Jon Gosselin held nothing back while discussing his son Collin’s relationship— or lack thereof–with his mother Kate!
On an episode of the First Class Fatherhood podcast, Jon gave host Alec Lace a rundown on his and Kate’s custody arrangement which, as The Ashley previously told you, has Collin and Hannah living with Jon, and the other sextuplets — Joel, Aiden, Alexis and Leah — with Kate. (The couple also share 19-year-old twins Cara and Mady who live on their own.)
During the podcast interview, Jon said things remain “tumultuous” between Collin and his mother, and Collin and his siblings.
““Kate has no contact with [Collin]…There is no contact between Collin and his other siblings,” Jon said. “There is contact between Hannah and the other siblings. So the problem right now is we have parent alienation and we have sibling alienation.”
While Jon did not give his take on Kate and Collin possibly mending their relationship, he said he hopes to reunite his children through the help of therapy and their Guardian Ad Litem — a thirty party appointed to serve as the voice of the child, or in this case, children. Jon said for the kids, it was “like having a third parent,” adding that it “has changed everything.”
“The Guardian Ad Litem is trying to alleviate that [tension],” he explained. “And I’m trying to get family therapy through Collin and Hannah’s therapist so that the therapist can talk to the other siblings and try to find some common ground, because I think it’s super important.”
During the episode, Jon revealed that throughout his and Kate’s custody battle, he’s worked with nine attorneys and “probably spent $1.3 million in court” — a figure similar to what he quoted during an episode of The Dr. Oz Show last year.
“I pretty much go to court every month over some custody dispute or something like that,” he said. “It’s getting better now that the kids are getting older so what my attorneys and hers decided is, custody is left up to my children. So if they decide to go live with mom or they decide to go live with dad, it’s up to them.”
According to Jon, Hannah decided she wanted to live with him when she was 12, requiring him to obtain shared custody. Jon now has primary custody of her and in 2018 he revealed that she was living with him full-time.
As for Collin, Jon was awarded physical sole legal custody of the then-14-year-old in December 2018 after Kate was a no-show at their court hearing. Prior to the court ruling, Collin had resided in a residential treatment facility for children with special needs, where he was placed by Kate years earlier for what she claimed to be behavioral issues.
Jon pointed out that the sextuplets, who turn 16 in May, will soon be able to make more decisions for themselves — something he hopes will help bring the six of them back together.
“They’re going to be 18 in two years … Pretty much what I’m waiting for is my two kids who live with me, when they drive, they have every right to drive to their siblings’ school and pick up the kids and Kate can’t stop them,” he said. “I’m hoping that will break down a lot of tension between siblings.”
Listen to Jon’s full ‘First Class Fatherhood’ interview below. (Jon’s take on his and Kate’s divorce and the custody battle that has followed starts around the 5:00 mark.)
RELATED STORY: Fired by TLC! Kate Gosselin Reveals Network Has Terminated Its Contract with Her
(Photos: Instagram; TLC)
13 Responses
The no-contact between Collin & Kate is court ordered but that fact is left out of most of the recent reports on the case. The judge doesn’t think it’s safe for Collin to have contact with her so she’s order to have no contact with him. From her own journal, in her own words, we know Kate was physically abusive to Collin, she called him “hard to love” – when he was just a toddler. She’s evil.
There is no child support that Jon owes. After he stopped receiving income from TLC, Jon’s income dropped to average. Using the Pa state child support calculator, Kate’s income far exceeded Jon’s, thus he didn’t and doesn’t owe her a cent in support money. Don’t shoot Jon for this, blame the laws for the way it’s calculated. Prior to this, after the separation, Jon paid child support of over $22,000 every month, for many months.
Kate was ordered to give the court a full accounting of the children’s trust accounts in December and at this time it’s unknown whether she’s in trouble with the court for their status’ or if she’s even turned them in. Per the terms of the trust she was permitted to use the trust funds to pay for their medical, educational needs as well as housing, and anything ‘necessary for their health and well being’ – all things parents provide for their children because that’s what parents do. IMO, that’s the reason the kids told the court they HAD to work (film the show), not that they ‘wanted’ to film. She’s instilled fear in them that they’ll lose everything if they don’t film.
My money is on the court discovering Kate used their trusts to pay for their private school, their dentist, braces, doctor appointments, house mortgage and upkeep and improvements, ie: the pool, the new deck, etc, etc., and maybe even the utilities and groceries; I wouldn’t put it past her. What parent does that? Kate does. She hates Jon more than she loves her kids. She loves to control her children more than she wants them to be healthy individuals with healthy relationships. What parent would not want their children to have healthy relationships with each other? Kate.
This exact scenario is happening to my brother. Ex fled with the children and he now has an emergency hearing to get his access. Biggest problem is if he get his custody, nothing forces her to hand over the kids. It’s horrible. All he wants is his right to be with his kids. And these horrible women just refuse. They don’t deserve their kids. Being a mom means being selfless, and alienating a loving father is the most selfish and painful thing you can do to a kid,
Exactly! In a previous interview the older girls said that was part of the reason they wanted nothing to do with their dad – he wouldn’t keep his mouth shut to the media about them. Which is why they wanted the court order requiring him to shut up. Notice that as soon as it expired he started running his mouth. I don’t care what anyone else says about Kate, she at least kept her mouth shut about how things were going with Jon- including the fact that he never paid child support. He claims he paid over a million dollars for lawyers to keep fighting her about custody? Pay your damn child support and keep your mouth shut, work on coparenting like millions of other divorced parents, and work on changing custody later- after the heat and hatred of the initial divorce settles down. Everyone calls Kate names and says she was a media whore because she took advantage of work offered by TLC. If I were in the same position, I would have done the same thing. There was no way she could support all those children on just her salary. She wasn’t receiving help from Jon. Would people have been more content if she had received state assistance – food stamps, state health coverage? Or, would she have been called names and been told,”she had those kids find a way to support them.” Which she did – at least until Jon recently helped screw that up and she just got fired. Is he going to pay child support now? Or, is he too busy taking trips to St Croix as he just posted?
Sorry I watched this show when it was just a doc on Discovery. And I really liked how they worked 2gether and seemed to have a great relationship. However as soon as it was a series and they were popular the time changed. He was checked out and she was totally controlling and making comments at Jon’s expense. She yelled at those children repeatedly when they acted like eh…children. Then the divorce. Horrible. Those children knew that they had to continue filming bcuz Kate was a media whore and they knew they wouldn’t get the wonderful.lufestyle they had enjoyed thru out basically their whole existence. This is a classic case of using their children as oawns against each other. And there’s lots if families that do and can afford many children. They just rnt on TV
He talks about alienation while I think he is (also) doing that.
And for the rest – Amen.
I didn’t forget Jon refused to work, because he would have to pay child support when he did but apparently everyone forgot about that.
People want to choose sides somehow. I think they both made huge mistakes as people and parents and that things are not black and white.
Not even showing up in court for your son is heartless as hell.
I remember no child support. Traveling everywhere- with no kids- he is so whiney I can’t do people who pretend to be victims
Lol Kate did not kept her mouth shut until the Collin custody hearing came up.
I don’t agree that Jon is exploiting his children by speaking publicly about his relationship with them. This is a man who is just trying desperately to reach his kids in some way. We all know that Kate has not said one kind word about him to the kids ever, and especially not since the divorce. He is trying to counteract the narrative they are being fed.
As for Kate, again, we all know she only cares about fame and money. I believe Jon is simply trying to shame her into being an actual mother. She has abandoned two of her children! I don’t care that she has relationships with 6 of the 8. She shipped off a child that didn’t cow-tow to her demands! And she seems to want nothing to do with this poor child! Jon is stuck dealing with the emotional affects of Kate’s shitty parenting. BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT A PARENT DOES FOR THEIR CHILD!!!! By exposing Kate as a terrible parent, maybe it will shame her into speaking with Collin and Hannah.
We also know there is a hell of a lot more than Jon could be saying about Kate (such as Kate has beat the hell out of her kids on the regular) but he isn’t. I think he is a good guy, trying to be a good dad, who made a terrible decision as to the woman with whom he chose to have children. He was completely passive on the show and maybe this is him taking back his balls and showing the real story. He was vilified for years in the press by Kate and her minions. Good for him for standing up for his children and their feelings. I have respect for the guy.
I hate that I have to say we are experiencing a very similar situation in our home. My stepchild whose life I have been in since they were 3 decided at the age of 13 they wanted to live with Dad and I. It caused a lot of problems with controlling ex and when the kid came to visit they refused to go back. The child was suffering a lot with mental health problems and their mom was not addressing them at all. We got an attorney and gained custody. The problem was, the child living with us was no longer allowed to associate with their other siblings. My other stepchild comes to visit often and was telling us that they are not allowed to mention the one living with us when at home, like they no longer existed. Pictures were taken off the walls, room cleared out, you name it. Three years later and the child has minimal contact with bio mom but she still requests that no one speak of the child in their house. It has taken a few years of therapy, continuous let downs, for the kid to realize they will never have a relationship with mom. It kills us watching this.
I’ve seen that way too often with my own friends. It’s like the controlling parent( mom or dad)have so much hate for the other parent that they lose sight if what’s best for the kids.
For someone who wants his kids out of the spotlight he sure spends a lot of time talking about them to absolutely anyone who will listen. Between him and Kate I hope those kids have a ton of money set aside for therapy!
I agree with you, it’s seriously like John…who asked you, and what are we supposed to do with this information? Just concentrate on whats best for the kids and shut up.
So it’s better that Kate exploits the kids for money? Can’t have it both ways.