Video: Octomom: "I Am a Competent Mother"
Ready to see Nadya Suleman bowl, fight with her mother, change 700 diapers a week and escape paparazzi in the biggest family van ever?
Thursday night, a one-hour documentary called Octomom: Me and My 14 Kids premieres on British TV's Channel 4; the show will air (retitled My Life As the Octomom) at a later date in the U.S.
In this lively promo clip -- that features Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" playing in the background -- the mother of 14 cheerfully says "sometimes I think God is testing me." She defends herself against her critics, too: "I'm a competent, good mother."
How does Octomom get through the day? Check our day-in-the-life slideshow and find out!
The reel also introduces her nervous lawyer (who worries that her kids will be taken away), her best friend (who wants to hook Suleman up with a man) and her mother Angela ("you need help!" she screams).
In the documentary, Suleman is open about her struggle to bond with each of her octuplets, admitting that "it takes a while . . . I found myself bonding with, like, three or four [more] than the others. It's so hard."
Is Nadya the most controversial mom of all time? See her and others in our slideshow
The show's producer and director, Luke Campbell, was surprised by Suleman. "She was completely approachable," Campbell says. "She had a logical sense of the enormity of her situation and the task of raising this gargantuan brood. I admired her tenacity."
Meet the Octuplets! See photos taken shortly after their birth
But the director-producer admits that Suleman has had her moments, and he worries for the future of her family. "She burst into tears for half an hour mid shoot . . . She means well, but I don't think in the future she's going to be able to really provide the necessary level of monitoring and mothering [that a child needs]."
Shooting for the documentary -- and future installments to air at later dates -- began in April. In a lengthy Nov. 12 profile in the New York Times Magazine, Suleman distinguishes the documentary filming from a Jon and Kate -style reality show. And her kids understand, too, she tells the magazine.
See Nadya's personal family photo album
"They're able to conceptualize that, O.K., we don't necessarily want this. But it's controlled," she says of film crews taping them "only for a few days, every six or so months," as the New York Times puts it.
Suleman adds: "You live in my life one day and you'll see, you'll realize: it's ludicrous."
Tell Us What You Think
45US..if you keep hyping this woman...I will quit buying your magazine..it is just that simple. and to Loni and Heather, you are either her, a relative, or her lawyer, or a plain idiot. Come to think of it, you would have to be an idiot to be any one of the above.
She will always be sane, caring with Her Children and natural as She got Her body back in shape Herself! no free Plastic surgery like Fake Kate!
To "jerk" You are once sick piece of shi*t!!!
She gets down and plays with Her kids. And She got Her body back to shape like normal Women. Nothing like Fake Kate Gosselin.
TEAM NADYA!!!!!!!
Some repulsive faux celebriskanck that absolutely no one wants to know about--didn't the LAST documentry's ratings prove that?-- just can't be manufactured into a marketable celebrity no matter how hard Eyesore tries. We just don't care about her or the same stale repetitions of self-obsessed narcissistic babble no matter how much we worry about those babies and no information--only fluff PR. 14 kids that deserve better than to be peddled to the highest bidder by a mother who brought them in the world to simply support her. There's nobody who wants to watch Norma Desmond Suleman using her litter as her close-up props. Hey, US, we all already know just which doctor the Daddy probably is. And he's NOT the fertility specialist. But he does have an obligation to support the kids his kids he did agree to procreate. Why should California be supporting a doctors bad-judgement consequences? Who should know better where babies come from? He could have stopped this from happening anywhere along the line. And he already has enough money to support them
extraordinary, my butt. They should say money-grubber who is using her kids to make money. God is testing you? God gave you the chance to say no to getting implanted with a bazillion embryos. Tough cookies, you made your bed, now lie in it. without our help, we didn't force you to have all those kids, so please don't make me support them. I'm already supporting all the babies having babies at my work.
Octofreak is mentally ill. This is obvious. And her children are suffering as a result, especially the older ones who can't get the attention they deserve in this circus. She needs psychiatric care, and the newborns need to be placed in real families.
Tony, I think you need to go back seeing your shrink again. And maybe get a blowup doll.
For one she has only been offered a couple of shows...she is toxic..eyeworks said it themselves they could not get businesses to film in because they didn't want bad publicity for themselves..and aren't people sick of hearing the same story over and over..I need to do this to provide for my kids..GEES..she couldn't support the first six let alone one more, let alone eight, she has not made a living for her kids in there whole little short lives..funny now they are making her a living now..UGH!!!! Shame-Shame-Shame on you...your kids are very unhappy and you don't seem to care!!!! Keep the cameras rolling
Don't worry people! Obamacare is going to make it so every indigent/moronic person has a right to free IVF! Multiples in every home! It'll be great! *obviously sarcasm*
Where the hell did Octopu$$y get a BLONDE baby? One of the octo-fruits of her loins has blonde hair and light eyes. Odd...
she lives in lala land people!! Completely self absorbed. Stop acting as if she is a serious parent to all those kids! She doesn't CARE about her kids except for what she can make off them. Its all about OCTO face.
so Vickki - people judge her because she is using human lives for publicity and $$. Sick sick sick. She had 6 kids she couldn't take care of BEFORE she was impregnated with the last 8. No home, no job, no husband. So sorry, in my book, using 14 babies to take a shot at your dream of reality tv and surgically altering her face to look like Angelina is bizarre wrong and sick. She is not a good mother, she is a self absorbed mental patient.
If you have to announce that you're a competent mom, chances are you're not.
stella2010 - YA THINK?? where have you been? Octo freak, you shouldn't have to TELL people you are competent IF in fact you are.
Octomom doing great w/ the children...Octomom looks like Angelina Jolie Pitt....
Her mom is the crazy one, geez. The babies are very cute. The mom needs to have positive people around her not that mother of hers
She needs to tell her mother to go away and stay away. She is toxic and bad for the kids to be around. She is always negative and screaming at Nadya. It accomplishes nothing.
i watcged the show an eas really good to see that even though she has 14 children shes dion really well. so i dont know why they are giving her such bad media because she gas 14 children people should take a day in her shoes before they truely judge this woman.... so no nmatter what keep up the good work.