Octomom Natalie ‘Nadya’ Suleman Speaks Out in Rare Interview, New Lifetime Doc: See Her 14 Kids Now (Exclusive)

Natalie “Nadya” Suleman says the time has come to own her complicated narrative.

“Today, my family and I are taking our life back,” the 49-year-old single mother of 14 tells PEOPLE in a new exclusive interview. For the first time she, along with her history-making octuplets will be the subject of an upcoming Lifetime movie and docuseries, titled I Was Octomom and Confessions of Octomom, which will premiere March 8 and March 10 respectively.

The news of the film, starring Kristen Lee Gutoskie as Suleman, and subsequent docuseries, comes just as her youngest eight will celebrate their 16th birthday on Jan. 26. After years of living privately, she says the move to put her family in the spotlight was her kids’ idea.

“I’ve been saying, I want to keep them safe and protect my kids, and well, they’re older now,” she shares. “They’re turning 16 and making the decision to really do this.”

Back in 2009, there was no escaping Suleman’s incredible story. She was implanted with 12 embryos by Dr. Michael Kamrava, a Beverly Hills fertility specialist, who oversaw her previous IVF treatments. Out of that dozen, Suleman became pregnant with eight babies and made history by giving birth to the first ever surviving octuplets, earning her the nickname Octomom.

But her happy story quickly took a turn as the world learned more about her controversial journey to motherhood. Many questioned and condemned her motives as a single mother who’d had numerous IVF treatments prior and was already struggling to get by with six young children before welcoming the octuplets.

“The movie follows my journey, starting with my decision to have one more IVF procedure to try to complete my family of six,” she explains. “I wanted only one more, to becoming a single mom of 14 and all the trials and tribulations, the challenges and struggles, what I had to do to continue to fight for my family.”

“In the beginning it was complete pandemonium,” she says of being at the center of public ire. “There was of course all of the details of the death threats and fearing for my family’s life. And then on the other hand, I had to continue to sacrifice my integrity repeatedly to survive and provide for my family.”

Those sacrifices included participating in an adult film and at times collaborating with tabloid media on stories about her life, she says, to help make ends meet. “It wasn’t until they were maybe about 4 years old, I finally was able to escape all of that, the attack it felt from the world… and all that global scorn and condemnation, being the target of misplaced hate. I could escape and finally go back to the life I had once known before.”

And despite raising 14 kids, she claims she did nearly all of it alone. “I paid for nannies until they were 2 and then we were really struggling financially” she says. “Eventually I just had to lean in really to my faith, my very strong faith in God. And it wasn’t until I did that, everything fell into place beautifully.”

Now as she gears up to relive it all and pull back the curtain, she’s not doing it alone. “My kids are going to share for the first time. Also, my older kids are speaking in the public eye and they did not want to. And actually, I didn’t even want [to speak out] to be honest.”

The octuplets on the other hand, are ready to have a voice. “I’m just very excited,” Suleman’s daughter Nariyah, 15, tells PEOPLE of this next chapter for their family. “Our mom would finally be able to say her side of the story, because I feel like it was very unfair how she was terrorized and hated for just being a mother. And she had to sacrifice so much just for her children.”

Knowing many will still judge her choices and circumstances, Suleman, who recently became a grandmother to one of her older son’s kids, is focusing on ways her story will be a positive example to others. “I’m not this compartmentalized caricature,” she says. “I am not Octomom, I’m a mom.”

She adds, “The main reasons for me in sharing my true story, my perspective is to help people, to help women in particular who are struggling with one child or none, to maybe inspire them to pull out the strengths inside that they didn’t know they had to progress forward, to keep progressing in their life.”

I Was Octomom premieres March 8, while Confessions of Octomom premieres March 10, both on Lifetime.