleft on his lip. But it's not a big deal. It's cosmetic. Eventually, they can close it. Jonah won't be coming home until he gains a little weight. He's only 4 pounds but he's growing bigger and stronger every day.
L&S: Are you going to do a reality show?
Nadya: Absolutely not! I have no interest in being famous. I'd love to vanish from the public eye as soon as I can.
For more from Nadya's tell-all interview and to check out exclusive photos of Nadya with the babies, pick up this week's issue of Life & Style Weekly, on newsstands now!
Sleeping peacefully while swaddled in their carriers, two more of Nadya Suleman's octuplets, babies No. 5 and No. 6 -- brothers Makai and Jeremiah -- were released from Kaiser Permanente Hospital into their mother's care on the evening of March 26. "They're both calm and quiet," Nadya said at the time.
But while the situation outside Nadya's four-bedroom La Habra, Calif., home may be under control, what's going on inside is cause for alarm, according to lawyer Gloria Allred. Allred, who represents Angels in Waiting -- the nursing service Nadya fired after less than five days on the job -- has come out with a series of harsh new claims against Nadya that portray her as an unfit mother whose only concern is her own publicity.
For more on the Octo-mom scandal, pick up the latest issue of Life & Style, on newsstands now!
Photo Credit: INF Photo
Since their birth on Jan. 26, Nadya Suleman's octuplets have been under medical watch at the Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center in Bellflower, Calif. But on March 17, two of the infants were released to Nadya, 33, with two more following on March 21.
"We're halfway there," she told Radaronline.com. "I can't wait to have the other four home so I won't have to keep trekking back and forth." Of course, with six other children to raise at her new La Habra, Calif., home, making frequent trips to the hospital has become quite a task.
For more on how Nadya is handling the stress, pick up the latest issue of Life & Style, on newsstands now!
Photo Credit: INF Photo
Work to baby-proof Nadya Suleman's new La Habra, Calif., home started today, and Life & Style was there to witness it
"I was hired by Nadya's lawyer, Jeffrey Check, to baby-proof the house," Kimberly Mitchell, owner of the baby-proofing company Boo Boo Busters, told Life & Style exclusively. "I came here on Saturday to give an estimate and got here early this morning to start the work. It is a big job -- five bedrooms and three baths and of course lots of kids. So it will cost about $2,500 to do the job. Nadya's lawyer is taking care of it."
It's a huge undertaking. "I'll be putting in 43 latches, three fire ladders, two smoke alarms, Plexiglas on the stairs because the railing is not up to baby-proofing code -- and more," Mitchell says. "And after they move in the furniture I will come back and do another assessment and add stuff like television straps.
"We are doing everything that is possible because there will be a lot of wear and tear on the house, lots of busy hands and little fingers. We have to get it done before the babies come home but we don't know when that is going to be. We are waiting on word from the hospital."
For more on Nadya's home, check out the new issue of Life & Style, on newsstands Wednesday.
Photo Credit: INF
Photo Credit: INF Photo
Since Nadya Suleman gave birth to octuplets on Jan. 26, the unemployed single mother of 14 has faced harsh attacks on her intelligence, parenting ability -- and sanity. So when her father, Ed Doud, went on the Oprah Winfrey Show recently, he finally had the chance to come to his daughter's defense. Instead, he added fuel to the fire. "Now I'm no psychiatrist," he told the talk-show host, "but I question her mental situation."
So do many of those who have watched her struggle to raise her first six children. "What she has done is just crazy," Barbara Hagely, who lives across the street from the house in Whittier, Calif., where Nadya lives with her parents, tells Life & Style. "She always looked frazzled before. I just cannot imagine how she's going to manage now."
For more on Octo-mom and the challenges she faces, pick up the latest issue of Life & Style, on newsstands now!
Photo Credit: Courtesy of NBC
When Nadya Suleman gave birth to her octuplets on Jan. 26, the mom of 14 described the newest arrivals as "a miracle." In fact, in an interview with NBC's Ann Curry, she cooed as any new mother would. "They're so beautiful, and they're so healthy," she said. "Very healthy and thriving and just active."
But unlike most new mothers, Nadya has become a source of public debate -- and outrage. "I feel as though I've been under the microscope because I chose this unconventional life," says Nadya, 33, in response to allegations that, as an unemployed single mom with six children already at home, she is unfit to raise eight more babies.
For more on the Octo-mom scandal, pick up the latest issue of Life & Style, on newsstands now!
During her recent sit-down with Ann Curry on NBC's Today, Nadya Suleman captivated the world when she spoke out for the first time about her 2-week-old octuplets. But almost more remarkable than what she said in her revealing interview was her eerie physical similarity to celebrity mom of six Angelina Jolie -- who had sat down with Curry in May 2007 to discuss her own growing brood.
"Their brows are almost identical, and they both have nice smooth foreheads," plastic surgeon Dr. Anthony Youn tells Life & Style.
In fact, Dr. Youn (who has not treated Nadya) says the mom of 14 (she also has a set of twins and four other kids) appears to have undergone surgical procedures to augment her lips and perfect her nose -- making her resemble Angelina. "The similarities between Nadya and Angelina are uncanny," Dr. Youn notes.
"They have the same hair and big lips, and Nadya is quite tall too," Sally Ramirez, one of Nadya's neighbors in Whittier, Calif., tells Life & Style. "She would sometimes giggle if anybody mentioned the likeness to Angelina."
But the resemblance between Nadya and Angelina is more than just physical. Angelina, who now shares six children with Brad Pitt, has admitted to being a loner who had trouble forming friendships before she adopted her first child, eldest son Maddox, in 2001, then began raising him as a single mom. Similarly, Nadya -- 33, the same age as Angie -- confesses to initially wanting children for companionship. "There was always a dream of mine to have a large family, a huge family, and I just longed for certain connections and attachments with another person that I really lacked growing up," Nadya, who was raised as an only child, told Curry.
For more on the similarities between Nadya and Angie, pick up the latest issue of Life & Style, on newsstands now!
