Good reality TV comes in pairs – just ask Deon and Karen from Doubling Down With the Derricos! With 14 children and four sets of multiples, Karen Derrico claims to have never used IVF. So how exactly did the miracle mother of the reality show manage to have quintuplets, triplets, and two pairs of twins?
When Las Vegas couple Deon (49) and Karen (40) wished for a big, happy family little did they know that their dreams were soon going to double! Armed with an all naturally-born brood of 14 kids, the two appear on TLC’s new reality show Doubling Down With the Derricos. As everyone knows about the network’s love for large families, the Derricos had a lot riding on them. But boy, have the Derricos delivered! Doubling Down With the Derricos fans are loving the wholesome and heart-warming family of 16 that functions like clockwork. Be it their systematic routines of getting ready by birth order or the unbelievably well-mannered children, the Derricos have struck the right reality chord. But there’s a question that arises every once in a while. If it’s not IVF that granted Karen and Deon the babies, what genetic lottery has the Doubling Down With the Derricos clan really won?
According to this 2013 story by Today, Karen and Deon both have families with a history of multiple multiples. The Doubling Down With the Derricos mom has four sets of twin babies on her maternal side. On her father’s end, she has an uncle with two triplets. Real estate investor Deon, too, has revealed how his mother Marian – or Gigi, as she’s called on the show – miscarried triplets right before he was born. The senior Derrico’s grandmother also has a brother with 11 kids, two sets of which are twins. But the Doubling Down With the Derricos parents didn’t ever expect to have so many multiples, especially after their first child Darian, born 14 years ago, was a singleton. In the TLC show’s teaser, Karen reveals how she unfortunately suffered from two miscarriages after Darian’s birth.
But it wasn’t fertility drugs that helped Karen with the following pregnancies. Five years later, when the Doubling Down With the Derricos star became pregnant with their oldest son Derrick, she was put on Progesterone to sustain the pregnancy. Right after the two singletons, Karen and Deon have had nothing but multiple babies. Twin brothers Dallas and Denver, now aged eight, were followed by the 6-year-old quintuplets Deniko, Dariz, Deonee, Daician, and Daiten, then 2-year-old “triplins” Diez and Dior. The Doubling Down with the Derricos couple delivered their triplets Dawsyn, De’Aren, and Dyver in the latest episode of the TLC show, taking their total count of children up to 14.
It’s not every day that one gets to hear about miraculous stories like the ones on Doubling Down With the Derricos. This is exactly why the show has been raking in nothing but positive reviews. It’s new for a reality show to attract eyeballs without having hell-raising drama to back it up, but it’s the simplicity of Karen and Deon’s wonderful family that is making Doubling Down With the Derricos a hit.
Doubling Down With the Derricos airs Tuesdays at 10 pm EST on TLC.
