I think the family is backpedaling because of the negative publicity.
No. The family is simply responding to the negative publicity fabricated by people like you.
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Marianne Sunderland said that report and others were based on misinformation and misunderstandings.
Before her daughter set sail, she said, the family was approached by Magnetic Entertainment, a small Santa Monica-based company that expressed interest in developing a reality show.
At the time, Abby Sunderland's older brother Zac had just become the youngest person to sail solo around the world, a record that has since been broken.
"They just wanted to do a show showing what our life is like and how we ended up with kids who are ambitious," said Marianne Sunderland, who lives in suburban Thousand Oaks with her husband and their seven children. She is expecting an eighth child in a few days.
Magnetic Entertainment shopped the show but never found a buyer, she said, and the family eventually reacquired the rights to its story. She added that family members have no interest in trying to shop them again.
The company still lists plans for a reality show and a documentary on its website, but the state Franchise Tax Board said Monday that Magnetic's business license was suspended for failure to pay back taxes. Company officials did not respond to phone calls or e-mails.
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