‘Octomom’ files for bankruptcy over debts of $1m

Nadya Suleman, the mother of octuplets, has filed for bankruptcy, saying in a court filing that she has as much as $1m (about €756,000) in debt.

Ms Suleman wants a fresh start and said filing for bankruptcy is what is best for her children, according to the Orange County Register.

“I have had to make some very difficult decisions this year, and filing Chapter Seven was one of them,” said Ms Suleman, known as “Octomom”.

The mother of 14 has up to $50,000 in assets in federal court filings, which means she owes more than 20 times her net worth.

Ms Suleman is filing chapter seven bankruptcy, which means a court-appointed trustee would liquidate her assets to pay off creditors before she was discharged from most of her debts.

Among others, Ms Suleman owes money to her father, the city’s water department, DirecTV, and Whittier Christian School, where at least some of her children are students.

Ms Suleman also owes over $30,000 in rent on her four-bedroom house.

The home’s owner, Amer Haddadin, said his own credit has suffered as he allowed the home to go into foreclosure proceedings by not making the mortgage payments.

A foreclosure auction has been postponed for a week.

Ms Suleman was in financial dire straits before the Jan 2009 birth of her octuplets brought her notoriety.

She lived with her mother in a three-bedroom house in Whittier which was in foreclosure proceedings at the time of the octuplets’ birth.

The unemployed single mother had been supporting her six other children with the aid of food stamps and social security disability payments — sources of income that she continues to rely on.

Since the birth, she has cut deals with media outlets and posed in tabloid photo spreads to get by, touting a book and exercise videos that never materialised.

She earned $5,000 for promoting spaying and neutering for an animal rights group and was paid to take a beating in celebrity boxing matches.

In 2009, Ms Suleman declined a $1m offer to appear in pornography.

Last month, semi-nude photos of Ms Suleman ran alongside a paid interview in a British publication — a photo spread she defended in the tabloids, saying she was not ashamed of it.

All Ms Suleman’s children were conceived through in vitro fertility treatments.