Collin Gosselin, now 22 years old, was just a toddler when his family rose to reality fame as the stars of TLC’s “Jon & Kate Plus 8.” Aside from his parents frequent on-camera bickering and eventual divorce, the show painted a picture of a happy family punctuated by the heartwarming tagline, “It might be a crazy life, but it’s our life.”
But Collin later revealed that behind the scenes, he was suffering a dark and abusive childhood. During an October 12 “GMA” interview, he shared new details about just how bad things got. The most harrowing revelation was the way he says his mother forced him to sleep in a jail-cell style portion of an unfinished basement after her divorce from Jon.
Collin Gosselin Says His Mother Became Abusive After He Resisted Filming ‘Jon & Kate Plus 8’
Collin’s Monday appearance was to promote his upcoming book, “In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood,” in which Collin says he will “share the shocking story hidden behind the facade of a picture-perfect family.”
“Simply put, my whole life that I lived was a lie. All the things you see on TV, lies,” the former Marine said on Monday. He then explained the book’s cover art, which shows his mother Kate clapping a hand over his mouth as she herds the children. “The hand over the mouth, it was a ‘be quiet, stop talking.’ I couldn’t talk about what went on in the home. And now, I finally can.”
Collin says the tension between him and his mother Kate first started when he was uncooperative with filming their reality show. He says he declared, “I don’t wanna be a part of this machine anymore” while the family was redoing takes while being urged to play up their emotions. “It was like a ‘cry a little harder, laugh a little louder,'” he recalled.
During the interview, Collin explained his mother pinned him as “difficult” because he was “the only one out of my siblings who pushed back against filming. And that whole facade that my mom spent years building. I was a danger because I could’ve so easily dismantled that facade.”
Collin says he and his seven siblings were being “overworked” and “exploited” during their successful run on reality, which saw the family earning as much as $22,500 per episode at their peak popularity. “There was just no adults to say, ‘Maybe this isn’t okay for children,'” he reflected.
Collin says Kate pulled out of school in the 4th grade after an injury from the physical abuse he says she inflicted raised red flags with staff. He explained, “My mom had dragged me across the room by my earlobe and my ear was purple and swollen. My teacher saw it, and then I talked to my guidance counselor.”
He says Kate was “not very happy” that he spoke out about the incident to the adults at school. During a visit from CPS, Collin says he was “too afraid to say anything.”
Collin Gosselin Says He Was Zip-Tied by His Mother
Collin also recalled a harrowing incident when he says Kate zip-tied him at the wrists and ankles after he attempted to run away. At 11, he says he placed him in an institution where he was heavily medicated and rarely had contact with his family.
He says he was told the decision was “for your own good,” but Collin believes Kate was motivated by a desire to protect her career and reputation. “I threatened my mom’s income, I threatened her image. And people will do anything to protect their reputation. Especially my mom.”
After a year in the facility, Collin wrote a desperate note to his father, Jon, which later surfaced in the media. Dated June 21, 2017, it read, “Dear Dad, I’m not trying to trick you, but I still love you. I told mom I want to live with you, she said no. But right? She can’t choose for me. I’m old enough now, I’m YOUR son, not hers.”
Collin then told his father Kate “was abusive to me after I left your house” and urged him to “take this to court.” The note also pleaded, “I’m counting on you to get me out of here. Daddy, I love you. Save me.” He enlisted a friend to sneak the note out of the center and get it to his father.
He says Kate was hiding Collin’s location from Jon, but that Jon “went through all steps of court to find me and to get me out of there.” Following his release from the institution, Collin and his sister Hannah both moved in with Jon. Their older twin sisters Mady and Cara, along with the rest of the sextuplets, remained with Kate.
The ‘GMA’ report says Kate declined to comment on Collin’s interview to ABC, but previously made a social media video calling portions of his account “ridiculous,” and said she would sue him for defamation if she were not “a public figure.”
Collin Gosselin Describes Spending Many Nights of His Childhood Locked in Tiny Basement ‘Jail Cell’
Collin’s heartrending story includes spending many nights sleeping locked in a tiny, unfinished portion of his home’s basement he says his mother “built” to contain him.
“I was kept in, essentially, what was a jail cell. It was a room, and not even in the finished part of our basement, it was in the unfinished part, all the way pushed in the back, behind storage shelves. I was put back there like an item, like an animal, in a room that my mom had specifically built for me.”
Collin said he nothing in the room but a few books and a mattress, and there was a tiny window in the corner. When he needed to use the bathroom, he says he had to ask him mother through a camera to come to the basement and let him out. “And that’s where I spent my days.”
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Collin Gosselin Bravely Shares New Details from His Painful Childhood in Bombshell Interview