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Octuplets' mom says plans documentary series

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-04-16 09:22

NEW YORK -- An American mother of newborn octuplets says she will do a documentary series following her babies until they are 18 years old, but the production company says it is still in "exclusive negotiations" for the deal.

In this March 11, 2009 file photo, Nadya Suleman, the mother of octuplets, leaves her home in Whittier, Calif. Suleman says she used money from an inheritance and overtime wages from her job as a psychiatric technician to pay for her early fertilization procedures. [Agencies]

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Nadya Suleman, who gave birth to six boys and two girls in Los Angeles on January 26, said she would allow a television crew to film her family six times a year. The babies are only the second known set of octuplets born alive in the United States.

"It is official. I'm going to be doing a show, but it's not a reality show," Suleman told Life & Style magazine, adding that the series would be made by the British arm of independent production company Eyeworks.

"What I'm doing with this TV show is basically creating documentaries about the lives of my children. It's going to be an ongoing thing, and it will follow them from now until they are 18," she said.

Suleman said the show would be aired in Britain and then possibly the United States.

But Eyeworks Chief Executive Officer Reinout Oerlemans said in a statement on Wednesday that the company was still in "exclusive negotiations" with Suleman for "an unscripted format following the life of Nadya and her children."

"Nadya's story is a very unique and exciting one that needs to be told in the right manner," Oerlemans said. "We are confident that we are the right party to tell their story around the world."

Suleman became a lightning rod for public ridicule after it was learned that she was a divorced, jobless mother of six living with her parents on government assistance when she became pregnant with octuplets through in vitro fertilization.

Suleman -- nicknamed "Octomom" in the US media -- has since moved into a new home with her children and the last of the octuplets was released from the hospital this week.

The Smoking Gun website, www.thesmokinggun.com, reported on Wednesday that Suleman has applied to trademark the name "Octomom." It posted online an application said to be made by Suleman to the US Patent and Trademark Office.