Suleman also gave us an inside look at her family life ... saying her older children -- the ones born before the octuplets -- have an incredible work ethic. They've got jobs and are pursuing college -- except for one of her kids who needs full-time care because of his autism diagnosis.
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00We want to hear about your family. We want to hear about your kids. You got to bundle
00:07this. We can't go one by one because we don't have the time. But give us a sense of give
00:12us a sense of your family. We're all very, very close. My oldest kids are let's start
00:17with the oldest Elijah. They're all they all have a very, very strong work ethic. They're
00:21very smart. I they want to be successful. They're taking classes in college. They're
00:26also working full time. My son, Joshua, he was only for their tablets. He's 21. He's
00:34married. And I am my first grandchild. She's six months. She's the light of my life. All
00:39the tablets. Not one of them has a disability, not mental, not physical, which is extraordinary.
00:43I'm even blown away at that. They have surpassed every odd against them. Every expert out there.
00:49All the experts said that they would have 100% of the chance they would have some disability.
00:53Each one would and not one of them does. But Aiden, who is one of my older kids, he's
00:5919. He's total care. Primary diagnosis is mental incapacity. Secondary diagnosis is
01:04profound autism. He's nonverbal. And all my family, all my kids are with him right now.
01:10And he is he's my full time job. I worked as a substance abuse counselor from 2013 to
01:1618. I had to leave my job to be his full time provider. And I will die taking care of him.
01:22You know, he's my life. So and then the eight, you know, they're all amazing. They're thriving,
01:27healthy, all vegan. We stopped there. How on earth? How did you do that? After my mom
01:34passed away from cancer? Yeah, 2014. She I started researching. I love researching.
01:41I was in graduate school and I had the octuplets and that's where I was safest in college.
01:46So my favorite thing is to research. I started to look up medical journals and I researched
01:51all these the factors involved in contributing to the the proliferation of malignant cells.
01:58And my mom, she didn't lead a healthy lifestyle. She ate a lot of meat and dairy and
02:03refined processed sugar. I started then researching veganism. And I ended up for a while,
02:08like almost predominantly raw vegan. And my kids wanted the little ones wanted to become vegan.
02:13They were six when they turned vegan. We are ethical vegans, though. So I discovered the
02:19animal agriculture industry and how unbelievably cruel it is. And I refuse to contribute and
02:24condone to the merciless suffering of sentient beings. And my kids love animals, love everyone,
02:31people, animals. So we they they're also ethical vegans. You know, kids always reach an age where
02:36they look back at their baby photos. And I'm wondering what their reactions have been to
02:43that particular photo of you when you were pregnant with them. What do they say when they
02:50see that photo? It's got to be a weird experience for them. Many of the little eight, they're in
02:56shock that I went like that right back to being healthy. I said, it's a healthy lifestyle. Yes,
03:02I did have a tummy tuck, but that doesn't make you fit and in shape and healthy.
03:06They find it inspiring. They're very positive. The eight are so protective of me and very
03:11complimentary of me. However, one of my daughter's, Calissa, she's gonna be so mad at me.
03:17She laughs. She says it looks like from something from the movie Aliens.
03:23So scary, mom. Oh, my goodness. What do you think when you look back at that?
03:28It's quite grotesque. So are those lips. Those come on. Those are so seriously ridiculous,
03:33blown out of proportion. That's where the lies of, you know, the lies of the what's it called,
03:39the plastic surgery of the face. And Angelina, that came from those poorly injected lips.
03:43I see sausage lips stuck together, should never been injected. But I do see, you know,
03:49I see my future kids that I'm gonna love and love. And like, I've never loved anything in my life.
03:55So do you ever forget their names? I mean, I know that sounds like a stupid question,
04:01but I'm actually serious. You got to call it the wrong name. Right.
04:04Every day I say Ella JJ or, you know, I mix their names up. I don't think I'm the only
04:09mom that does that, though. I call Calissa Mira. She gets so mad. And then the little kids don't
04:13care. Like Genoa, his name's Noah. And then I mix Jonah Noah. They don't care. I really don't.
04:20It's funny.