Jon Gosselin has absolutely been subjected to parental alienation during his divorce. That does not make him blameless and he made some very high profile douchebag moves. During his split he had numerous girlfriends, including various babysitters to his children, the daughter of Kate’s plastic surgeon, a Star Magazine writer (who went to hookup and have children with Jon’s onetime buddy, the very abusive Michael Lohan), and coeds. (I never understood how he pulled so many women with his sad puppydog Ed Hardy act.) So when Jon’s ex wife, Kate Gosselin, says that he changed overnight I believe her. That doesn’t mean I find her blameless either, just that this rings true.
The relationship’s dissolution was still a shock to Kate, who tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue that her ex-husband transformed suddenly.
“I really would have thought he’d have been here for the long haul,” Kate says. “The weirdest thing is that overnight he became a different person.”
Kate, 41, says Jon began buying motorcycles and cars, and staying out late – despite having eight young kids – including sextuplets – at home.
“People closest to me thought I was crazy and making it up,” Kate says now. “When they saw it for themselves, they were like, ‘Whoa.’ They saw the proof – and then I saw all the letters from women saying, ‘I’ve been there, too.’
Kate has a point here. However wasn’t she also sleeping with the family’s married bodyguard back then? Didn’t she make Jon sleep above the garage during that time, leading him to assume they were separated? Her kids only get one father and instead of realizing that and facilitating a relationship with him she pushed him out, making sure that she could keep the children in the media against Jon’s wishes. No one wins in this scenario and I doubt anyone feels sorry for Kate at this point.
I do have to say though that Kate contradicted herself somewhat in this interview. She may have said that she thought Jon would be in it for the long haul but she also told People that she “knew the divorce rate for parents of multiples, especially higher-order multiples, is so high. I’d done the math.” So which was it?
Woke up this morning thinking of my little ones, who aren't so little anymore! ❤️ pic.twitter.com/pvL4pzOROc
— Jon Gosselin (@jgosselin10) April 7, 2015
I think this family needs major therapy. Hopefully wherever the one son went (which seems really strange) they have a family involved therapy.
Awww, it’s not strange….the son you are referring to is Collin……and it seems on other message boards he has autism……your comment just struck me as pretty stuck up….
Oh sorry! I didn’t know he had autism. And I thought it was some sort of therapy boarding school.
Also I don’t think it’s stuck up to hope a fractured family is able to get help so that they come together.
Kate has said he has behavior issues and some physical acting out…I don’t think she said he’s autistic.
It’s actually extremely normal (and a great idea) to sometimes send disabled kids away for periods of time so they can get the proper help and education they need to actually be a functioning member of society. I bet wherever Collin is he’s way better off, too.
There’s been no real discussion by Kate of what the boy’s issues are. Only that he has some. Aside from autism, there’s been an equal amount of speculation that he has ODD.
It is undoubtedly a release and relief for his family to get a respite from him too, especially in a family with so many kids, how does she manage? Bet the older kids parent the younger ones.
kate gets on my nerves, don’t get me wrong…….for some reason I have always felt bad for her kids…….especially the little ones……..especially her little boys…..& I don’t know why……I also wondered how would/does Collin feel about his mom spilling the beans about his issues…….I have a 13 year old and what they may agree on now (in Collin’s example, him being OK with his mom talking about his “issues”) he may feel differently in a few years from now…..even writing this I just feel like Kate needs to step away from the limelight and come back when the kids are 18………
How do you know that Colin is OK with his mom discussing his issues publicly? He was always the child who hid his face behind his hands when the paps’ cameras were turned on him. I find it really, really hard to believe that he doesn’t mind his mother telling the whole world that he has such serious problems.
I don’t know he’s ok….i’m just assuming……….I would LIKE to assume he would be OK with it considering she’s talking about it………
That Diet Coke photo is pretty funny. That’s all I’ve got. These people need to go away…for the sake of their children. Embarrassing.
That picture is hilarious! I guess he’s got a sense of humor.
She is nuts. I don’t care that she is the woman so she must be the Hero, The Victim and an Angel. He’s awful but so is she.
Yep.
Ditto. Stop trying to be news. He went crazy and did truly stupid things after being kept on such a short leash for years and being replaced by the bodyguard who never seemed to be guarding anything. I never watched the show, but I remember how callous Kate was about the girl who slept in the cellar “because she wants to.” I hope the kids write a tell-all book.
Or even better, let Collin write a tell all book about his “mother” when he’s a grown man, and probably a rocket scientist or some other highly functioning genius as are so many on the spectrum, I know cause I work with them. Kate doesn’t deserve the time of day from any of us. Talentless, heartless creature that needs a serious karmic retribution ASAP!
This ^^^^^^^^^ 🙂
Perfectly put, Ellie. Neither of them is innocent. That whole issue that was in the media recently with eldest girls talking about how they want nothing to do with their father and they don’t want him going to media about him was such a mess. They ALL need to stay out of the media and heal their issues. I saw the older girls on The Today Show last year and they so obviously don’t want to be bothered with the media BS that is thrust upon them. Kate and Jon are both unstable and I really feel sorry for their kids.
These two are just so classless. They’re total losers and unfortunately the children have suffered as a result. She really needs to go away and protect her children. He needs to step up and either visit his children or if we’re to believe his claims, demand to see his children. Either way, either is acting like the mature adults children need as parents. The photo of him holding the coke with Kate’s name on it – douche.
We only have Kate’s side of this story, so we really don’t know what he is doing or not doing. Did he go a bit nuts after they separated – yes, but I think that is more common than people believe it is when there is a split. As I have said in the past – there’s her story, his story and somewhere in between the truth. Neither of them are parent of the year.
The marriage was over long before Jon dated anyone, and that was her decision. So no, he didn’t cheat first. When they moved into the McMansion, he took the apt over the garage. They were to keep on playing happy family for the show, but when Jon realized that meant Kate was planning on running all over the country on her book tours with the bodyguard and leaving him alone for weeks on end with the kids, he said NFW. Kate refused to go to marriage counseling (he was more than willing). When paps caught him out with other women (no doubt alerted by TLC), Kate trotted back home and the martyr act began, staged and scripted by her real husband, the network (which also paid for her divorce attorneys).
As for “he changed,” I’m not sure what you would call the numerous rounds of botox, serious facial restructuring, liposuction, hair bleaching + extensions, and very noticeable breast augmentation. At least he’s still recognizable.
Sounds like you have some inside info?
Even though Kate has deliberately isolated the family from friends and relatives (parental alienation isn’t the only kind of alienation she practices), people in the community have observed and discussed online. Close relatives and former friends have explained a few things also. There are many things seriously wrong with Kate. Narcissistic personality disorder seems like a good fit according to people who have had NPD parents but she has other disorders as well.
Jon seems fairly normal but has been stressed out, baffled, and damaged by her disorders. Even a very strong person would be a wreck dealing with the situation, and Jon just isn’t that strong. He obviously has tried to deal for the kids’ sake (he was the primary caregiver and strongly bonded), but he also obviously just doesn’t have the resources for the endless fight. So he makes a lot of mistakes that make it even more difficult, but actually even if he did everything right the odds of success are low. It’s not a crime to not be Superman. Many people, men and women, just give up entirely in such cases and wait for the kids to reach independent adulthood.
By the way, he does visit his children. He comes to pick them up on schedule to stay with him at his house not far away. But he can’t force kids that age. So he comes to the gate, and as he says – the kids who are there waiting for him are all he gets. If the situation is as it was when the kids were much younger — Kate doesn’t allow him to come onto the property (it’s a very long road between the gate and the house) or to phone the kids at her house. They’re old enough now to be able to use burner phones, I suppose, if they can hide them (using cells their mother pays for would reveal contact and cause trouble, Kate has been shown to be physically and verbally abusive when the kids cross her). But the years of alienation have undoubtedly eroded their relationship with their dad at least for some of them. Living with a seriously narcissistic mother is pretty hellish, I hope the kids are able to work things out with their dad once they are completely on their own and she has no leverage.
That seems to be the situation from my perspective as well.
Maybe these two a-holes can stop dragging their children into this public mess.
She should just stop trying to prove to everyone that she’s some blameless, loving mama. We all saw you, Kate. We saw your show, we saw your constant and blatant disrespect for your husband and marriage, we saw what a mean control freak you are.
This. She treated him like her 9th kid.
I have nothing to add to what you said. We all saw how she treated him on tv. Wouldn’t you go a little crazy once you were free of that?
I can’t stand that TLC allows this family to be dragged back out into the public every few years so that Kate doesn’t have to find a real job.
Thank you, Patricia. You nailed it.
You mean overnight he snapped and couldn’t take it anymore? Yeah, that sounds pretty damn believable to me.
Precisely.
I doubt that he actually changed. I think it’s more probable that he finally stood up to her and did things he’d wanted to do all along, that she had repressed.
They’re both horrible!
More like he stopped allowing you to manipulate and treat him like crap, and you Kate, were confused why your abuse wasn’t effective.
Kate is another one of those people who would sell their soul to be famous and on tv. But sure, Jon changed.
So true. She had her own reality show, and was on DWTS and Celebrity Apprentice, not to mention all the crossover episodes on other reality shows like Celebrity Wife Swap and Sarah Palin’s Alaska. I’m sure if there is ever a Real Housewifes of Philadelphia, she will be front and center in the cast.
I don’t care if he was a douchebag to you during and after your marriage. He is still the kids’ father and their well-being should be front and center.
Just because someone is a lousy spouse, doesn’t mean they’re a lousy parent.
That said, I think the worst thing to happen to the Gosselin family was fame, fortune and that television show.
I strongly believe every child has a right to love their parent. It matters not what kind of person the parent is. They are the only parents the children have and children need to love their parent and know they are loved by them. No one has a right to turn a child against their parent/other parent and no one has a right to make a child feel guilty for loving their parent. For those reasons, Kate is a despicable person. She publicly shamed Jon for the children to see and it’s obvious she trashes him to them or in front of them. She has no shame and frankly, no brains.
It seemed like he just took everything she threw at him for years. Then finally snapped and that was the big change.
They’re both pretty awful and i feel bad for the kids.
I think Kate might just be saying that she knew the statistics so she shouldn’t have been surprised when they split but she still never thought he’d grow a backbone lol.
If you did not watch them for years and keep up with everything that went on, you can’t just side with her. It’s total rubbish that Jon changed overnight. He was a great father who did the majority of the work at home, as well as holding down a full-time job. He let her treat him like the dirt beneath her feet for years and then she started taking off with “the bodyguard” on frequent, extended trips before he finally rebelled.
I thought I was over her shenanigans and didn’t care anymore, but she’s a liar, has always been a liar, and will continue to be a liar. You can’t rewrite the TRUE STORY now Kate. Please just go away.
Jon is spineless but Kate is a narcissist. She pushed him away and turned the kids against him. She was in it for the fame and money from the start. Jon may have thrown in the towel when he should have stuck it out for the kids but she was bent on being a star and using her kids to get there. Saying he changed over night may be true, but so did she. He didn’t realize she was this greedy, selfish user who would cast him aside in a heartbeat once she got her fame ball rolling. She shouldn’t talk about change. She has changed every thing about herself to conform to Hollywood standards – which she still doesn’t – but not for lack of trying. I see her as no different than Octo-Mom. She purposely had sextuplets which put the fetuses/babies at risk, her at risk, her marriage and affected everyone involved….all for a TV show for reality fame and to not have to get a real job. I wish she would go away. At least I could hope the children were living a more normal life.
I don’t think Jon had the choice of “sticking it out for the kids”. He was already doing that, living above the garage since they moved into the big house. But once the media discovered the arrangement (she was fine with him dating discreetly), Kate decided to file for divorce and her victim role began. He couldn’t stay after that, she pushed him out. She proceeded to make it difficult for him to have time with the kids when she could. But local witnesses can verify that he always came for the kids when it was his time, even during his wild period.
This question gets asked a lot, but I feel like it’s really legitimate with Kate: Why is anyone still talking to her? Who actually cares?
For the life of me, I can’t understand why they won’t STOP talking about each other. Their kids are going to grow up to hate the both of them. There is no WIN in publicly bashing your children’s biological parent. Stop doing interviews and keep your mouths shut to the public. Why, oh, why is this so hard for them to do? It’s been YEARS people, and I, for one, am exhausted from these two. How do they still have the energy for this?
Jon doesn’t really seem to say much about Kate. He did have some outbursts in the early days after the divorce filing, for which he apologized. He said therapy helped him. Any other outbursts must have been very short-lived, I just recall him talking about missing his kids. The frustrations could possibly get beyond him sometimes. I hope he’s still in therapy because recovery from Kate will take a lifetime…. Yes, Kate would come up in such discussions, but he doesn’t seem to be blasting her.
Kate on the other hand has routinely talked against Jon every chance she gets. She has even tried to claim the kids didn’t want to visit him when they were younger, despite video evidence to the contrary (they were obviously relaxed around him, tense around Kate). If that’s how she talks in public, imagine how she talks behind closed doors.
I think they both changed overnight – they were two ordinary, unremarkable people who went from middle class obscurity to fame and fortune overnight because of their reality TV show.
I don’t see the contradiction. It’s perfectly possible she “did the math” on the divorce rate and yet expected Jon to stick around. You can know the odds yet think you’ll be on the “winning” side. She knew Jon needed her, relied on her, and had little initiative of his own. Likely she never expected the idea of leaving to occur to him.
You must have never watched this show to make those fairytale remarks. Jon relied on her? Hell no, she made him do everything.
The way someone like Kate would see it is that her weak-willed husband relies on her to make the tough decisions, move their lives along and see that everything gets done. She never saw him as having the balls to leave her, no matter what.
I never said she was *right* about any of this, just that from her point of view Jon was totally reliant on her. Hence the “he changed” language when she found that actually, he was not. How is that a fairytale? If you look at what she says from her perspective, it makes sense.
Projecting much?
Says the woman who got on tv and bought herself a new face. None of this was ever about being able to take care of her kids. She wanted to be famous. Famous for having a bunch of kids. Their kids deserve better than both of them.
* x 1,000,000,000 what Jennifer Justice and Sherry both said.
I’ve always liked jon gosselin. I think kate was always super controlling and bossy (if you saw they show she always belittled him) and eventually i think he got sick of it. I see a lot of men go through what their wives call a midlife crisis but I think really they realize that that partner isn’t for them anymore. I think it’s horrible that she continued to parade her kids in the media. There are other ways to make a buck. I would be surprised if when most of the kids are older they have nothing to do with their mom.
I did watch the show when it was Jon and Kate plus 8. I very much disliked Kate because she belittled Jon constantly. It was really upsetting because I don’t think his behavior warranted that. Not saying his actions are excusable but after the way he was treated by his wife I can see how a person would do some crazy things to feel validated somehow.
I know women who have had very bad husbands. One involving domestic violence the other was abandoned with 6 children for another woman. These two amazing women have never stood in the way of the children maintaing a relationship with their fathers. They encouraged their children to forgive their fathers. The one who was abandoned even paid for all the funeral costs of her ex after his new wife refused to pay for his funeral. Out of love or her children she did this but I still cannot imagine doing that after being abandoned.
For the sake of their children both parties have to put aside their differences for their children’s happiness.
I absolutely can’t stand Kate, but no excuses for Jon, either post divorce. He is a lazy, whiny excuse of a man.
The kids really have no luck in the parent department, unfortunately.