A Conversation with Nadya Suleman

Oprah: So let's go back to before the octuplets were born. ... You didn't think six was enough? 

Nadya: I believe going back, reflecting back, I feel as though I was so caught up with my own childish desires to compensate. There's an amalgamation of factors contributing to why. I didn't do one or choose one thing for one particular reason. There were so many reasons. And perhaps selfishness—perhaps trying to compensate for being an only child, trying to fill some missing piece inside. And I maybe wrongfully looked outside of myself when I should have been filling that in from within.

Oprah: That's a very insightful thing to say. So do you think now, looking back, that you were perhaps using children to fill the void or space for something else that was missing that an adult or a real relationship with someone else could have or should have filled?

Nadya: Yes. Absolutely. I believe that perhaps, looking back, I've always coveted that connection, that attachment to another being. And the connection felt safer with children than with a significant other, more predictable. The security—I was hungering for the security.