“When videos of a couple with 12 children of all ages surfaced on TikTok, it was hard for internet users to believe that the mother had been consecutively pregnant for 16 years.
Iris Purnell from Los Angeles worked as a choreographer and loved dancing to her favorite beats.
She met her husband, Cordell Purnell, at a party in New York, where they discussed their shared passion for dance and quickly fell in love.
Iris and Cordell started dating after realizing they had similar interests. When they met, she had a son, and Cordell was also a father to a child.
The man worked as a professional dancer and was known to most people as ‘Storm.’ Many dance enthusiasts adored him, but Iris admired him the most. Shortly after, she and the dancer decided to live together and later get married.
“We got married and had our first child together shortly after. So, we had three little ones early in our marriage,” Cordell said.
After having one child, Iris took a break from her choreography work and focused on raising her child.
She confessed that it wasn’t easy for her to stay at home as she loved being at work and interacting with different people.
Iris didn’t know how to handle her new feelings. Although she wanted to leave home and continue working, she couldn’t leave her children alone. Eventually, she decided to go to church to channel her feelings.
The couple had their daughter in 2006, and Iris ‘found a new life’ around the same time. That’s when she realized she wanted more children.
Iris and Cordell didn’t intend to have a large family, but this recent realization changed everything for them. It took the couple sixteen years to have a total of 12 children.
The couple has seven sons and five daughters. Iris gave birth to seven of them naturally, while the others were delivered via C-section.
Despite experiencing the exhausting childbirth process multiple times, the mother never wanted to stop having children.
Her children were the light of her life, and she loved them all dearly. The beloved mother revealed that she never had issues during her pregnancies, except for Trinity’s, where she experienced morning sickness.
After having their 12th child in 2019, Iris’s husband suggested that she undergo a medical procedure so she wouldn’t have any more children, as her wife’s body would weaken.
Initially, Iris was against her husband’s suggestion. She didn’t want to stop having babies. But when she thought about it, she realized Cordell’s concerns were logical.
However, he admitted, “Honestly, I love raising my children.”
