Last month, Collin Gosselin, who is one of the 20-year-old sextuplets, revealed he was unable to fulfill his dream of becoming a marine due to his mom institutionalizing him as a child. According to Collin and his sister Hannah, 20, he was abused as a child by their mom Kate Gosselin. They claim that Collin was often “separated” from his other siblings because of his supposedly disruptive behavior. At 12, she sent him to the institution. Their father, Jon, got Collin out and got full custody of him and Hannah. Jon is on record saying that the only thing his son has been diagnosed with is ADHD. Collin has not seen his six other siblings or his mother since he was 12.
After all of this went public, things got extra dramatic when big sister Mady, 23, accused her little brother of causing her “trauma.” Kate, the Patron Saint of Karens, went full DARVO and accused Collin of “violent behavior” and “mental illness.” Collin did an interview with the U.S. Sun this week. He shared more details about what his mother did to him while he was still living at her home. According to Collin, Kate locked him in a room in the basement, zip-tied his hands and feet together, and was “physically aggressive and verbally very abusive.” This happened during school hours, too, so he’d miss school to be locked up in a dark basement with cameras watching him.
“My mother had a room built in our unfinished section of the storage basement,” the 20-year-old told The U.S. Sun in an interview published Sept. 10. “She had a room put up with cameras in it, a tiny window in the corner and it was bolt-locked from the outside. It was like a containment room, and it had a mattress on the floor and that’s how I lived.”
And while alleging his mother often became “physically aggressive and verbally very abusive,” Collin continued, “When my mother would put me in that room multiple times, she had zip-tied my hands and feet together and bolt locked the door, turned the lights off and had cameras there just watching me.”
The reality TV alum—who currently lives with his father Jon Gosselin and his sibling Hannah Gosselin while he remains estranged from his mother and six other siblings—also shared how he feels this alleged isolation affected his relationship with the rest of his family.
“I didn’t go to school after a certain point,” Collin said. “So, most of the day I was in that room and I was away from my siblings and I never really went outside. I never played with them. I was kept there. It was literally containment.”
He added of Kate, “I definitely went through it a lot as a kid from my mother’s end. So it was tough. I just remember being isolated from my siblings and constantly taking the fall for her emotions or the tough things going on in her life.
However, Kate’s lawyer Richard Puleo said in a statement to The U.S. Sun that he doesn’t believe the 49-year-old has done anything to “intentionally harm” Collin.
“There’s always two sides to every story and when things take place in the past, it’s hard to determine because people have differing recollections and perspectives,” the lawyer said in part. “I think she did whatever she did to protect herself and her family from some of his troubled behavior as a child.”
The attorney added, “However I think if Kate did the things that Collin is accusing Kate of, she would have been investigated by the authorities and prosecuted.”
E! News has reached out to reps for Kate, Collin and Jon for comment but has not yet heard back. For his part, Jon told The U.S. Sun that the basement room is allegedly still there.
“My friends’ in-laws bought our house,” he revealed, “and one time they asked me ‘Why is there a room in the basement with a bed and a lock on the outside?’”
He added of his son, “It must have been terrifying for him.”
Honestly, I want to cry reading about what Collin went through. Some of the things he describes, like being “isolated” and “constantly taking the fall” for his mother’s emotions are heartbreaking. If even a fraction of these things are true, then Kate is a monster. It truly must have been terrifying for poor Collin. As for what her lawyer says about there being “two sides to every story” – that’s BS. Collin was a CHILD and trusted his mother to be there to protect and help him. I don’t know how a mother does those things and doesn’t think she’s “intentionally harming” her young child.
ADHD can manifest in many different ways, but for pre-teen boys, it is common for them to be inattentive, have hyperactive-impulsive behavior, and struggle with sensory issues. It sounds like Kate had no patience or desire to get Collin properly diagnosed and treated. I have thoughts about that, but none of them are very nice, so I’ll just wish Collin the best and hope that is getting all of the treatment he needs to process the trauma he’s been through.
I don’t know if this young man has any diagnosis, I will start there. But I had a stepson who I was literally afraid would kill me and my son (his half brother) in our sleep. He would wipe excrement and other bodily fluids on our refrigerator. He would go to my home office during the night and break every pen I had and put them back in the holders. Whenever he was left alone with my son, he would push him under water or cover his face with something. He would terrorize us. But his father did not want him to be “stigmatized” by a mental illness diagnosis, so he didn’t get him the help he needed until much later. Turns out he had schizophrenia. With medication, he is much better. Again, not saying that’s what Collin had, but the fact that she did that to only one child (out of 8) tells me there really is more to the story.
You’re projecting your own experience onto Collin. It’s stated in the article his only diagnosis is ADHD.
Narcissists often have one scapegoat that they aim for and will target others when that one becomes unavailable.
You saying that because he’s the only one she did that to that he must have done something to deserve it is disgusting and you should be ashamed.
Look who is projecting now. I talked about my OWN experience and feelings and wondered about what KATE was thinking when she acted that way. Nothing in there blamed Collin. Shoo!
@Mimi
You USED your own experience to imply that Kate had a reason to ZIP TIE HER SON IN THE BASEMENT. You USED your own experience to claim that there must be “more to the story.”
No. Just stop.
@Mimi- You centered yourself in situation where you don’t have all the facts and aren’t qualified to make the judgement about the depicted experience. This is also not about you. The one who needs to shoo is you.
Agree with YOU, Mrs Banjo!!
Yep. She’s implictly endorsing child abuse.
I understand the reality that a smsall percentage of children have that type of extreme behavioral challenges, but Collin clearly is a fully functional adult now, so it’s highly unlikely that he had any kind of dangerous mental condition. Kate should be ashamed of herself for how she treated Collin and how she has likely bent the reality of her other children- separated and gaslit them over this. It is nothing less than heartbreaking. His interviews and perspective show that he has done a lot of self- work to heal what his mother beset upon him.
I’m glad your stepson got the help he needed, and I wish the best for your whole family.
Thank you so much for the kind comment, @NotSoSocialB. I did hearten me to see that Collin seems to be a fully functioning adult. Getting over that sort of trauma and treatment as a child cannot have been easy.
It’s actually not unusual AT ALL to have one child take the brunt of the abuse even if there are several children in the family who are never abused. It’s called The Cinderella Phenomenon, when an abusive parent singles out one child for physical violence or other abuse. Even in in my dad’s home, his older brother got his ass kicked constantly by their abusive father but my dad (the “good” and studious son) and his two little sisters (the favorites of my grandfather) never took a single lick.
It is really unfair and ignorant to parental/family abuse dynamics to insinuate that because only one child has come forth with abuse allegations and not all of them, that it is proof that the victim’s the problem and not the abuser.
My sense is he is the first to come forward, but not the last. The mentally ill person in that house was Kate.
Yeah that wouldn’t surprise me at all.
This reminds me so much of the Ruby Franke situation, where she treated most of her kids like slave labor but her oldest son Chad 100% took the worst abuse. In court she admitted to kicking him while wearing boots, holding his head under water and cutting off oxygen by placing her hands over his mouth and nose.
She also used rope to hog-tie him, so similar to Gosselin with the zip tie restraints.
Just abhorrent, disgusting shit..Kate belongs in jail with Ruby.
Yes exactly. It’s actually really common unfortunately and it makes it hard because the other siblings either think the child deserves it, or they hope the parent stays focused on that one child and not them, OR they aren’t aware of the extent of the abuse.
So the fact that he may have been the only one treated like this makes me believe his story more, not less.
@Meghan
I think you are 100% correct here, sadly. Those poor kids.
@ Becks–And a lot of times the child who takes the brunt of the abuse does so to protect their other siblings.
Your story pretty much sums up a lot of things. We don’t know what diagnoses Colin had or did not have. But it’s obvious something was going on and Kate didn’t get any assessment or treatment for him until she put him in a facility. Your story shows that once treatment is put in place, or any support, the kid has a real chance. Your step son didn’t get the assessment or help until much later, and now he is much better.
Kate failed as a parent. There is no two sides to that
Nah my mom treated me as the scapegoat and treated my brother totally normal. Very possible that Kate would have singled one child out to abuse.
Reminds me of the book “A Child Called It”
Let’s start with YOU Being afraid of your step son has nothing to do with this poor child being abused by his mother. I am sorry you went through that AND stay in your lane!
“I don’t know if this young man has any diagnosis, I will start there” @ Mimi, did you actually read the article? B/C it says right there he has ADHD. Maybe go back and actually read the article and THEN start there. Narcissists usually have 1 scapegoat, and clearly Collin was Kate’s. (I speak from experience, I was the scapegoat)
YOU need to go to therapy instead of becoming an apologist for child abuse.
Hi! Scapegoat here. Abused by narcissistic parent and their enabler. My other parent.
I was a child. I did nothing to warrant the abuse and treatment I received.
Narcissistic family systems punish one child as an example to the others. Be good or this could be you. The golden child can do no wrong. The scapegoat can do nothing right and is punished for every feeling or upset caused to anyone in the family as though they caused it.
It is absolutely common for abusers to target one child as a scapegoat, whether that is sexualized abuse, physical abuse, or verbal abuse. Abusers groom the people around the victim to cover their tracks. Then the victim has not just the trauma of the abuse they experienced, but the trauma of being gaslit because of reasoning like yours: it only happened to him, their must be more to the story. People like you make the trauma long-lasting, so congratulations on that.
I wish him well.
Kate Gosslin displays the classic narcissistic behaviour. Let’s not forget the interview she had with her twin daughters and Savannah Guthrie. Those girls were clearly on “freeze” mode.
I believe Colin. You can’t make something like this up. She treated those kids like props for money and fame. And when one didn’t make that easy, she locked him away. She should be prosecuted.
Her attorney seems to throw down the gauntlet about prosecution. I wonder if the statute of limitations has passed and that’s why they’re so cavalier about it.
Neither she nor her attorney have ever given much of a denial of Colin’s accounts. If someone (let alone MY CHILD) ever accused me of such heinous acts, and it was a complete lie, I’d sure as hell say so. The fact that she doesn’t tells me all I need to know.
Yeah I found the attorney’s response very interesting. “she did what she needed to do to protect herself and IF she had done what he says she did wouldn’t she have been prosecuted?”
Like it makes me think that the attorney knows Collin isn’t lying.
If anyone has any doubts about Collin telling the truth read Kate’s diary, it’s all online. She has disliked him since he was 2 years old. One example, he got into the M&M’s which was a no no. Kate freaked out at him, grabbed him by the hair, whipped him, then threw him into his crib. Where she said she’d put the kids to keep them safe from her. She was scared she’d really hurt them. She admitted it. And it’s all online for anyone to read. Shame on her.
Good luck Collin, I hope all your dreams come true.
She struck a two-year-old child? What a witch! It was her fault for having the candy near the children.
I always knew she was evil, just from her television interviews. Making six babies just to live off the proceeds is pretty vile.
100% I believe him and clearly Colin is the scapegoat of the family for Kate. She has done enough to ruin his life and dreams he had for himself. I truly hope he finds peace and happiness with the power of his voice.
Maybe if people had paid more attention to Jon and trying to stop her from exploiting their children for a TV show. But with the power of TLC trying to silence him. Or looked at her more closely through CPS. People like Ruby Franke and their ilk may not have risen up to abuse their children. With the bubble of fame/influencer status. To protect them for too long.
I nev watched the show but I vividly remember that interview she gave with her two teen/tween daughters, which seemed like the kids were really weighing what they could say and what not and speaking almost cryptically- I always wondered what punishment they feared. There is no way that they hadn’t witnessed that room procedure.
I 100% believe Colin. If you watched the show ( I only lasted 2 and a half seasons) she was verbally abusive to the kids. Kate’s friends, family, and people from the church who volunteered round the clock to help out and nannies have all said the same thing about Kate that she a nasty piece of work who treats people like crap.
I remember checking in on an episode years later and Kate was screaming at the kids who were crying because the nanny split the last slice of pizza between two of them. Kate had wanted the slice for the married bodyguard, ( who she was sleeping with ). The bodyguard looked like he didn’t seem to care about the pizza.
All of that anger after the show was over had to go somewhere and she seemed to have directed it at Colin.
I had a friend who was really into the series and I watched two or three episodes, but I didn’t watch any more because she was so abusive towards the husband. I hope colin gets the therapy he needs and starts healing moving forward. And I question the wisdom of making children star in a reality show- or anyone for that matter.
I always thought that Mady would be the first kid to go no-contact with Kate, There was something about the way she treated those kids, but I felt that from what we saw that Mady was getting the worst of it. I can’t imagine what was left on the cutting room floor.
I constantly wonder when he shares what his actual diagnosis is. Horrific.
KG is a psycho and a sociopath. How could anyone, especially a mother so this to her son. This is child abuse at the highest. Physical and emotional abuse, mental cruelty, physical and educational neglect, and many more charges. Most of the charges would have been felonies. Where in the hell was the school? Considerimg his lengthy absences they should have filed a report with the state’s version of DCF. Shame on his mother,
I believe him. Hannah and Collin were discarded when they didn’t fall in line with Kate’s ego. I hope one day his other siblings will escape their narcissistic mother. John is far from perfect, but I do believe he loves his children.
Disgusting. There is no excuse for that kind of awful behavior as a mother or simply as a human being, especially towards a child. So there’s two sides for his hands and feet being zip locked? And I can’t believe his sibilings don’t even feel the tiniest bit of empathy or sympathy for him, despite being clearly brainwashed by their mom, they’re 20 now so they should start to think with their heads and take a good look at reality.
So she did not deny zip tying him in an isolation room in the basement?! That’s child abuse, no matter what behavioral issues the child might be displaying!
Very similar to Brad Pitt’s “I didn’t hit my son in the face” denial. Very specifically denying a part of the allegation but can’t say it’s not almost all true. GROSS.