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Octuplets mom says she longed to escape loneliness

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-02-06 09:34

WHITTIER, Calif. -- In her first interview since giving birth to octuplets, Nadya Suleman tells NBC she wanted a huge family to make up for the isolation she says she always felt as an only child.

Ed Suleman carries one of his grandsons back home, as members of the media gather outside his residence in Whittier, Calif. on Thursday, February 5, 2009. His daughter Nadya Suleman, 33, who already has six young children, was released earlier from a hospital in in Bellflower, Calif. earlier Thursday, after giving birth to octuplets on January 26. [Agencies]

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In a brief excerpt of the interview released Thursday, the 33-year-old single mother tells "Today" show anchor Ann Curry she had a dysfunctional childhood and sought to erase that with the closeness children could bring. NBC says the full interview will air Monday.

Suleman, who now has 14 children, says all were conceived through in vitro fertilization with sperm donated by a friend.

The octuplets, born last week, remain hospitalized. The others range in age from 2 to 7.

Suleman says it took seven years of trying before she became pregnant with her first child.