Radford family reveal why their oldest kids are the hardest to raise and why fame forced a lifestyle change

Known as Britiain's biggest family, the Radford family from Morecambe have been in the public eye since 2012 when they first starred in the 2012 Channel 4 documentary 15 Kids and Counting.

Since then, they have continued to have even more children and starred in three more series, with their latest TV programme, 22 Kids and Counting, having started on January 9. Off the back of their latest TV programme, the family - led by mum Sue and dad Noel -also announced they are publishing their first book in a month's time.

In an Instragram post published on January 10, the Radford Family account wrote: "We are thrilled to announce you can now pre-order our first book and it will be available to buy in stores from 29th Feb 2024! So many of you have asked over the years if we'll ever bring out a book and it's something we've wanted to do for a long time and now finally we've found time amongst the chaos of daily life to do it! It's been such a lovely experience, reflecting on our journey to becoming Britain's biggest family from first meeting to every pregnancy, birth and beyond. We love sharing our lives with you and we hope you'll enjoy the book and all our stories old and new."

This week, Sue and Noel, who now have 22 children, 10 grandchildren and seven dogs, also made an appearance on the popular daytime show Loose Women to discuss their latest TV show and book, and reveal what life is like for them as a family.

What did they reveal on Loose Women?

On Wednesday's Loose Woman episode, Sue and Noel appeared on Loose Women and chatted to the presenters Ruth Langsford, Linda Robson, Olivia Atwood and Brenda Edwards whilst three of their daughters -Ellie, Amy and Chloe, as well as Chloe’s boyfriend - sat in the audience.

Turning to the Radfords after showing a trailer for 22 Kids and Counting, presenter Ruth said: "We’ve met many times over the years, baby after baby and you go 'that’s it I’m done'... I’m literally exhausted watching that, one day of your life, I’m exhausted, how do you look so good?”

Revealing her secret, Sue replied: "no idea I think they must keep me looking young!"

When Noel went on to explain that 18 of their children currently live them, Ruth then asked how their mourning routine works with so many kids.

Noel answered "Well we’re lucky we have a couple of bathrooms" before adding "Some get up earlier than the others, like the high school, they’re always up first aren’t they, and then the primary school, we sorta get them out of bed and get them already it just seems to work."

The couple also shared what their children actually think about their lives being so public, with Sue explaining: “I think because we film for so long now it’s just normal for them. You just forget the cameras are there most the time don’t you? You just get on with it but actually they really love looking back over the years at how life started when we were pregnant with Oscar and watching as they’ve grown up through the years... having all those memories has just been amazing.

Noel added that he even catches the younger ones putting on older series sometimes, commenting "One of the reasons why we thought yeah okay, we'll do the program in the first place is it’s like a library we can look back."

Following a question by Linda, Sue then revealed that the older children were definitely the hardest to raise, adding "give me little ones over the teenagers".

Sue did disclose however that the younger ones require more management when it comes to who needs what for school, explaining that small interviews are conducted with each child and notes are added to her phone as a reminder

In the teenagers' defence, Sue added: “Older ones are really good with the little ones with homework they really enjoy doing it with them.”

Earlier this week, we reported how the family had also moved house, and when asked why they did so by former Love Islander Olivia, the couple revealed that it was for more space but predominitely for more privacy.

Noel answered: "We did need to relocate, because [we wanted a] bit more space, play areas for the kids, but the main reason was just privacy because you’ll get people turning up to the house... You understand it if people walk past [and] take a picture, things like that, but it was getting a bit too much when they were opening the gate, knocking on the door.”

Loose Women then showed footage of the family watching strangers as they entered their front garden, after which Sue commented: "That was crazy though, because they'd come from Scotland. 

"They’d been to the pie shop to get a pie, and Amy had served them and then they’d come to the house.

"But the dogs were all out so I was like please don’t open the gates because all the dog would just go out but yeah we have that quite a lot."

An unusual revelation then followed when the pair were asked how they keep track of all their kids as Sue replied: "When we’re on holiday, we have Apple AirTags on them which people find really funny."

She then said: "We found the Apple AirTags are really good because we can tie them to their clothes, and even if they're walking just a bit behind you get a notification, it pings that you’ve lost a child - we haven’t!”

After a discussion around their 22-year-old daugher Millie, who has sworn she will have no more children after her third, the TV couple made the revelation many had been were waiting for- that they were finally stopping at 22 children, with Sue confirming "definitely no more.”

During the interview, the parents also revealed that January and February were their quietest months for birthdays and that, despite the 22 children, they do still get chances to go on date nights.

Noel said "We were out last week only for an hour or two, but it was nice to be together on our own” whilst Sue added "When you’ve got a lot of children, you’ve got a lot going on in your life, ou’ve got to make time as a couple."