All roads lead to Kate Gosselin–- at least the bad ones do, anyway, according to Kate’s ex-husband, Jon Gosselin.
The father of eight sat down with ET for an interview this week to discuss the ongoing Gosselin family drama and to share a message to his estranged daughter Mady after the 22-year-old spoke out recently about her younger brother Collin‘s alleged violent behavior.
(For those in need of a refresher on the lineup of Gosselin kids, Jon and Kate are parents to twins Mady and Cara, as well as 19-year-old sextuplets Collin, Hannah, Alexis, Joel, Aaden and Leah. Jon only has contact with two of his kids, Hannah and Collin.)
As The Ashley previously told you, Mady took to Instagram last month to address claims made by Jon, Hannah and Collin on an episode of the docuseries Dark Side of the 2000s regarding members of the family allegedly shunning Collin (among other things). Mady alleged that Collin–- who was placed in a psychiatric hospital by his mother at the age of 12–- “physically threatened” her and every member of their family and “exhibited hateful and even violent behavior” to certain groups of people.
When asked how he felt about Mady’s claims, Jon said they left him feeling “heartbroken,” arguing that Mady hasn’t even been around her younger brother enough to form such opinions.
“Where did that come from? We all know where it came from; it came from Kate-– exactly Kate’s words,” Jon said, noting how similar Mady’s claims were to those made by Kate.
Jon said it seems that Mady has since “recanted” her statements about Collin, as she took all of her social media posts down shortly after making them.
“So why say it in the first place?” Jon asked, adding that if anyone else had made these statements about Collin, he’d be “at them, for sure,” but that he declined because it was his daughter saying them.
“My message to Mady is that I love her, but please give Collin a chance. You haven’t talked to him or seen him in seven [or] eight years,” Jon said. “He hasn’t done anything to you and you should treat people the way you want to be treated.”
When asked to respond to Mady’s claims that Collin got physically violent with his family, and that he was guilty of hate speech, Jon pointed out that it’s unlikely.
“When? When he was in, like, fourth grade?!” he said. “Because that’s the last time [Mady] saw him.”
Jon said Collin— who recently joined the Marines Corp. and is currently away at boot camp— hasn’t mentioned the situation in any of his letters home. Jon said he hasn’t talked to Collin about it.
“It’s best to just let it go,” Jon said. ” … let him get through boot camp and live his life. If he wants to talk about anything or find out anything, I’m sure he’ll reach out. But right now, he’s just concentrating on his training.”
During the interview, Jon reiterated that he hasn’t spoken to his twin daughters in “over a decade,” nor has he spoken to Joel, Aaden, Leah or Alexis in “probably five years now.” When asked if he is doing anything to repair those relationships, Jon said he’s leaving it up to his children.
“At this point, they’re adults,” he said. “I mean, I don’t even know their phone numbers … that’s going to be on their healing process, so I’ve kind of just stuck with the kids that live here– Hannah and Collin … .”
Jon noted that he’s unable to reach out to the kids through Kate, claiming he’s tried to in the past and “it doesn’t work the way you think it would work.”
Jon still has no use for his ex-wife, whom he blames for the distance between him and six of his kids.
“We talk about someone who has abused my son, who has gone out of their way to separate the family, who sided with a network to separate the family, and has done God-awful, horrible things to alienate me from my children,” he said. “So until my other kids figure out that that has transpired and stop believing in a one-sided story, I can’t do anything else.
“The message should be for them to reach out to me, because I’ve tried to reach out to them and that has failed numerous times,” he continued.
Watch Jon’s full interview below.
(Photos: TLC; Instagram; YouTube)
Say whatever you want about Kate, but she was not the one who abandoned her children in order to throw away her tens of million of dollars on her 20-something flavor of the month, and Von Dutch Garbage. Everyone says poor Jon, but don’t forget he had millions as well… he just threw them away on italian vacations with his ex-wifes obgyn’s 21 year old daughter.
I pray that your other 6 kids will reach out to you.
Maddie hasn’t seen her brother since he was 12.
Not sure why she thinks she can give a comment at all.
Sure it is. it can never be he is lying.
Go away! Your estranged children have publicly said they don’t talk to you because you go to the media. If you want a relationship, stop going to the media all the time! How much are they paying you for all these interviews??
You don’t want a relationship, you want a paycheck. You just can’t say the quiet part outloud without alienating people.
It’s never the child’s responsibility to build a relationship with a parent. When he continues to go on TV and say things like that and continue to bring publicity to the kids he says he fought for their privacy you just feel like he’s full of crap and has and always will be about him first. It’s come out Collin lived with his ex girlfriend or on his own the last couple years – why is that if he had such a great relationship with Jon.
I don’t agree at all. Jon was never going to make enough to pay the child support that Kate wanted. She could’ve been understanding and had him pay what he could since she was earning millions at the time. But instead she made sure he was completely alienated from their lives. There’s plenty that Jon should’ve done at the beginning but he did fight. Sure, Dr’s signed off on Colin’s hospitalization but I’m sure a ton of that was based off Kate’s story of his problems. Kate’s diary was released to the public and she talks about abusing Colin and had been since he was 2. His siblings have said this as well. So Colin being a child probably had some issues. Kate kept him in treatment for years and only visited him a total of 2 hours over 3 years! Jon had no idea where Colin was. The Dr’s told Jon that they never had a diagnosis for Colin. Colin went to regular high school and is now at boot camp in the marines. You can’t do that with mental health issues and behavior problems. The other kids are brainwashed by Kate. They’ve been estranged from him since they were 6. You really think a child growing up hearing how awful their dad is won’t grow up and not speak to them because of that? Hannah took a chance and went to live with her dad and saw what Kate told them was a lie.
Kate didn’t decide the child support amount… a court does. And they use a formula that millions of dads are able to pay. So why couldn’t Jon?
8 kids = how much?
The Court determines child support not the parent. So many excuses for this poor excuse of a man and father.
He just really needs to stop talking to the media. His kids have made it clear they don’t want anything to do with him, his continued media conversations make it worse.
Obviously neither of these people are going to win parent of the year, but mental health facilities don’t admit people for no reason. There’s no way Kate just singled out one kid and sent him away for no reason. Kate might be a lot of things but at least you don’t see her continuing to do interviews about their adult children.
This guy needs to crawl back into the hole he came from. Let’s just be clear here — there is no way a child could be placed in a mental health facility without doctors making that decision. The child needs help and he’s not going to get it with Jon.
I haven’t spoken with of either of my parents for many years because of the abuse they inflicted on me. If a child won’t speak to a parent-it’s for very good reasons.
I’m no Kate fan but she was the better parent. Jon gave up custody of his kids in exchange for not paying child support. What a great guy!
Just because he gave up custody of his kids, doesn’t necessarily mean it absolves him of paying child support. And as a parent of two children with mental health issues, while a doctor has to agree to place a child in a residential center, it’s often based off of what account the PARENT is giving. I can tell you that I have actually had to fight for doctors to hear my sons out when it comes to things they are experiencing instead of always asking me how they feel and what I am observing. And while you may not speak to your parents because of your own reasons, I really don’t think Jon is the abuser here LOL… Kate is a master manipulator and there is absolutely something called parental alienation and if anyone was capable of swaying their children to not speak to their father, it would be Kate. There has been cases where children have been so conditioned and coached almost, into what their opinion or even experience with someone has been. She was never and isn’t now, the better parent. He may not be reaching out to his kids on his own accord but as soon as his kids reached out to him, he took them in and was their father. I am sure he’s intimidated by Kate and probably didn’t want to risk any altercations or repercussions for trying to get them back. The way I see it is he’s probably waiting for when they are all adults (as of late) and away from Kate and her influence. I truly believe they will come around.