WHITTIER, Calif. — In her first interview since giving birth to octuplets, Nadya Suleman told NBC she wanted a huge family to make up for the isolation she says she always felt as an only child.
In a brief excerpt of the interview released Thursday, the 33-year-old single mother told “Today” show anchor Ann Curry that she had a dysfunctional childhood and sought to erase that with the closeness children could bring. NBC said the full interview will air Monday.
Suleman, who now has 14 children, says all were conceived through in vitro fertilization with sperm donated by a friend.
The octuplets, born last week, remain hospitalized. The other children range in age from 2 to 7. Suleman says it took seven years of trying before she became pregnant with her first child.
Meanwhile, a California agency said it paid Suleman more than $165,000 in disability payments for an on-the-job back injury.
The payments made over six years were disclosed Thursday to The Associated Press following a public records request to the Department of Mental Health. The payments were made between 2002 and 2008, during which time Suleman gave birth to most of her six other children.
Suleman was employed at a state mental health hospital from 1997 until December, when she resigned the position. Records show that for much of that time, however, she was unable to work.
