Trigger Warning: This story contains mentions of child abuse.
Collin Gosselin is preparing for the upcoming release of his tell-all book but in the meantime, the former child reality star is coming for his mother (and alleged abuser) Kate Gosselin in several new interviews.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, 22-year-old Collin— who is currently appearing on ‘Special Forces’— spoke directly to Kate about how she exploited him and his seven siblings on TV throughout their childhoods. (Collin has claimed that Kate was physically and verbally abusive to him as a kid, and that she pulled him out of school and sent him to a residential treatment facility at age 11 when others began noticing the alleged abuse.)
“I was not wrong for feeling the way I did about being exploited every day,” Collin— who has stated that the abuse began when he stopped cooperating with filming for the family’s reality show ‘Kate Plus 8’— stated.
While Kate has spoken out in the past and denied Collin’s claims of abuse, Collin says she has never apologized or even acknowledged that how she treated him was wrong.
“She’s never, ever thought or voiced, ‘Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I took it too far; maybe I wanted a paycheck and it was easy and I took it too far and I put [my kids] out there too much. And I didn’t listen to them when they didn’t want to be filmed,'” Collin said.
Collin then spoke directly to Kate.
“Mom, if you’re watching this, I want to say that everything that I went through as a kid, I did not deserve it. And you should have done better as a mother,” he stated.
When asked if he still loves his mother— despite everything she’s allegedly done to him— Collin admitted that he does, in a way.
“I think I love memories of my mom, you know, before she changed I guess,” he said, tearing up. “I don’t know. I think I really do love her. I think of so many memories with her and I think a part of me always wants that. I think a part of people, they always want that. When there’s broken relationships with parents, they always want that.”
In a recent interview with ABC News, Collin stated that Kate had created a picture of her family for TV that was nothing like his reality.
“Simply put, my whole life that I lived was a lie,” he said. “All the things you see on TV, lies.”
Collin told ABC News‘ Juju Chang that Kate’s alleged abuse really ramped up after she divorced the kids’ dad, Jon, in 2009. He stated that Kate allegedly made him sleep in a locked room in the home’s basement and kept him from Jon.
“I couldn’t talk about what went on in the home and now I finally can,” he said.
According to Collin, Kate was very unhappy when Collin refused to film ‘Kate Plus 8’ like she told him to.
“We were redoing takes and [she was telling us], ‘Cry a little harder, laugh a little louder,’ and that’s what caused me to say, ‘I don’t want to be a part of this machine anymore.’
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“…I was difficult because I was the only one out of my siblings who pushed back against filming,” he said. “That whole facade that my mom spent years building, I was a danger because I could have so easily dismantled that facade. The truth was that my siblings and I were being overworked and were being exploited. There was just no adults to say, ‘Maybe this isn’t OK for children.’
Collin claims that Kate retailated for his refusal to film by banishing him to the basement and physically abusing him, something he says people at school began to notice.
“My mom had dragged me across the room by my earlobe and my ear was purple and swollen and my teacher saw and I talked to my guidance counselor and I told them about it,” he said. “And my mom was not very happy that I spoke about that.
Collin recalled that the incident earned Kate a visit from Child Protective Services (CPS), but that he was too afraid to speak up when caseworkers arrived. Later, he claims that he tried to runaway but was caught by Kate, who allegedly zip-tied his hands and feet together and locked him in the basement.
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Right before he and his siblings turned 12, Kate had Collin removed from the family home and taken to an institution. (Collin has stated that Kate didn’t contact him while he was locked in the facility and only visited once. In 2023, though, Kate denied those claims and insisted she did visit, phone and write to Collin “as often as it was beneficial to do so, according to his doctors.”)
“I was told, ‘This is for your own good,'” Collin stated. (At the time, Kate publicly stated that placing Collin in the facility was necessary because he had “special needs.” Collin and Jon have always denied was true.)
According to Collin, Kate locked him away because he was dangerous to the Gosselin brand.
“I threatened my mom’s income; I threatened her image,” he said. “And people will do anything to protect their reputation, especially my mom.”
Collin was able to finally get out of the institution when he wrote a secretly letter to his dad, Jon. (The Gosselin family patriarch has stated in numerous interviews that Kate refused to tell him where she had placed Collin.) Jon went to court to find out where Collin had been placed, and eventually sprung Collin and gained full custody of him. (Jon also had custody of Hannah Gosselin, while the other kids stayed in the care of Kate until they were 18.)
Kate has claimed that Collin suffers from various mental health disorders, including (but not limited to) bipolar disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and autism. Collin told ABC News that an independent psychological evaluation he underwent in 2023 proved that he didn’t have any of the disorders Kate has claimed he does.
In the interview, Collin expressed the desire to reconnect with his long-lost siblings, twins Mady and Cara and the other sextuplets— Alexis, Joel, Leah, Aaden.
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“No matter how things look from the outside, I love you,” Collin said in a message to his siblings. “I always have and always will… I would love to [reconnect with them]. I just will never know what it’s like to have a normal childhood and have a childhood with my siblings. And we will never get that back.”
Collin’s book is scheduled to be released on Tuesday. After it was announced that Collin was releasing a tell-all book about his childhood, Kate took to TikTok to call her son’s claims “ridiculous” and “made up.” She even told one of her followers that she would take legal action against Collin if she could.
Kate hasn’t responded to the claims Collin made in his recent interviews. However, the former reality TV star (who now mainly focuses on dog-centered content on TikTok) is getting lit up in her posts’ comment section over Collin’s abuse allegatons.
Collin’s siblings have not publicly responded to his latest claims.
Collin’s book, In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood, hits shelves October 13 and is currently available for preorder.
Click here to preorder Collin’s book using The Ashley’s Amazon Associates link!
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RELATED STORY: Collin Gosselin Says Estranged Mom Kate Should Be “Nervous” About His Upcoming Book
(Photos: TLC; Instagram)
I really love how it’s becoming more normalized to fight back against abuse now. Call them out.