Tragic Details About The Gosselin Family

The following article mentions child abuse allegations.

Few reality shows have ever made a splash on the small screen like "Jon & Kate Plus 8." The series drew in millions of viewers on a weekly basis, all of whom were captivated by the lives of Jon Gosselin, Kate Gosselin, and their eight children. Jon and Kate share twins Madelyn Gosselin and Cara Gosselin, plus younger sextuplets, Collin Gosselin, Hannah Gosselin, Aeden Gosselin, Leah Gosselin, Joel Gosselin, and Alexis Gosselin. 

Though wildly popular, "Jon & Kate Plus 8" had a dark side. Near its end, the once seemingly happy couple was plagued by rumors and appeared on camera to be less than thrilled with one another. Kate's parenting choices were questioned and criticized, and its once unprecedented ratings dwindled. But that's just scratching the surface. Tragedy befell the Gosselin family long before they made their debut on TLC, and the drama only worsened after they went off the air. These are the tragic details about the Gosselin family. 

For quite a few years, Jon Gosselin and Kate Gosselin were used to unlikely scenarios: After having twins, they not only had sextuplets, but got their own reality show. But before any of that happened, Jon and Kate struggled to conceive children. "I have polycystic ovarian syndrome, and that is a very common fertility issue," Kate told CBN. Polycystic ovarian syndrome, also known as PCOS, is a hormone disorder that affects women of child-bearing age, and one of the most common side effects is infertility. To combat that, Jon and Kate underwent fertility treatments, and they had their first set of multiples, Madelyn Gosselin and Cara Gosselin.

While Jon and Kate were very happy with their twin girls, they decided to try for one more child. "I wanted to know what it was like to have one baby. Knowing that we were doing fertility, obviously I couldn't be guaranteed that I would have one baby," Kate said. And she was absolutely right. While it's becoming less common for women to become pregnant with multiples through fertility treatments, at the time that Jon and Kate were trying to conceive children, families went in knowing that having multiples was a major possibility. After another round of fertility treatments, Kate became pregnant with sextuplets. "My entire life flashed before my eyes. I knew no matter the outcome, at that moment, whether I have all of them, lose all of them, or end up with some of them, my life would never be the same," she said of learning how many children had been conceived.

Arguably one of the most shocking moments on reality television in the late aughts was when Jon Gosselin and Kate Gosselin announced that they were separating. Although rumors of marital demise had been circulating for months prior, it was still a bit unbelievable to watch Jon and Kate confirm the stories. "Kate and I have decided to separate," Jon said on a 2009 episode of "Jon & Kate Plus 8." "It's just not good for our kids for us to be arguing in front of our kids. We can't be cordial with one another, then we decided to separate." Kate added that while she wasn't happy with the decision, she knew it was what needed to happen in order for their children to have peace.

The couple, who had renewed their vows on camera just a year prior, officially filed for divorce the same month that the episode announcing their separation aired. Despite having some large assets and seemingly bitter attitudes toward one another, Jon and Kate's divorce proceedings were swift: By the end of 2009, their 10-year marriage had officially come to a close. "Divorce is always a difficult process, and in this case there's obviously the added challenge of being a celebrity and having to deal with the reality of such a large family," Kate's lawyer Mark Momjian told the Associated Press at the time, as reported by CBS News. "I am very relieved that our divorce has been finalized, and I look forward to the new year, focusing on the children," Kate said.

It's difficult to describe the frenzy that surrounded "Jon & Kate Plus 8" while it was on air. The nation was taken with the Gosselin family, and if Jon Gosselin, Kate Gosselin, and their children weren't on camera, they were on talk shows, walking red carpets, or at other publicized events. When they were on camera, people watched; the show's 5th season debuted to nearly 10 million viewers. The Gosselins were a phenomenon, but the house divided could not stand. In 2009, after several seasons of the beloved reality show, "Jon & Kate Plus 8" was canceled after Jon and Kate decided to divorce.

Despite Jon's best efforts to stop his children from being filmed entirely, the series was reworked to "Kate Plus 8," and it continued until 2011, with Jon only appearing in one episode post-divorce. After "Kate Plus 8" was canceled, the parents, unsurprisingly, had different reactions. "I hope they can have more private family moments. I hope that this will bring more privacy to my children and that they can get the proper attention they need for any personal issues they might have in the future," Jon told Radar Online. "I'm freaking out. Big time," Kate told People, as reported by Today. "I've never quit a job in my life without having something else lined up. I don't know what's next." The first cancellation didn't last forever, though, and "Kate Plus 8" returned to TLC from 2015 to 2017, ending for good after its short-lived resurrection.

As noted, the nation was taken with Jon Gosselin and Kate Gosselin's family. The episodes showing their seemingly sweet family dynamic were entertaining, but, unfortunately, the aftermath of their divorce was just as captivating. Not long after Jon and Kate announced that they were separating, rumors surfaced that Jon had been unfaithful during their marriage. One woman, the Gosselin family's former nanny, Stephanie Santoro, came forward with allegations that she had been one of Jon's mistresses. Santoro claimed to InTouch Weekly (via ABC News) that Jon said to her, "Whatever you do, don't fall in love with me, because it's going to be impossible for me not to fall in love with you." Kate was not immune to the rumors, either — she was accused of having an affair with the family's former bodyguard, Steve Neild. "The allegations they're making about me are disgusting, unthinkable, unfathomable, and I am horrified," Kate said to People.

Jon also denounced any claims that he had cheated, and years later, while appearing on the series "Couples Therapy," Jon denied the allegations again and was frank about why he wanted a divorce. "The biggest misconception is the reason for the divorce is that I cheated on my wife. But I didn't," Jon said on an episode of the show, as reported by the Daily Mail. "I always felt like I did Kate's task list. 'Here's the Post-it note. This is what you have to do, this is how you're a good husband, this is how you're going to behave,'" he added.

Upon the announcement of their separation, Jon Gosselin and Kate Gosselin had a temporary custody agreement worked out — the two were going to each get time with their children while the children remained in the home they shared together at the time. Unfortunately, the arrangement didn't work out long term, and for years the Gosselin children bounced around while their parents fought each other for custody and in the press.

All of Jon and Kate's children are now old enough that court-ordered custody arrangements are no longer necessary, but while they were, they changed in form for the Gosselin eight. For years, Kate had primary custody while Jon was allowed to see his kids for weekly dinners and weekend overnights every other weekend. At some point that changed, and the children, who had previously all stayed under the same roof, began splitting up. 

Seemingly the first to break off was Hannah Gosselin, one of the sextuplets, who moved in with her father full-time. Soon after it was revealed that Collin Gosselin, another one of the sextuplets, had joined Hannah in living full-time with Jon. A few years later, Kate and the four sextuplets who were still living with her moved from Pennsylvania to North Carolina. But, as noted, the Gosselins are now all adults, and in 2023, Jon and Kate's long custody battle ended. At the end of it, Jon told The U.S. Sun, "I can get on with my life, it's such a good feeling. I don't even think it's sunk in yet because I've been going to court for so long."

After Jon Gosselin and Kate Gosselin divorced, their relationship seemed to only get more tense. No news involving both their names was good news, but perhaps the most bizarre story came in 2017 when the police responded to a dispute between the exes at their child's orthodontist's office. "The call came in at 1:10 this afternoon for a verbal domestic argument ... over the custody of one of their 13-year-old daughters. No one was arrested and the daughter did go home with the father after she expressed that was her desire to do," a spokesperson said to Entertainment Tonight about the ordeal. According to the report, Jon was the one who called the cops, and Kate was escorted out of the orthodontist's office building. 

According to Jon, that wasn't the only time the Gosselin family had a dispute over the custody of their children that involved the police. As he shared in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, one day, while Jon was dropping his children off at their mother's house, his daughter Hannah Gosselin refused to get out of the car as she reportedly didn't want to be with Kate. Jon took Hannah back home with him, and as he explained, "I kept Hannah and she just explained she was really stressed out and all this stuff, so I kept her [at my house] and Kate called the cops and filed a police report against me."

Jon Gosselin and Kate Gosselin's divorce has caused chasms throughout their entire family. Kate and Jon each have children with whom they don't speak, and it seems that some of the children don't communicate with each other. The oldest Gosselin children, Madelyn Gosselin and Cara Gosselin, don't seem to have a relationship with their father. "The last time I spoke to Mady and Cara was 2014. I periodically text Mady and Cara to see if I get a response and at this point, I've never heard from them," Jon told The U.S. Sun in 2023. A year prior to that, Jon shared that he wasn't on good terms with four of the six sextuplets — Joel Gosselin, Leah Gosselin, Aeden Gosselin, and Leah Gosselin — either. "[Communicating with] the children that live with Kate is very difficult, because I don't have an open relationship with them," Jon told Entertainment Weekly. "I have been alienated from those children."

Kate, meanwhile, doesn't seem to be on speaking terms with Collin Gosselin and Hannah Gosselin. Collin has made serious claims about Kate (more on that later), and Hannah has supported some of Collin's allegations. And although Hannah still speaks with her siblings that live with her mother, Collin no longer has a relationship with any of his siblings but Hannah. "What I do believe is that my mother's behind things they say in the media. She's behind their opinion of me. I think if we knew each other today, we'd be very good friends," Collin told Entertainment Tonight in 2024.

Of all the Gosselin children, Collin Gosselin, one of the sextuplets, has been the most vocal about the difficulties he's faced since his parents' divorce. In 2020, for example, an investigation was opened after Collin accused his father, Jon Gosselin, of physical abuse. "Yesterday [my father] beat me up and thought nothing of it, he punched me in the face and gave me a swollen nose and I started bleeding. He then continued to kick me in the ribs after I was on the floor. He is a liar," Collin said in a since-deleted post on Instagram, as reported by People. Jon later claimed that the situation between him and Collin escalated to the point where Jon had to restrain Collin, adding that similar situations had happened in the past.

A few years later, Collin made disturbing claims against his mom, Kate Gosselin. "My mother at many, many times, and most of the time became physically aggressive, verbally, very abusive with the things she would say," Collin said to The U.S. Sun in 2024. Collin claimed that he was isolated from his siblings and not allowed to eat dinner with them or play outside. "My mother had a room built in our unfinished section of the storage basement. She had a room put up with cameras in it, a tiny window in the corner and it was bolt-locked from the outside," he said, claiming that she also zip-tied his hands and feet while he was in the room. While Kate has denied her son's allegations of abuse, Collin's sister Hannah Gosselin has attested to some of his claims.

Once upon a time, the Gosselins were doing quite well financially. As Jon Gosselin shared in 2024, at one point, his family was earning $350,000 a month. Their success was evident in the Pennsylvania home they purchased for over $1 million near the end of their TV show's original run. However, since their reality reign ended, neither Kate Gosselin nor Jon has been able to live as large. And while Jon noted that he makes a reasonable salary as an IT employee, Kate has reportedly struggled. In 2023, after Kate had sued Jon for back child support, a judge ruled in favor of Jon, capping off Jon and Kate's messy child support battle. "It was difficult enough for Jon to watch Kate have the children film during most of their childhood, only to dip into their hard earned money to spend on herself," a source told InTouch Weekly of Jon's thoughts on the matter, claiming that Kate took $100,000 from her children's trust fund to pay her bills.

Things didn't appear to be much better for Kate in 2024. "She's hurting for money and facing the very real possibility of having to sell her house in North Carolina," a source claimed to the Daily Mail. "She doesn't date or socialize with friends. Even her nursing job that paid her a fraction of what she made on 'Kate Plus 8' didn't pan out," the source said, referencing the nursing job Kate reportedly took around 2021. The source added that Kate was trying to find work on reality TV, but that it proved difficult because of the aforementioned abuse claims made by her son.

If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.