Philadelphia Magazine has an extensive interview and profile of former reality show dad of eight, Jon Gosselin. We heard recently that Gosselin is living in a cabin in the woods without a television or Internet and is working as a waiter. He’s a ball of defensive contradiction in that he claims that he wants to be taken seriously as an “ordinary, normal” guy, but he continues to do interviews and take reality show gigs (after insisting he was done with both).
Philadelphia’s journalist points out how hypocritical Jon sounds, while Jon freely admits that he’s hoping to rebrand himself as an everyman. Like Kate, he needs to keep hustling, he needs to keep selling himself if he’s going to make money when his fame has dwindled down to a trickle. It’s clear in this interview that Jon hasn’t changed much from the put-upon yet self-important asshat he showed himself to be years ago. Jon is about to make his debut on Couple’s Therapy, with his girlfriend of a whole two years, Liz Jannetta.
The comments of Jon’s that are getting the most play, and the ones that the article ends with, are where he’s trashing Kate. He’s right in some respects but that doesn’t mean he’s the more mature party by any means, and he shouldn’t be saying this stuff to a journalist. Their older daughters could definitely read it. Here’s more:
On Kate’s lawsuit against him (which she dropped)
Everyone thinks I’m out to get Kate. I don’t give a f&ck! What would I get out of it? Everyone knows she’s an a-hole, you know what I mean? I don’t have to—she’s proven that! Kate wants to still be on television. She’s now digging into the past, because that’s what sells. Too late, honey. No one gives a f&ck, really.On how his “brand” is ruined
The main thing the tabloids did was separate me from my brand. My brand was Jon & Kate Plus 8. Now that I’m divorced? My new brand, because of the tabloids, is Jon Gosselin. In 2009, I was on 52 covers. Most-photographed person in 2009.On how Kate wrecked his “good name” by suing him for hacking her computer
My good name is tarnished. I’m just a normal person. Let’s not use ‘normal’ anymore. Let’s use ‘ordinary.’ Ordinary is: I’m a f&ckin’ tax-paying, law-abiding citizen of Pennsylvania. That just happened to be on TV for five years. You know what I mean? That’s it.On how Kate is the fame whore, not him
Yeah, Twitter. I deleted it last year. Best thing I ever did. I can disappear. Nobody knows where I am. [Kate] tweets everything. To the world, all about my children. I think it’s disgusting and awful. They can’t even have a normal life.
Ah so Kate’s digging into the past because she wants to be on television. Kate tarnished Jon’s good name, after he tried to smear her by giving her personal diary to a “journalist” friend. Jon considers himself so mysterious in comparison to Kate, even though he’s doing multiple interviews, making it known where he works and is doing Couple’s Therapy with his current piece. It’s like this guy has zero self awareness and everything is his ex’s fault.
If Jon didn’t care about Kate he wouldn’t be ranting about her and accusing her of things he’s clearly done too. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like Kate either, but Jon isn’t much better. He says on one hand that he wants to be “ordinary,” but then he brags about his tabloid covers. He claims he’s not out to get Kate, but then plays the victim because Kate didn’t just roll over and allow him to leak her personal info for a tell all. I hope that their kids have some other positive adult role models in their lives, because Jon and Kate are both pieces of work.
They BOTH come across as a**holes.
Every time I see a picture of her, she reminds me so much of The Grinch!
She does look just like the Grinch! Thanks for pointing that out….a good laugh!
This. They’re both awful people, the only victims in this mess are the kids.
ITA, BeckyR!
As far as I’m concerned, both Jon & Kate are as insanely avaricious and completely self centered as Nadya Suleman (Octomom), with a thin veneer of ‘respectability’ being the only difference between them and her.
They’re both assholes. Kate would sell anything to make her relevant. She’s mean and a real piece of work. Jon is a jackass who was having his midlife crisis wearing bad hardy clothing amplifing his douchebag behavior. As far as I can tell, they’re both gross and strangely made for each other.
They’re both low-rent douchebags – always were, still are. That’s the one thing I think almost everyone could see from the beginning of Jon and Kate Plus Eight. They were both quite willing to sell their kids out for money and their 15 minutes of fame.
To be honest, though – I think she’s always been far worse than him. And I pity their poor kids so much.
Pot meet kettle
These two were perfect for each other.
Right? I was thinking that too, I should have written it, ha!
Yup. My first thought after reading the title was “match made in Hell”.
I would have been on board with everything his said if he wasn’t promoting his upcoming appearance on a reality show.
They’re BOTH a$$holes.
He can’t accept the fact that his 15 minutes of fame ended, the same goes for Kate. They need to work normal jobs and get on with the lives.
Agree!
I’m guessing that once you get used to fame, the life of not working a regular full time job and making thousands of dollars a week compared to several hundred like the rest of us, it’s difficult to go back to the real world. That’s probably why they both are still seeking the spotlight. They just can’t go back to being “normal”.
I can’t stand either one of them personally, but I feel a little more sorry for Jon than I do for Kate. She’s a bigger douche than he is.
Anyone with eight kids will tell you that it’s hard to support them on a “regular” job. I don’t like either of these people but each has child support obligations that probably cannot be met by being a maitre d’ or a nurse. Hawking themselves and their kids is what they know and has been lucrative. Everybody has to make ends meet. I’m sorry for the kids because the damage has been done but it looks like they are mostly out of the spotlight now and the adults are hawking themselves.
He’s delusional. I truly believe she’s doing what she has to to do to support her children at this point, and he’s just a stoned deadbeat going on Couples Therapy. She’s a bitch, for sure, but I don’t think she’s crazy… just trying to navigate the mess Jon created when he left her and made their formerly wholesome family into a tabloid mess.
High five to what you say!
One thing wrong in what you wrote: she left him. She allowed him to stay in the garage apartment while he was looking for another place, because he had nowhere to go when she decided the marriage was over. She also filed for the divorce.
She’s not a victim at all.
If she was truly doing what she needs to do for her children she wouldn’t be slamming him every chance she gets on Twitter, she wouldn’t let her fans slam him on Twitter, she wouldn’t be filing lawsuits against him, and she wouldn’t be begging for gifts. She’d be out looking for an actual job.
Say what you want about Jon (and Jon? NEVER give an interview while drunk! If you can’t do that, then get yourself to rehab!), but until this interview he hasn’t trashed her like she’s trashed him.
“…when he left her and made their formerly wholesome family into a tabloid mess.”
What? She was a horrible, awful, cruel, selfish person (to her children especially), long before they were even divorced. She isn’t about supporting the children, she is about becoming the “star” she thinks she was meant to be. Even though her kids clearly need private lives, she is always putting them on magazine covers, in books, in her tweets, etc. to gain attention for HERSELF.
That man gives zero support money and spends one day a week and every other weekend with his kids., Kate can be the biggest bitch in town but she beats that pathetic deadbeat. as a parent. She is the one keeping a roof over the kids head , while he goes on Couple Therapy show to pitch himself and his current. woman. The fact he is on a therapy show, shows he has problems with women and others also. When he starts spending more time and supporting his kids then he can criticize their mom.
“I truly believe she’s doing what she has to to do to support her children at this point…”
Sort of — but she loves being famous and is fame-hungry and keeps saying that the only way she can support her family is by being famous and having a tv show. In every interview she talks about how much the kids miss being on tv. But there is footage of the kids saying otherwise. So basically I see it as her exploiting her kids and going against what they want and what is best for them — just so she can keep her name in the spotlight. She’s a nurse – if she wanted she could go back to that career. There are other ways to support her family but she’s putting her interests (being famous) first.
I never watched their original show but remember this fame hungry douche from interviews and pictures.
Kate seems like a peice of work and I hated her on dwts but I don’t really blame her for being a “bitch” and raising her kids. Could you imagine if she was a pushover?
I watched her on the wife swap show and she traded places with Kendra wilkinson. Kate seemed like an awesome mom, her kids were great and se taught Kendra the value of family (for a day at least haha).
I don’t know. I did watch a good few episodes of their show, and Kate was always belittling Jon, and really being a bitch towards the kids, and him.
I can admire a woman not taking crap, and stepping up to raise the kids, but when you’re constantly making your partner feel like shit, and on television to boot, you really have to wonder what she’s like off camera.
Jon always seemed defeated and just trying to hang in there. Is he a douche? Probably. But he took a lot of hatred and mocking from the woman he married. I feel like after a while, he just kind of shut down. I remember reading about how donations she got for the babies weren’t up to her standards, and she was turning her nose up at them. I think deep down, she’s just a miserable, angry woman. That doesn’t give Jon a pass for his behavior, but at the end of the day, you can’t fully blame him for not wanting to be a part of that constant hate.
Agree.
I don’t think this is a case where “b*tch” means strong female standing up for herself.
In this case, the word means a woman who would make fun of and mock a toddler for needing help tying his shoe laces. She was a bully to her own kids.
That’s awful! *off to read fluffier stories*
I don’t understand how they were a thing to begin with.
It’s shitty that he’s saying that about the mother of his children. Total lack of class.
Yup! Whether he hates her or not, he should NOT be going to them media to blab about it.
The mother of his children abused him pretty badly & it’s a matter of him not getting therapy that has him lashing out still, not being low class. If he had abused Kate, she would get more sympathy than him & be given a pass if she was still angry. I’m not saying he’s right in talking about her like this but she is a narcissistic a$$hole. Truth hurts.
Yes. But Kate does the same exact thing to him. She’s actually said worse things about him. Not that it makes it right — one of them should be the better person and shut up, but as a commenter above said, they were made for each other.
His “brand “? Yea, ok.
Exactly. Who?
From the most photographed person (self-proclaimed or otherwise) of 2009 to relative unknown by the end of 2013. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. And why, again, could we not do this to the Kardashians??
The only thing I eagerly await from either of these twats is the amaZing tell-all one of their 8 children or all are going to eventually write.
I bet he uses that 2009 photography and tabloid fact to pick up chicks.
All I can think about when i read this is the way she used to treat him on the show. I used to watch it with my mom, years before they divorced and this mess of drama went down, and we used to have our mouths hanging open at how she would speak to him and treat him. She used her many kids and the stress of being a mom as an excuse to be verbally abusive to him on a daily basis. I feel like he can’t move past it because he was straight up abused by her. This might not be a popular opinion but I feel bad for him.
Yeah. He should just stay quiet since anyone with eyes can see that she’s the mayor of Crazytown.
I watched the show for years, too. And Kate Gosselin is a classic abuser. Emotional, verbal, physical – you name it. She alienated Jon from his family and is completely alienated from her immediate family as well. She could STILL be riding those kids’ coat tails (not that I agree with it) if she’d only been kind and sympathetic. Hell – she didn’t even need to be that way in real life – just long enough for them to edit it into a show. Apparently toward the end they were having to shoot 3x as much as usual for a show because of her awful behavior toward the kids.
That was painful to watch. If the tables had been turned and it was Jon acting verbally abusive towards Kate, instead of the other way around, there would have been more outrage over the abuse.
+1
She was straight up abusive, even smacking him on the face. Humiliating him in public, in front of the cameras, never ever a kind word said. It was horrifying to watch her treatment of him.
And her treatment of the kids wasn’t much better. She was so cold, just barking out orders at these toddlers, and freaking out if they got one spot of dirt on them or if all their clothes didn’t match. No affection, no warmth. I don’t care if you have eight kids, if you can’t show SOME warmth or affection, you don’t need to be having kids.
My stomach would hurt just to watch it.
Yup. And it was marketed as entertainment.
I agree, it was abuse.
I think he might need to get counseling to address it specifically. It seems like he hasn’t been able to heal properly.
I totally agree with him 100 percent. I might not like how he said it but truth is truth and she is more than a witch and a bitch she is plain evil. She wants fame for herself and will stop and nothing to get it. All of you who stick up for her are delusional to think that a good mother puts “filming” in front of everything else like she did. God only knows what harm she would put her children in IF it meant that she was on television. Again you may not like what he said or how he said but it really is the truth.
Amen. If you haven’t followed this before, during, and after the divorce or watched the show, you don’t understand the big picture. Kate is a lying narcissist who’s had more plastic surgery than Kim Kardashian. She’s the one spending the kids’ money.
Birds of a feather. ..
I keep thinking about all the money they made and how it was Kate who insisted that it be put into trusts for the kids. She may be a famewhore but that money is sitting there waiting for those kids to go to college. If it were up to Jon, he’d have risked it all on some ill advised Ed Hardy project, blown through it all and left those kids with nothing.
She’s no prize, but he’s worse. She is what she is, he, on the other hand, is a passive aggressive little nothing who does nothing to support his kids and blames everybody else for his issues. Fifty years from now, it’ll still all be her fault.
That was not Kate, that was the state of Penn. Paul Petersen got involved because Kate was spending all their money on herself. If you don’t believe me you can go back in time and look it up. Kate only cared about two things, herself and filming and nothing more. I will never forget her leaving Joel on the cold cement floor when he had the flue and waited for Jon to come home and deal with him and that is only one thing, she has done plenty of other terrible things to those kids. Just wait for Maddy’s book to come out!
Dawn, the state of Penn opens a college savings account for each child of the state. A few years ago, the state was putting $5 into each account. I don’t know if the amount has changed, but it is up to the parents to continue depositing into said child’s account.
To add to what Dawn said, I think Kate can take money out of their trusts for their “expenses”. I don’t know if that’s defined in there, but I sure hope so.
Forget college, hopefully they can use the money for therapy that they will undoubtedly need as the spawn of these two egos!
Yeah, this is to everyone on the thread–if Kate had access to that money, it’s gone now. I had a relative that this happened to. My mom’s cousin (a guy) had died–he was single, had a good job, had one daughter (wasn’t with the mom), and he left her a trust fund, for her to go to college. I think his daughter was 12 or 13 when he died–by the time she turned eighteen, her mom had spent every penny in that account. I don’t know how she did it, I don’t know much about banking or anything like that–but by the time her daughter was 18, she had spent all that money.
There is a law called the Coogan Law. As Jon & Kate was probably a union show, they are probably bound by it (any child working in California, New York, New Mexico or Lousiana is also bound by it).
Information from SAG-AFTRA:
In January 1, 2000, changes in California law affirmed that earnings by minors in the entertainment industry are the property of the minor, not their parents. Since a minor cannot legally control their own money, California Law governs their earnings and creates a fiduciary relationship between the parent and the child. This change in California law also requires that 15% of all minors’ earnings must be set aside in a blocked trust account commonly known as a Coogan Account.
At present, Coogan Accounts (a.k.a Blocked Trust Accounts and Trust Accounts) are required by the State of California, New York, Louisiana and New Mexico. In most instances, you will have to supply proof of a trust account prior to receiving a work permit. 15% of the minor’s gross wages are required to be withheld by the employer and deposited into the Coogan account within 15 days of employment. The parent must supply the Coogan account number to the employer.
If you research their specific case… they operated outside of the Coogan Laws. IIRC, Pennsylvania actually passed some child labor laws specifically because of them. They skirted the issue big time and said they weren’t “working” the money was for the “family” – poor kids.
They are both terrible. I still don’t get how they ended up with so much coverage. I never heard of them before their divorce.
Oh, please leave Jon alone. He’s a good guy. I know everything Gosselin (unfortunately). Jon is right. Kate is an A-Hole.
Jon has always tried to protect his kids and he only left (and “cheated”) after Kate kicked him out of the house and into the apartment above the garage, while she was traveling everywhere with her bodyguard. Her treatment of Jon on that show is epic in its outrageous rudeness.
Jon is making an honest living, and I would never put anyone down for that. He’s doing the best he can. He’s no saint; he’s made plenty of mistakes–BUT he’s a good dad.
Wait ’til those poor kids hit their teens….there’s going to be a hella lot of acting out culminating in numerous arrests for drunk driving, dealing drugs, bar fights and bitch slapping. It’ll be like a whole posse of Lindsay Lohans unleashed upon the unsuspecting world.
I was hoping that since his juvenile behaviour in 2009, he had gained some maturity and insight, but sadly, it seems he hasn’t. I read the entire interview – in front of the reporter, he drank too much, apparently drove while drunk, stopped to urinate in a friend’s driveway, boasted about his fame and his “brand”, and dropped swear words liberally. I know his ex treated him abominably during the marriage, but come on, it’s been four years since the divorce. He’s a 36 year old father, not a college frat boy. And while I agree that his ex is indeed an a-hole (everyone who has met her describes her as incredibly mean, rude and nasty) saying so publicly was a really dumb thing to do. Not only can his kids read this on the net, but you can bet that Kate will use that against him in their ongoing battle over the kids.
Yeah, I had forgotten what an asshat he is until he opened his mouth. They’re both disgusting, and it’s hard to believe anyone chose to spend time watching them. His brand. Maybe “Mr Most Photograped (douche) 2009” ?
Hearing about Jon is better than hearing about her, but they still need to go away and stay gone. Too bad Kate will never realize that nobody gives a shit about her family.
They’re both just awful, especially the way they insist on playing this all out publicly. Their poor kids.
Ack. Those poor kids. I cannot imagine it being public record that my parents absolutely loathe each other.
The Daily Mail has a pic of him and the sadness that is his GF. Jon doesn’t need a reality check, he needs more failed hair plugs, hence his latest famewhoring. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Scroll down to the last pic and have a happy.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2530245/Shes-hole-Jon-Gosselin-lays-ex-wife-Kate-gets-ready-Couples-Therapy-girlfriend.html
Didn’t really watch the show so can’t comment on the a holes. I do see a working mother trying to support her children alone.
She doesn’t work. This “new” cookbook of hers (which is a recycled version of the one that almost got published in 2009) is a complete failure, she was fired from two blogging jobs, and her reputation as a bitch precedes her wherever she goes. She is living off the money she made by selling her kids’ lives to a network as entertainment . During the last season of the show, TLC was REQUIRED by law to pay the children directly (a whopping 15% of the take, divided by 8), but a family-court judge ruled that this money could be used for their education (private school, of course) and other “necessary” expenses. In addition, she took $22K a month off Jon in “child support” for almost 24 months after the divorce. So chances are she doesn’t pay a dime out of her own pockets–which must be very deep indeed if she can still afford to drag a “bodyguard” with her whenever she ventures out of town–to support those kids.
Wow you sound alittle too invested into the lives of these people to know as much as you claim. I still think Kate has been the main supporter of this family.
terri, it’s called knowing the facts. I love how whenever a poster gets specific about things, you know–the FACTS of whatever happened–it’s always ’emotional investment’. Emotional investment is when you’re calling other posters names because they don’t agree with you–not because you’re refuting their opinion with your own opinion, or facts.
It wasn’t “child support,” it was child support. Child support he didn’t pay and doesn’t pay. It doesn’t matter how loathsome Kate may or may not be, they are also his children, and he has a legal and moral obligation to pay support. Didn’t watch the show, not a fan of either, but it always surprises me how people on here and other sites give him a pass for not at least attempting to support his children. He comes off as a douchebag in this interview, so maybe he needs ti rethink his branding.
Putting air quotes around child support is really beyond the pale.
And yes, I would say that about a woman not paying support, too.
“Most photographed person in 2009” LOL …. ummmm , who brags about that??
Kate Gosselin IS an asshole because she got practically everything in the divorce (house, car money etc. ) leaving Jon practically broke (he lives in a small cabin/dump in the woods) . Kate who is “piecing and patching” an income (per her People article) can still miraculously afford Botox, private yoga sessions and her newest acquisition an expensive pet bird! How this “poor” b*tch must struggle!
Jon is just an ordinary guy who made the huge mistake of marrying a pathological narcissist. The usual advice for the normal spouse in such cases is “Run! Run for your life!” because there is no cure. His situation is complicated by 8 short people, so he can’t run too far. He was the one providing emotional and physical care for those children. The children’s body language is entirely different around Jon than around Kate. Look up “narcissistic mothers” to see what those kids go through. He admits he went wild after being released from Kate’s choker collar, but also says he discovered it wasn’t the life for him and he missed his kids. He very rarely loses it when talking about Kate. He very likely does need to get back into serious therapy – it helped him cope before. Pathological narcissists leave deep scars. Those kids really would be better off in sleeping bags at a little cabin with dad… But like many guys, he can’t believe he could successfully raise kids on his own. But he has the right heart for the job. That goes a long way in my book, regardless of other flaws. Those kids don’t need an isolated mansion, designer clothes, and endless trips with a camera crew. They need what Jon really has always been able to give them, without having to go back all the time to The Wicked Witch.
Agree with Yuck, Jwoolman, Lovesgossip and others whose names I can’t recall. If you have t watched the show, you cannot know! She gets away with murder, while he’s always called into question. I’m sure the kids have heard it all, especially from her. She is vindictive, he is not. He let her off, far too easily from the court case (newest) in which she had him embroiled. She hadn’t a leg to stand on, but he was still the nice guy.
Those of you who don’t agree, well, peehaps you neve witnessed her abusive behaviour. He still hasn’t been abusive, in my eyes. He’s working, SHE IS NOT AND NEVER WILL.
The kids are virtual prisoners of war: subjected to her orders; work, thinking,scheduling…even where to sit on their long bus ride, to school. Jon takes them out, allows them to be kids.