Octomom Natalie “Nadya” Suleman Reveals New Paternity Details & If Kids Have Met Dads

Natalie “Nadya” Suleman, better known as “Octomom,” is a single mother of 14 who famously welcomed eight children at once in 2009. While her family has garnered world wide attention, one thing that has never been disclosed is the father of the children.

“I got married only to appease my Middle Eastern family,” Suleman explained in the March 17 episode of her new docuseries Confessions of Octomom, per Today.

“We never consummated the marriage. That was not a real marriage. It’s not even worth speaking about.”

Once her marriage broke down, Suleman began her quest to find a “donor dad” so she could begin her dream of becoming a mother.

She did attempt to have children with her ex-boyfriend Denis Beaudoin, however after numerous attempts of intrauterine insemination (IUI), Suleman knew she needed to find another option.

“At that point in time,” she said. “I took that as a sign that maybe he wasn’t the right one.”

She then looked to a “highly intelligent, tall, good looking, athletic” friend that was “very mature.”

“I asked him, ‘Hypothetically speaking, if a friend of yours asked you to help them if they wanted to have a child… Would you consider helping and donating to a friend?'” she shared on the series, adding the duo met at a club. “He was stunned. And then he agreed to do it.”

Through his donations, she welcomed her six eldest children — Elijah, 23, Amerah, 22, Joshua, 20, Aiden, 19, and twins Calyssa and Caleb, 14 — via IVF.

However, it wasn’t smooth sailing through all pregnancies, as she shared that by her fifth pregnancy, she had to “really beg him to do it again.” He ultimately caved and the fifth pregnancy resulted in twins.

As we know, Suleman was not done just yet. She was “vehemently determined” to have a a seventh child — thinking, “One more. And I would do it no matter what.”

This then led to her purchasing one vial of sperm from a sperm bank in California, which led to the pregnancy that catapulted her fame.

She welcomed six boys and two girls — via in vitro fertilization, earning the nickname “Octomom.” Suleman’s octuplets include Noah, Josiah, Nariyah, Maliyah, Jonah, Jeremiah, Isaiah and Makai.

In an on-camera interview, Suleman’s oldest daughter, Amerah opened up about the moment she decided to find her father when she was 12.

With the help of social media, she found her bio-dad on Facebook and reached out to him without her mom’s knowledge. However, this ended up getting back to Suleman, who said that Amerah was allowed to get to know her father once she turned 18.

“But after then, I never felt the need to,” Amerah explained. “He’s a stranger. I understood why he didn’t feel the need to be in our lives after the eight came, and that’s it.”

While Amerah felt she needed to find her Dad, some of her siblings thought otherwise.

“I was never personally interested in who my biological father was,” said Joshua, Suleman’s 21-year-old son. “She explained to me that it was a friend of hers, a donor. That’s all I needed to know.”

Elijah Suleman, who is now 23, declined to comment.

While Suleman’s eldest children are able to know their father’s identity, her youngest eight do not, due the anonymous donation.

“I believe I’ve never needed another parent figure in my life because Mom is more than enough for that,” her 16-year-old daughter Maliyah said.

The Lifetime movie and docuseries — titled I Was Octomom and Confessions of Octomom — premiered on March 8 and March 10, respectively, with new episodes dropping Sundays.