“Octomom” Squares Off With Dr. Phil, Provides Answers to Rumors

Nadya Suleman, the mother of the world’s most famous octuplets, was on the Dr. Phil show yesterday and will return today.  This is different from her appearance last month when she was interviewed off-site, away from the studio audience.  I’m guessing that, for the sake of drama, Dr. Phil decided it was time for her to head down to the studio and air out her serious problems.  Previously, I refused to refer to her as the “Octomom” because I thought it was a slightly mean term used by the all-intrusive media but, clearly, this woman does not really want to be in hiding and is using her newfound notoriety for all it is worth.  Moving on…

Yesterday, she talked about several topics.  One thing that was brought up was that she has accepted the offer by the Angels in Waiting organization to provide 24-hour assistance for all of her children (the octuplets plus the six kids she already had).  "Extremely, extremely excited and relieved," Suleman said. "Like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders, and it’s just amazing because it’s 100 percent for my children and it makes me feel like everything is falling into place – and I feel safe."

Nadya also admitted that using fertility treatments to get pregnant when she couldn’t afford to raise children was unrealistic and irrational.  She said that she has been reluctant to admit to this in the past because she thought people would think “Well, you don’t want the babies, you don’t love them” and I can see her point.

There was good news.  She has a new home! "[I] finally, finally, found something modest. It’s conducive to premature infants” she said.  “it’s about four bedrooms, which we’ll eventually some day grow out of it. Nothing extravagant. Nothing that matters except safety for them." 

Naturally, things had to turn trashy since Dr. Phil had to ask about the publicist who called her “greedy” and “nuts” before he quit (she said his behavior was “incredibly unethical and untrue and unprofessional"), the 911 call when she reported her son as missing (she says she was five months pregnant with the octuplets, hormonal and didn’t mean it when she said she was “going to kill” herself), the million-dollar porno offer (she said “even if I had no children and was offered $100 million, of course not. that’s not who I am"), the offer to sell her birth video (she’s considering it) and whether she’ll ever do a reality TV show ("it depends on how it’s done, but when they’re much older, and that’s not up to me – it’s up to the kids. I feel it’s exploitative"). 

On today’s episode, Dr. Phil will get to meet the babies.  Doesn’t this feel a lot like he’s just using this really popular story for ratings?  Isn’t it best, at this point, to encourage Nadya to live quietly and protect her children?  What do you think?

image: DrPhil.com