A mum-of-12 has told how she lived with a baby bump for nearly 20 years as she navigated her extraordinary pregnancy journey. Zoe and Ben Sullivan, from Lossiemouth, Moray, are parents to one of the largest families in the country and all fourteen of them live in a four-bedroom house on military quarters, the Mirror reports.
The Sullivan children are made up out of Elizabeth, 17, Olivia, 16, Noah, 13, Evangeline, 11, Tobias, 9, Agnes, 5, and Joseph, 4, two sets of twins, Charlotte and Isabelle, 14, and Leah and Erin, 6, and baby Flo, 8 months.
The mum fell pregnant for the first time in 2004/2005, with another baby soon following in 2006. The couple welcomed their first set of twins in 2007/2008 and just a year later Zoe was expecting another little one.
Zoe managed a break in 2010 before she announced she was pregnant again in 2011. However, they weren't done there as between 2012 and 2013, the mum found herself with a bump once again.
Between 2015 and 2016, she and Ben learned they were to become parents to their second set of twins. They then welcomed more additions to their huge brood 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 on the family's social media platforms, the mum talks fans through her lengthy pregnancy journey over the years. She also gave an insight into living with a bump for the past two decades through a series of selfies. Speaking to followers 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 enormous family have recently opened up about the struggles of running a huge 14 person household amid the cost of living crisis.
Zoe said their bills have nearly doubled from £240 to £400 a month, despite not using the central heating in the summer. The family 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 family have not taken a 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 their bills could increase to £600 a month which would be 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 roughly spends about £320 a week on groceries, which works out at around £21 per person on food. The family will soon need to find 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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