The youngest Gosselin kids have officially turned 21.
Over the weekend, former Jon & Kate Plus 8 star Kate Gosselin took to social media to mark the major milestone, sharing a carousel of photos of a birthday dinner with four of the six sextuplets she shares with ex-husband Jon Gosselin.
“And just like that, they turned 21!” Kate posted on Instagram. “Happy Birthday to my 6! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ #GosselinSextuplets.”
While Kate made a point to acknowledge that six of her children turned 21 (on May 10), only four of the sextuplets actually joined her for the celebration– Aaden, Joel, Alexis and Leah. In the comment section of Kate’s post, a number of fans took umbrage with the former TLC star’s decision to share photos with just four of the six birthday kids, with some calling the move “unkind” and “low,” and others accusing Kate of having “discarded” two of her children, Collin and Hannah.
“You discarded two of them,” someone wrote in the post’s comment section. “Shame on you.”
“Better say quadruplets since u don’t talk to Hannah and Collin,” someone else commented.
“How unkind to your other two sextuplets for you to post this,” another person commented. “Don’t do this to them. They don’t deserve it.”
“Really should have skipped making this post,” someone else wrote. “Very unkind to the two not represented. Although I am sure they are better off not being there.”
(Kate did not respond to any of the negative comments left on her post.)
As fans know, Jon and Kate share sextuplets Alexis, Aaden, Leah, Joel, Collin and Hannah, as well as twins Cara and Mady. The former TLC couple divorced in 2009 and in 2018, Jon became the primary guardian of Collin and Hannah, while the six other Gosselin children remained in Kate’s care until they turned 18.
While Jon continues to have a relationship with both Collin and Hannah, he has been estranged from his six other children for years, including his 24-year-old twin daughters. Meanwhile, Kate has been estranged from Collin for years and according to Jon, while Hannah “talks to all of her siblings,” Collin has no relationship with the other seven Gosselin kids or Kate.
According to E! News, Jon’s fiancée, Stephanie Lebo, posted a photo to her Instagram Story over the weekend of herself and Jon celebrating Hannah’s birthday at a bar. Stephanie later shared a video of herself and Hannah feeding each other some gummy candy.
Although Collin was not included in any of the birthday content shared by Stephanie, he appears to still be on good terms with both Jon and Hannah.
As The Ashley told you last year, Collin spoke about the possibility of reconciling with his mom, claiming that he hoped it would help him to reconnect with the rest of his siblings.
“So, first and foremost, my relationship with my brothers and sisters is of top priority to me,” he said, referring to brothers Aaden and Joel and sisters Leah, Alexis, Mady and Cara.
Meanwhile, the chances of Collin and Kate actually mending their broken mother-son relationship became less likely as of September, with Collin alleging in an interview that Kate abused him as a child and sent him off to a mental health facility in order to keep the alleged abuse hidden. (As you may recall, Kate placed Collin in a mental health facility in 2016 for behavioral issues and because he had “special needs”– the latter of which both Collin and Jon have denied for years. Collin also revealed last summer that Kate’s decision to place him in the mental health facility as a child had resulted in him being “discharged” from the Marines in 2023.)
In response to her son’s allegations, Kate claimed on Instagram last year that Collin “has received multiple psychiatric diagnoses over the years,” and that he was placed in the mental health facility “for the safety of myself, his brothers and sisters and for his own well-being.” She went on to allege that Collin has a history of “attacks/outbursts,” which she claimed had “sadly continued regularly,” even after Jon gained custody of the teen.
“ … Collin’s distorted perception of reality is one of the many issues that he has always struggled with,” she added in her statement.
Despite Kate’s response, Collin has since revealed that he’s open to reconciling with his estranged mother, but only if she’s willing to “come forward with the truth” about her alleged abuse of him.
RELATED STORY: Newly Engaged Jon Gosselin Hopes His 6 Estranged Kids Will “Wake Up” & Attend His Upcoming Wedding
(Photos: Instagram; TLC)
6 Responses
I’m sure I’ll get downvoted but I am willing to bet almost anything that while he did display some immature actions/behavior after their split for a bit, that Jon is the more stable parent that actually loves his kids unconditionally. Kate is just so friggin’ slimy in my eyes. She’s a master manipulator and I truly believe really only sees the kids as dollar signs now, and in the past. I believe those kids walk on eggshells to not disrupt her and likely have given her the majority of the money that they ever made in their lifetime-whether she took it and they obliged, or, they even willingly handed over. Very sad. What she did to Collin, which I COMPLETELY believe she did, was awful and I don’t believe he was ever a danger to anyone in their home. I completely believe she favored the other kids over Collin and abused him. I think he likely was just a young boy that maybe had some ADHD or just was spirited and she didn’t want to deal with it. believe she was completely overwhelmed and instead of being bothered to actually be a mom, she locked him up and put him off on someone other than herself. Broke my heart to see the letters he wrote his dad from the facility. I’m glad Jon took the steps to get custody of him back and that Hannah was brave enough to stand up to her mother basically, and left. I also think it’s complete BS that Kate doesn’t even try to reconcile with Collin and just admit she did what we all know she did. I also truly believe she’s bad mouthed him and manipulated her other kids into being scared of him. SMH
Downvoted! Hell I bet most of us AGREE with you. I think Collin has a personality most like his Dad and THAT is what sets master manipulator Kate off. I do think he had some outbursts that frightened his siblings b/c his mom 1) blew things out of proportion and 2) sucks as a parent and could not comfort him. Kate also made it clear what happens if you don’t agree with her (look what happened to dad), and/or made Collin the common enemy once John was gone.
I don’t think you will see many downvotes on this site. For the rational people who actually look at the situation objectively and with no bias, you are correct. It’s so sad. She still cannot admit any wrong or failure. She has other issues def but that is the main one that causes her issues with Colin. She cannot stand to be wrong or be called out negatively. When the twins were younger and did an interview, one basically said that and you could see the hatred and evil in Kate’s eyes as she tried to shut her up. No one is perfect but Kate wants to be. As long as she insists she is perfect she will never be able to accept any responsibility in the fractured relationship and will be unhappy. She doesn’t realize eventually the kids won’t be under her spell (hence Hannah coming around and the one twin trying to speak out) and she will be all alone. Jon def wasn’t perfect and made lots of mistakes. The difference is he admits it and is trying to make amends (altho again, imperfectly so not going smoothly). My heart breaks for Colin. I have super close family with autism, bpd, depression, etc. it’s not easy for them or the ppl who support them but you don’t give up. Kate just wants the easy, camera ready, picture perfect family but that’s not reality. If she actually ever tried to support her family/kids without just resorting to reality tv, she’d have a lot more support but actual “work” and unconditional “love” are dirty four letter words she doesn’t want to hear.
It’s her way or no way and she showed that herself on the show. With all Jon’s faults, that’s not what made Kate look bad, she made herself look bad because she is a bad person at heart.
Well, I feel old.
This aged all of us an entire lifetime.
Happy birthday to all 6 kids.