PLANS TO PUT HER FEET UP YET..
AFTER raising 22 kids, you might think Sue Radford would be looking forward to putting her feet up for a well-earned rest when the youngest flies the nest. But you’d be wrong.
Sue, who has spent an astonishing 16-and-a-half years of her life pregnant, reveals she’d love to extend her brood and adopt.
She explains: “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.”
And with another of her eldest children about to leave home, Sue admits the family dynamic is changing.
She says: “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.”
Her and husband Noel’s love story began 35 years ago when they met as teenagers in the UK’S Lake District.
They married in 1992, when Sue was 17 and son Chris, now 34, had already arrived.
“We’re proud to be Britain’s biggest family but we’d only planned on having about three,” Sue laughs.
“We’re addicted to children – but as addictions go, it’s not a bad one because it’s motivated by love. We have plenty to go round.”
As well as Chris, the couple have Sophie, 29, Chloe, 28, Jack, 26, Daniel, 24, Luke, 22, Millie, 22, Katie, 20, James, 19, Ellie, 18, Aimee, 17, Josh, 16, Max, 14, Tillie, 13, Oscar, 11, Casper, 10, Hallie, eight, Phoebe, seven, Archie, six, Bonnie, four, and Heidie, three. They also lost a son, Alfie, who was stillborn in 2014.
And Sue, 48, who is also a grandma of 10, reveals unsurprisingly that with so many children, it hasn’t all been plain sailing.
Back in 2000, the pair expanded their already successful bakery into new premises. But footand-mouth disease hit the UK, the tourist trade plummeted and the venture failed.
The mum admits they were faced with ‘‘losing everything”, adding: “We almost went bankrupt and thought we would lose the house.
“I just kept thinking: ‘There’s no way out of this, and I really don’t see how our marriage can survive.’
“The whole thing took its toll on me and Noel. Looking back now, I can see that we would never, ever
We’re proud of our family .. we have plenty of love to go around
SUE RADFORD ON HAVING BRITAIN’S BIGGEST BROOD
have called it a day but when you’re in that highly pressurised moment, it’s hard to see a way out. “There were days when I’d think: ‘that’s it, I’m leaving the business and Noel, I just can’t do it anymore.’
“But our marriage has always been strong – and having the kids kept us right. We stuck together and got through it. It was sink or swim and we chose to swim.”
Of course, being parents 22 times brings its own pressures, with the couple admitting they barely get to have a conversation. Sue is up by 7am to begin the military operation that is breakfast, while Noel has already been to work and is back at home to help with the morning rush.
“Some kids will want porridge, some Weetabix, some toast,” she says. “We have them doing things in a particular order – older ones go upstairs to get themselves ready while I help the smaller ones. It’s bedlam by the shoe rack.”
While Noel, 53, returns to the bakery for 9am, Sue then embarks on a mammoth tidying and washing session – the family has two washing machines to cope
with the five daily loads. Noel is usually back for the school run.
Luckily, none of the kids are fussy eaters, so everyone has the same meal at teatime. Even when the last of the smaller children are in bed, there will be stuff still to do like tidying up the garden and getting uniforms ready for the following day.
With a weekly food bill running at around €530 their double fridge comes in handy. Little wonder that Sue credits teamwork as the basis for their happy marriage of 32 years.
She says: “We don’t take each other for granted, we’re each other’s best friend and we try to get a date night now once a month – we have readymade babysitters, after all.” As well as a thriving bakery business – and their TV show 22 Kids & Counting now in its fourth series – the couple have social media channels on Tiktok, Instagram , Facebook and Youtube.
But there can be two sides to such exposure. Fans have approached their home and taken photos, sometimes while the kids are in the garden. The family are in the process of moving to a more secluded property.
Then there is the online negativity, from personal attacks to speculation about how the couple afford their children and their holidays.
Sue says: “People just jump to conclusions. We don’t claim benefits – the pie company is very successful and so is our media business. We work hard but we’re not millionaires!
“The nastiness is upsetting though.
We just want to be able to give our children the best possible life.
“My mindset changed when my dad passed away. I thought, if we want to be able to go on holiday and make memories with our children, then why should we be judged?”
She continues: “You should live life how you want and not how other people want you to live it. If you’re happy and the kids are happy, then what does it matter what anybody else thinks?”
Sue admits she has stopped looking at hateful online comments. But a recent in-person incident left her shaken. “I was in Sainsbury’s when a woman huffed at me and gave me the most filthy look – it was like she wanted me dead,” she says. The kids have also been targeted. Daughter Ellie was trolled after she posted images of her 18th birthday last year.
“Some of the comments were shocking – accusing her of having an eating disorder,” Sue recalls. “But she’d simply been unwell and had lost a bit of weight. It was horrible.”
With parents struggling to protect children from the worst of social media, Sue is hyper-vigilant with her own. She backs the Government’s plan to ban mobiles in schools – none of her kids had a phone before they were 11 and the younger ones are not allowed access to social platforms.
Like every family, the Radfords have had their squabbles. There were reports of a fall-out last year between Sue and her daughter Millie, something Sue dismisses as “water under the bridge”. Then at Christmas, a row over pies sparked a huge row between Chloe and Luke, resulting in a professional mediator being brought in.
Now a new venture is on the horizon with their book The Radfords: Making Life Count on the shelves in time for Mother’s Day.
So if she had her time again, would Sue do things differently? “Absolutely not,” she replies. “We never look back. We love what we’ve achieved.”
The Radfords: Making Life Count is published by Mirror Books on Thursday and available from all good bookshops and Amazon.