A mum-of-12 has spoken about her extraordinary pregnancy journey, living with a baby bump for almost 20 years.
Zoe and Ben Sullivan are the parents of one of the biggest families in the country, with all 14 of them living in a four-bedroom house on military quarters in Lossiemouth.
The Sullivan children are Elizabeth, 17, Olivia, 16, Noah, 13, Evangeline, 11, Tobias, nine, Agnes, five, and Joseph, four, two sets of twins, Charlotte and Isabelle, 14, and Leah and Erin, six, and baby Flo, eight months, reports the Mirror.
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Zoe first fell pregnant in 2004/2005, with another baby soon following in 2006. She gave birth to twins in 2007/2008 and just a year later the mother was expecting another little one.
There were no new additions in 2010 but she announced another pregnancy in 2011. However, they weren't done there as between 2012 and 2013, the mum found herself with a bump once again.
The Moray parents learnt that they were set to welcome another pair of twins between 2015 and 2016. The brood grew again in 2017 and 2018.
Zoe's latest pregnancy was in 2021/2022 where she gave birth to her daughter Flo, who is now eight months.
In a recent clip posted to their social media account, the mum spoke to her followers about the journey.
Speaking to viewers on YouTube, she said: "We’re all about honesty and what life is really like.
"As much as I’d love to have a pristine house all the time, there’s 14 people living in my house and we haven’t got much space. So what others might see as messy clothes is actually individual piles of people’s things that they’re kind of in the process of wearing or have only worn for an hour and are going to wear later.
"A certain nasty person keeps getting a hold our videos and switching things around, saying stuff like ‘the Sullivans’ house is disgusting’. The worst thing about it is people who have previously followed you and like your channel start to believe what others have put on.
"That’s where it gets really upsetting. It’s not the original troll if you like, it’s when other people start believing it."
The large family are now opening up about the strugglers of running a huge 14 person household amid the cost of living crisis.
The mum has revealed that their bills have almost doubled from £240 to £400, despite not using the central heating in summer.
They also own two seven-seater cars, one of which is used by Ben to go to work while she uses the other one for shopping trips.
The Sullivan's have not been on holiday altogether for years, but live near two beaches in Lossiemouth, so often go for walks and make do with day trips.
They had hoped to take their kids away but savings for that are now being put into groceries and bills.
Zoe fears that bills could increase to £600 which is unaffordable and said the thought of using blankets rather than central heating during the winter was scary. The mum often shops around at Tesco, Aldi, Asda, Home Bargains and B&M to find the best deals and often goes looking for deals in the evenings when items are discounted.
She spends around £320 a week on groceries, which works out at around £21 per person on food. The family will sonn need a five-bedroom home to move into which Zoe said was daunting as they've had to give up other luxuries such as alcohol to save up some cash.
The Stay-at-home mum said: "The jump in price is huge, we don't use any more, it's just the increase in price. We have lived in our house nearly ten years, we used to pay around £200 to £250 a month, there's no way we could afford to pay £600 or £700.
"It is really scary, there doesn't seem to be any help for people. There's no way we can meet these costs, what we would have put into savings is now going into food and bills."
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