Britain’s biggest family are in a spot of bother over a recent trip to Disney World Florida they took earlier this year.
The Radfords, stars of 22 Kids and Counting (though they appear to have stopped for now) took the journey worth £52,000, as most of the family headed across the Atlantic to celebrate mum Sue’s 50th birthday back in April.
One hopes they had a fine time, but the family returned to the UK and were met with a number of fines for taking their children out of school during term time. They were fined £65 per child, and £118 in court costs on top of that, which meant all in all, they’ve had to put another £756 onto the cost of the holiday.
So, you might be wondering how the Radford family manage to pay for 22 children.
Having such a large family sticks the weekly food shop at a whopping £450, and that money has to come from somewhere.
The family got in trouble for a holiday to Disney World (Instagram/@theradfordfamily)
The family business, which dad Noel worked in for 25 years, is their main source of income, and it’s a bakery that makes pies under the name The Radford Pie Company.
While Sue says her work around the family home in Morecambe is ‘never ending’, she also worked to take orders for the business, and with several of the kids in the family now being adults, some of them have joined the business, too.
Daughter Chloe and son Daniel in particular took roles in the bakery, and Noel announced he was retiring back in 2023 so he could spend more time with the kids, a task which would need all the time he could muster.
However, he found retirement a tough ask, and has since been back in from time to time.
Beyond the family business, the Radfords do get a bit of child benefit, but they’ve insisted they’re ‘definitely not secret millionaires’, and say they’ve largely relied on the bakery to bring in the dough.
Channel 4
Sue told the Mirror ‘people jump to conclusions’ that they must be on lots of benefits, but she insisted it wasn’t the case.
Having lots of children can be a decent revenue raiser once you start benefiting from economies of scale, as the Radford house does charge the older kids a little bit of rent since they’re earning money.
Apart from that, there’s also been some TV fees from the various shows that have followed their family.
Starting with 15 Kids and Counting, TV crews kept returning to Morecambe to see the growing family, which meant the title had to keep changing until they got up to 22 Kids and Counting, and decided the family was now large enough.
So, that’s how they make their money, and can afford to look after so many kids.
