Sue and Noel Radford are famous for their huge family, having appeared in documentary 16 Kids and counting, as well as on This morning and various other shows.
But sadly, just a week after announcing that their brood would be expanding to 17, Sue announced via Twitter that she had lost the baby.
'It's with such sadness that we have to say our beautiful baby's heartbeat stopped 2 days ago we are utterly devastated beyond words X', the mother wrote.
Sue, 37 and Noel, 41, had their first child when Sue was only 14, and were determined to keep him, having both been adopted.
They went on to have a baby on average every 17 months over the next 23 years, and now have nine sons, seven daughters and even one granddaughter.
The couple are proud parents to Chris, 24, Sophie, 19, Chloe, 18, Jack, 16, Daniel, 14, Luke, 12, Millie, 12, Katie, 10, James, 9, Ellie, 8, Aimee, 7, Josh, 5, Max, 4, Tilly, 3, Oscar, 2 and Casper, 11 months.
And the Lancashire-based family are completely self reliant, living in a former children’s home and supporting themselves on the earnings from Noel’s bakery.
The parents have been widely praised for providing their brood with daily home cooked meals, and Sue –who is strictly anti microwave food- even runs her own website providing tips for healthy meals.
Taking to Facebook last week, Sue had announced:
‘We are so excited to announce Radford baby 17 will be joining this family in April.
‘As you can imagine, the children are so excited. Little Tilly said to me: “Mummy you have a baby in your tummy”. It was so sweet.’
The mother-of-16 was due to have her seventeenth child in April 2014.