Octomom Responds To Food Stamp Critics
Nadya "Octomom" Suleman has come under fire once again -- this time it's for her decision to take public assistance to help feed her 14 children.
The state program offers $2,000 a month to large families that earn less than $119,000 a year and her detractors are up in arms about the fact she's now taking money to pay for, what they consider, too many babies in the first place.
This morning, Suleman sat down with Matt Lauer on the Today show and explained that her choice to accept food stamps was not an easy one.
"I made that call reluctantly," she said. "I needed to remove my pride, it was fear. I was terrified and I received thousands and thousands of death threats." But she was quick to add, "I still am [working] as hard as I can to support them."
Lauer then asked if she thinks it was delusional to think she could properly support such a large family. After owning up to the possibility that she may have bitten off more than she can chew financially, Suleman added, "In my mind I was doing well with the six and it's three books in itself to rationalize why I wanted one more after six. But who cares how I feel – it's about my children. They deserve the best. My family is my priority."
Suleman hopes to be off public assistance in two months. In order to do so, she's accepting jobs wherever they come -- that ranges from posing topless for a British magazine to participating in Dial-A-Star.
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"I'm far from a star but I'm someone who people want to talk to," she said. Although many of those people have nothing but bad things to say to her. "It will take many years to get respect," she said. "It would take 14 books to tell you about my life – people don't know what's going on in my life but 95 percent of what has been out from the beginning is erroneous. I get letters from people saying they look up to me for being able to stay strong in the face of adversity."