Marie Osmond’s children are ‘the best things’ she’s ever done.

The 59-year-old singer is mother to eight children – Stephen, 35, with husband Steve Craig, as well as Jessica, 31, Rachael, 29, Brandon, 22, Briana, 21, Matthew, 19, Abigail, 16, and Michael, who sadly took his own life in 2010 aged 19, with former spouse Brian Blosil – and says each of her brood are her proudest accomplishments.

‘They’re so sweet. How many 16-year-olds tell you they love you?’ said the Dancing With The Stars vet. ‘It’s hard when you have to work – I was the provider, so for my children to understand that and love me and care enough about me to say, “Mom, you’re going to die, we need you. Please lose the weight.”‘

She added, ‘They went through a lot of tough stuff. They’re survivors. They are the best things I’ve ever done, ever.’

In 2007 she worked with Jonathan Roberts on Dancing With The Stars. While filming the live show, she fainted in the ballroom, causing her family to worry about her.

Soon after the country singer lost 50lbs after joining Nutrisystem.

She said on the Nutrisystem website, ‘Nutrisystem got me back on track.

‘I’ve got to be honest. I was overweight and out of shape. I didn’t feel good. I was tired. My joints ached. My confidence was down. Like so many of you, I was unhappy about how I looked and how I felt. I knew I was getting older but I didn’t want to feel older. Plus, talk about stress. Here I am, a single mom managing a career. It was very easy to put on a few pounds here and a few pounds there. Sometimes life just gets you off track and before you know it, you’re 50 pounds heavier. Well, Nutrisystem got me back on track.’

The Paper Roses singer – who is the sister of The Osmonds singers Alan, Wayne, Merrill, Jay, Donny, and Jimmy Osmond – now has four grandchildren, and is proud of how ‘hard working’ her family is.

She added: ‘They’re all really hard workers and they are kind to each other and try really hard to be kind to people.

‘Some of my kids are adopted and I can’t remember which ones, but some of them are more like me than my biological and I’m like, “I know why God sent you to me!”‘

But with the rise of social media, Marie hopes her younger children and her grandchildren remember to have ‘real relationships’ with people.

Speaking to People magazine, she said: ‘I hope that this generation knows how important it is to have real relationships with people, not just texting or how many likes you have.’

Last week she said there was a time when she was hurt by the trolls out there who picked on her for her figure. At one point, the pressure to look perfect got her down to a shocking 90lbs.

‘You have scars, it was the 1970s and it was a man’s world. Women were not empowered like they are now. Back then my self-esteem was pretty tough. You had to go inward to find it,’ she told People.

Her best known song is a remake of the country pop ballad Paper Roses. From 1976 until 1979, she and her singer brother Donny Osmond hosted the television variety show Donny & Marie.

‘As you get older and you can get through those things and you realize it wasn’t about you it was about them,’ she said of the haters.

‘You learn to move forward.’

She also said her brother Donny, who also competed on DWTS, had his struggles too.

‘I think for a while he just wanted to be him,’ said the beauty, who is a spokesperson for Nutrisystem.

‘He went through his phase of I’m a rock star. Then he went into appreciating his fans. He went through his own difficult times,’ she noted.

‘You look at all child celebrity and you either move on or you stay there.

‘It’s tough to get out of where they make fun of you and tease you and whatever. So you have to prove yourself. You have to have a really hard work ethic and a lot of luck and good people around you.’

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