In fact, Kristen—who welcomed her first child, a son, in June 2023—said she and Natalie were able to connect through their shared experience of being moms.
“She’s a human being who is, at the end of the day, a mother and seemingly a really good mother,” she continued. “She has amazing kids—14 kids who are thriving and lovely and smart and beautiful. So yeah, I connected with her. We chatted about a lot of stuff, especially motherhood. I feel like I wouldn’t have been able to play this role had I not become a mother recently. I’ve played moms before, and I could understand in my nurturing instincts a way to tap into the role. I don’t think you need to be a mother to play a mother. However, something about it really helped me understand her.”
And she hopes viewers are open to understanding a side of Natalie—who also became a grandmother last year— that’s different from the one they read about online.
“Everybody is a whole human, and there’s so much more to every person than what is in the headlines,” Kristen said. “Natalie had so many decisions and experiences that are shared in the film that you probably didn’t get to see in the in the public eye. So I think, yeah, there’s more to everybody than probably shared in the media. And also that we can overcome anything, and that family is such a wonderful thing to push us through.”
I Was Octomom: The Natalie Suleman Story premieres on Lifetime March 8 at 8 p.m. EST, followed by the docuseries Confessions of Octomom March 10.
For now, keep reading to see photos Natalie has shared of her family over the years.
