Octomom Nadya Suleman Gives Life Update & Talks Lifetime Movie & Docuseries

Natalie “Nadya” Suleman is ready to share her story in a big way.

The 49-year-old known as Octomom has a Lifetime movie called “I Was Octomom” and the docuseries “Confessions of Octomom” coming in March.

Suleman opened up to People magazine about her life as a mom of 14 – including her nearly 16-year-old octuplets – and why they wanted to participate in the Lifetime projects.

Nadya said, "Today, my family and I are taking our life back," adding it was actually the kids who wanted to step out of the shadows.

"I've been saying, I want to keep them safe and protect my kids, and well, they're older now," she explained. "They're turning 16 and making the decision to really do this."

Suleman explained further, "My kids are going to share for the first time. Also, my older kids are speaking in the public eye and they did not want to. And actually, I didn't even want [to speak out] to be honest."

Her daughter Nariyah, 15, told People, "I'm just very excited. Our mom would finally be able to say her side of the story, because I feel like it was very unfair how she was terrorized and hated for just being a mother. And she had to sacrifice so much just for her children."

The movie will follow her journey to expand her family. Already a single mom of six, who had used IVF in the past, she went back to her doctor in 2008 for another procedure. He ended up implanting 12 embryos, and she became pregnant with eight. The first surviving octuplets in history were born Jan. 26, 2009.

She tells People, "The movie follows my journey, starting with my decision to have one more IVF procedure to try to complete my family of six. I wanted only one more, to becoming a single mom of 14 and all the trials and tribulations, the challenges and struggles, what I had to do to continue to fight for my family."

Suleman said it wasn’t easy at first, especially with all the negativity coming her way. "In the beginning it was complete pandemonium,” she said. “There was of course all of the details of the death threats and fearing for my family's life. And then on the other hand, I had to continue to sacrifice my integrity repeatedly to survive and provide for my family."

It took years to find some normalcy. She shared, "It wasn't until they were maybe about 4 years old, I finally was able to escape all of that, the attack it felt from the world... and all that global scorn and condemnation, being the target of misplaced hate. I could escape and finally go back to the life I had once known before."

Suleman added, "Eventually I just had to lean in really to my faith, my very strong faith in God. And it wasn't until I did that, everything fell into place beautifully."

Nadya, who recently became a grandmother, insisted, "I'm not this compartmentalized caricature. I am not Octomom, I'm a mom."

As for why she’s speaking out, Suleman said, "The main reasons for me in sharing my true story, my perspective is to help people, to help women in particular who are struggling with one child or none, to maybe inspire them to pull out the strengths inside that they didn't know they had to progress forward, to keep progressing in their life."