Octuplets mother: I always wanted a huge family

In an interview with NBC's Today show, Nadya Suleman, who already had six children, told how all 14 were born through IVF using sperm donated by a friend.

The 33-year-old from California said she had battled with depression before finally giving birth to her first child in 2001. She said: "That was always a dream, to have a huge family. I just longed for certain connections that ... I lacked growing up."

Describing her childhood as "dysfunctional", she added: "I didn't feel as though I had much control of my environment. It was pretty dysfunctional — whose childhood isn't?"

While the world celebrated the birth of the octuplets, public support waned when it was revealed that Miss Suleman has six other children, aged from two to seven, and is a single parent. She lives in a three-bedroom house outside Los Angeles with her parents and has no visible means of financial support.

Her parents initially bought her the house but went bankrupt and had to move in with her. Her family has indicated that she may have serious mental health problems.

She said: "I went through about seven years of trying. And then the first IVF procedure was successful. And then I just kept going in." Miss Suleman was released from Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Centre yesterday morning. She gave birth on 26 January.

The six boys and two girls are said to be in a good condition and are the longest known surviving octuplets in the world. It has not been revealed which doctor implanted eight embryos at once into Miss Suleman.

According to doctors' reports, Miss Suleman had said she had a happy childhood. She told them she had been an above-average high school student, enjoyed being a cheerleader and had many friends. She also told a doctor she had three miscarriages. Another doctor disputed this, saying she had two ectopic pregnancies.

She also revealed she battled with depression after she was injured in a riot in 1999 at the state mental hospital where she worked. She collected more than $165,000 in disability payments between 2002 and 2008. She said the depression resulted in the break-up of her four-year marriage in 2000.

Miss Suleman has a degree in child and adolescent development from California State University, where she was studying for a master's degree in counselling when she became pregnant with the octuplets. She reportedly hopes to earn up to £1.37million from selling her story.

Her mother, Angela Suleman, said she hoped the TV interview would bring back public support for her daughter: "She's basically normal except for this obsession she's always had with children."