Natalie 'Nadya' Suleman speaks out against 'Octomom' persona

Natalie "Nadya" Suleman, famously known as Octomom, has set the record straight, declaring that the world had her family all wrong.

The 49-year-old TV personality's home is small and crowded, but everything runs smoothly. On a sunny morning in February, her 16-year-old octuplets—Noah, Maliyah, Isaiah, Nariyah, Jonah, Makai, Josiah, and Jeremiah—move quickly and quietly, cleaning their Orange County, California, townhouse before PEOPLE’s cameras arrive for this week’s cover story.

Not in sight were Nadya’s 18-year-old twins, Calyssa and Caleb, and her 19-year-old son, Aidan, who has autism and was at school that day.

Her three oldest children, Elijah, 23, Amerah, 22, and Joshua, 21, have moved out but live nearby and frequently visit.

The mother of 14 kids keeps everything in order, as she claimed, “I don’t like anything out of control. I’m a control freak. And I’m addicted to productivity.”

For the unversed, in 2009, Nadya made history by giving birth to the world’s first surviving octuplets through IVF.

At first, it was big news, but things quickly became chaotic when people learnt she was single, unemployed, living with her parents, and already had six other children from IVF. This led to a media frenzy during the recession and the nickname “Octomom” was given to her.

Reflecting on this, she quipped, “There was this false narrative spun, like I was this unemployed welfare recipient. It was not the case at all.”

“My family and I are taking our life back. I’m not Octomom. I’m not this compartmentalized caricature. I’m a mom. [This is] a story of strength, survival and success despite all the odds against us.”

“It’s not enough to say I wanted a big family because I was lonely. There is an amalgamation of factors as to why I wanted kids, to create maybe a safe and predictable little world that I lacked growing up,” Nadya confessed.

It is pertinent to mention that Natalie Suleman is an only child and was close to her father, Edward, who was a chef and military translator from the Middle East.

Notably, she had a hard time connecting with her mother, Angela, who was a teacher from Northern Europe.