Nadya Suleman, the vilified mother of the California octuplets, is about to face a much tougher opponent than an angry public.

TV show host Dr. Phil said Tuesday that the 33-year-old, single, jobless mother of 14 told him that hospital officials are threatening to keep the eight newborns unless she can prove she is able to take care of them.

“What she is telling me is that unless and until she has a better living arrangement, that they are not likely to release the children to her,” Dr. Phil told the Los Angeles Times.

Suleman, already a mother of six children, became the target of public outrage when news got out that the birth of her eight babies on Jan. 26 was the result of embryo implants. At the time, she was living in her mother’s three-bedroom home near Los Angeles and living off food stamps and disability income. The home is near foreclosure, as her mother’s home is more than $23,000 in mortgage debt.