While many women choose to stop having children when they’ve reached two or three, another has decided that 22 is enough for her, right now.
Maybe a few decades ago the size of families was much larger, with people coming from a brood of 10 or 12, but not in these times.
I mean, could you afford to feed that many people?
Advert
Well, one woman can, and you’ll know exactly who she is.
She’s Sue Radford, the 49-year-old wife of a pie maker whose family shot to fame through their TV show on Channel 5.
In the book titled The Radfords: Making Life Count, Noel shared how the couple met, and what age he began his family.
As it turns out, Noel was 17 when he learned he was going to become a father while Sue was four years his junior.
Advert
However, after receiving some criticism online after it came up on one of their TV shows, Noel has since come forward to explain they 'were both just kids'.
"People have inevitably talked about the situation and it has been written about in the newspapers and discussed on social media," he wrote.
Noel, 53, continued: "There has been a lot of focus on it and, in a way, it was probably worse for us than when it actually happened. So many people have given their opinions.
Advert
"But we were both kids it was not as if I was 10 or 15 years older than Sue.
"For a lot of people, though, things are just black and white and you are tarnished with the same brush as other people in totally different situations.
"We were young and we were daft. But we wanted to continue as a couple."
Between them, Sue and Noel are parents to; Chris, 35, Sophie, 30, Chloe, 28, Jack, 27, Daniel, 25, Luke, 23, Millie, 22, Katie, 21, James, 20, Ellie, 19, Aimee, 18, Josh, 17, Max, 15, Tillie, 14, Oscar, 12, Casper, 11, Hallie, nine, Phoebe, eight, Archie, six, and Bonnie, five.
Advert
Their youngest, Heidie, is just four years old.
They also had a child in 2014 named Alfie but he was sadly stillborn.
Sue and Noel Radford were high school sweethearts, who decided that expanding their family was important to them.
Advert
While many have given the couple flack for welcoming so many kids into the world, they can surely afford to do so.
Even though they’re regularly slated for spending taxpayers’ money on lavish holidays, having gone on 19 within the space of 21 months, they don’t actually claim benefits.
In fact, they own a family-run bakery and live in a 10-bedroom home they purchased by themselves in 2004.
But if you thought Sue was ready to put down the baby bottles and nappies, you’d be wrong.
Speaking to OK! Magazine, the mum-of-22 said: “We adore being surrounded by kids, so I’d love to adopt or foster. We’re not having any more of our own so it’s definitely something we’d think about when ours are older.
“When they started to move out, it was hard as a mum and strange not to have them all together.
“I dread the thought of an empty nest but I know it will happen one day. You can’t hold your kids back – when you love them, you have to let them live their dreams.”
While it might be unusual to meet someone so fertile and willing to have so many kids, Sue doesn't care what the haters think.
Topics: Sue Radford, Radford Family, News, Parenting, Channel 5
Britt Jones