Octuplets’ grandmother in danger of losing her home over debt

The grandmother of California’s newborn octuplets faces the threat of foreclosure on the house she has shared with her daughter and six of her grandchildren.

According to a mortgage default notice filed last week with the Los Angeles County Registrar Office, Angela Suleman is more than $23,000 (e18,111) behind in payments on her house in the LA suburb of Whittier, an agency spokesman said.

The default notice was first made public when a copy of the document, giving Suleman three months to settle her debt in order to avoid foreclosure, was posted on the celebrity news website TMZ.com.

The papers indicate Suleman last made a payment on the three-bedroom house in May 2008 and has filed for bankruptcy.

Texas-based debt collection agency NDEx West, operating on behalf of mortgage lender IndyMac Federal Bank, declined to comment and Suleman could not immediately be reached for comment.

Her daughter, Nadya, 33, jobless and receiving food stamps, drew international headlines and a torrent of public ridicule after giving birth on January 26 to octuplets conceived through in vitro fertilisation.

That criticism intensified when it was learned she already had six children, aged from two to seven, that she was collecting disability checks for three of them, and that they all were living with the grandmother.

Angela Suleman also has complained publicly of the financial burden and voiced scepticism about her daughter’s ability to care for 14 children.

The public backlash grew so hostile that Nadya Suleman, dubbed “octo-mom” in the press, went into hiding with her six older children due to death threats, according to a publicity firm hired by the family.

Spokesman Michael Furtney, whose firm has since severed ties with Suleman because of the threats, said she and her children recently moved back with the grandmother.