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Former hostage Joshua Boyle said Monday he and his wife decided to have children even while held captive because they always planned to have a big family and decided, “Hey, let’s make the best of this and at least go home with a larger start on our dream family.”

Boyle, his American wife, Caitlan Coleman, and their three children were rescued Wednesday, five years after the couple was abducted in Afghanistan on a backpacking trip. The children were born in captivity.

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“We’re sitting as hostages with a lot of time on our hands,” Boyle told The Associated Press in an email Monday. “We always wanted as many as possible, and we didn’t want to waste time. Cait’s in her 30s, the clock is ticking.”

Boyle said the kids are now 4, 2 and “somewhere around 6 months.”

“Honestly we’ve always planned to have a family of 5, 10, 12 children … We’re Irish, haha,” he wrote.

Photo by Handout

Coleman was pregnant at the time of their abduction and had the children while she was a hostage.