Jon and Kate Gosselin have faced public scrutiny for nearly 20 years after starring on a reality show focused on their unique family dynamic with their twin daughters and sextuplets.
TLC aired “Jon & Kate Plus 8” from 2007-09, when the former couple divorced. One year later, the show was rebranded as “Kate Plus 8,” which focused on her life following the split, and ran until 2017.
In the years since the show went off the air, the family have faced a number of controversies. Last month, Collin Gosselin announced a tell-all memoir was in the works detailing years of alleged abuse at the hands of his mother.
Jon and Kate – who have twins Mady and Cara and sextuplets Hannah, Leah, Alexis, Joel, Aaden and Collin — announced their divorce in a broadcast episode of the show.
“Over the course of this weekend, Jon’s activities have left me no choice but to file legal procedures in order to protect myself and our children,” Kate said in a statement, according to People.
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“While there are reasons why it was appropriate and necessary for me to initiate this proceeding, I do not wish to discuss those reasons at this time in the hope that all issues will be resolved amicably between Jon and myself. As always, my first priority remains our children.”
In his own statement, Jon said, “This afternoon, Kate filed for divorce. Our kids are still my No. 1 priority. I love them and want to make sure they stay happy, healthy and safe. My job is being the best, most supportive and loving father that I can be to my kids, and not being married to Kate doesn’t change that.”
Years later, Collin, 22, admitted he was estranged from his mother, a relationship which was severed after he was allegedly diagnosed with a behavioral disorder and, at 12 years old, Kate sent him to the Fairmount Behavioral Health System — a psychiatric hospital located in Philadelphia.
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“I was not able, with my own resources here, to meet his needs,” Kate said during an episode of “Kate Plus 8.” Meanwhile, “Kate Plus 8” continued to air with the seven other children. Jon claimed he didn’t know that Collin had been sent to a behavioral institute until he was eating lunch with the kids one day and Collin was absent.
At the time, Kate had full custody of the children and insisted she didn’t have to tell Jon where Collin was because of a court order.
Collin claimed that his mother institutionalized him in order to “protect her reputation.”
“I didn’t know what was going on,” he told Entertainment Tonight about being sent away when he was 12 years old. “I didn’t know where I was going. I told all my family this … That was the most scared I’ve probably ever been in my life.”
Collin added, “After being there, I didn’t have a relationship with her. Even before [being] there, I don’t think we had much of a relationship, and I think that just kept tearing it even more down.”
He said that the pressure of his family being on reality television impacted his estrangement from his mother and siblings.
“I want to believe it was because of TV and what being in the public eye does to a family. I think it tore us apart,” he told the outlet. “It gave us less time to actually be together as a family [and] more time to be in the public eye.”
Collin and Hannah began living with Jon in 2018, where Jon admitted that while Collin went “no contact” with his siblings, Hannah was still speaking with her mother.
“There’s no contact between Collin and his other siblings,” he said on the “First Class Fatherhood” podcast. “There’s contact between Hannah and the other siblings. So the problem right now is we have parent alienation and sibling alienation.”
Two years ago, Collin told The Sun that his mother had placed him in a “room multiple times” when he was a child and “zip-tied my hands and feet together and bolt locked the door, turned the lights off and had cameras there just watching me.”
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Kate’s attorney previously denied the abuse allegations against the former reality star.
“She never wants to comment because she always knows that this gets taken out of context,” Richard Puleo told Fox News Digital at the time. “She doesn’t want to comment. Doesn’t need to. The record speaks for itself.”
“The facts belie the truth,” he continued. “Whatever took place, the ones that are truthful are the ones that took place … She has no comment because it’s not going to change the past. And I don’t believe she intentionally harmed any of her children in any way, shape or form.”
Collin recently revealed his tell-all was set for an October release, and featured an image from his childhood with his mother covering his mouth with her hand.
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“For a long time, I wasn’t sure I’d ever tell this story. Growing up, millions of people watched my life on television,” he wrote.
“People felt like they knew me. They knew my family. They watched me grow up. But there was so much they never saw. For years, I kept those experiences to myself. Some because I was afraid. Some because I didn’t think anyone would believe me. And some because I just wasn’t ready.”
Collin added, “Writing this book forced me to revisit some of the hardest moments of my life, but it also gave me something I’ve been searching for for a long time: my voice. This isn’t the story people think they know. It’s the story I’ve lived.”
