Satisfy Your Duggar Addiction With These Five Other Extra-Large Families, One of Which Boasts 34 Kids!
The Duggars don't have the monopoly on supersized families. Sure, they have 20 kids, but other families have way more. So while you wait for the next new episode of Counting On, check out the fams below, some of whom have reality shows of their own. And we'll start with the parents of 34 kids.
The Briggs family
Yep, Jeane and Paul Briggs of Falling Waters, WV, have 34 kids — 29 of whom they adopted from countries around the world. In fact, when Today caught up with Jeane and Paul in 2014, they were on their way to western Africa to adopt their latest addition: an abandoned baby with no legs and no hands.
"I just enjoy it," Jeane said. "This is my career. I say to my kids, 'You're the very air I breathe so I need you. I need that oxygen.'"
The Radford family
As we previously reported, British reality stars Sue and Noel Radford of Lancashire, England, just recently introduced their 20th biological child to the world on ITV talk show This Morning. And Sue even bragged about how easy it is for her to drop her baby weight. "My body just seems to ping back to normal afterwards," she said. "The main thing is, running around after them helped me get back into shape quite quickly."
The Bates family
Like the Duggars, this family of Up TV's reality show Bringing Up Bates also boasts 19 biological kids. But the Bateses are different than their TLC counterparts in significant ways. For example, fans have praised the Bateses for seeming more laid-back than the Duggars, especially in regards to courting. "We don't think there is a mold that everyone has to fit in (i.e. do it this way, in this amount of time)," mom Kelly Jo Bates blogged in 2013.
The Heppner family
You might remember this Warroad, Minnesota, fam from TLC's reality show Kids by the Dozen. Parents DuWayne and Miriam once got candid with fans about life with such a big family, according to ABC News. "Yes, they are all ours," they said, commenting on a cheery family photo on their website. "No, we did not plan to have 17 children. And no, we are not a perfect family … Life has not always been as bright as this picture." (Talk about reality!)
The Ionce family
Canada has their own version of the Duggars. Livia and Alexandru Ionce of Abbotsford, BC, had welcomed 18 children by 2008: 10 girls and eight boys. "We would have liked a boy to be even," Alexandru told The Toronto Star. "We thank God all of them are healthy and happy." Amen to that!
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