Collin Gosselin, one of the eight child stars from Jon and Kate Plus Eight, said he faced abuse at the hands of his mother when he was growing up.
Jon and Kate Plus Eight was a well-known reality TV series that followed the daily lives of Jon and Kate Gosselin as they raised their twin daughters, Mady and Cara, and their sextuplets, Collin, Hannah, Alexis, Aaden, Leah, and Joel.
Highlights
- Collin Gosselin accused his mother Kate of zip-tying his hands and feet and locking him in the basement.
- He claimed she isolated from his siblings and wouldn't allow him to play or have dinners with them.
- “My mother had a room built in our unfinished section of the storage basement,” he said. “She had a room put up with cameras in it, a tiny window in the corner and it was bolt-locked from the outside.”
- His father Jon eventually gained custody of him and his sister Hannah.
The show became a cultural sensation, offering a glimpse into the challenges of parenting such a large brood. But behind the scenes, the Gosselin family faced turmoils that ultimately led to the show's cancellation.
Trigger warning: This article contains details of child abuse
Now 20, Collin spoke about his childhood in a bombshell interview and accused his mother of zip-tying his arms and locking him up in a basement for extended periods of time, sometimes even a whole day.
Collin Gosselin, former child star of Jon and Kate Plus Eight, accused his mother, Kate Gosselin, of abusing him when he was young
Image credits: Jon Gosselin / Instagram
Image credits: TLC / Instagram
"It was rough. I definitely went through it a lot as a kid from my mother's end. So it was tough," he told the U.S. Sun. "I just remember being isolated from my siblings and constantly taking the fall for her emotions or the tough things going on in her life"
"I just remember being a scapegoat and always taking the brute end of things," he added.
His mother treated him “100%” differently from his siblings and wouldn’t even let him eat dinners with the family, the youngster said.
"I didn't get to play or hang out with my siblings. I didn't have a childhood with them and I never really had a relationship with them growing up," he continued.
The popular reality TV series documented the lives of Jon and Kate Gosselin as they raised their twin daughters, Mady and Cara, and their sextuplets, Collin, Hannah, Alexis, Aaden, Leah, and Joel
Image credits: Jon Gosselin / Instagram
As he recounted the traumatic experiences from his childhood, Collin said the abusive treatment escalated when he was about eight or nine years old.
"My mother had a room built in our unfinished section of the storage basement," he said. "She had a room put up with cameras in it, a tiny window in the corner and it was bolt-locked from the outside."
Calling it a “containment room,” the Gosselin sibling said there was a mattress on the floor, and he would spend most of the day in it. He said he wasn’t even going to school after a certain point and would be stuck in the room all day, away from his siblings and barely going outside.
Now 20, Collin spoke about being isolated from the rest of his siblings and never playing with them or having dinners with them
"My mother at many, many times, and most of the time became physically aggressive, verbally, very abusive with the things she would say," he told the outlet. "And obviously that carries over to the emotional side of things where a young child doesn't know any better, so it was a very, very emotionally abusive relationship."
"And when my mother would put me in that room multiple times, she had zip-tied my hands and feet together and bolt locked the door, turned the lights off and had cameras there just watching me," he went on to say.
Collin’s claims were supported by his father, Jon, who divorced Kate in 2009 and was engaged in a long-drawn custody battle with her.
"She had zip-tied my hands and feet together and bolt locked the door, turned the lights off and had cameras there just watching me," the Gosselin sibling said
When he was 11 years old, Kate placed the allegedly abused son in a mental health facility, claiming he was diagnosed with several behavioral and psychiatric conditions. But Collin asserted that he has no mental illnesses or behavioral conditions.
He recalled writing a heartbreaking letter to his father from the facility, begging him to “save” him.
"Dear dad, I'm not trying to trick you, but I still love you. I told mom I want to live with you and she said no. But right, she can't choose for me," the then-12-year-old wrote in the letter. "And I'm old enough now, I'm your son, not hers."
"She was abusive to me after I left her house. And I'm sorry, I'm sorry, take this to court ... dad, you're my savior. Please help me … I'm counting on you to get me out of here," the letter continued.
Jon Gosselin eventually gained custody of Hannah and Collin
Jon fought hard to gain custody of Collin and managed to bring him home in 2018. He also gained custody of his daughter, Hannah.
After high school, Collin set out to fulfill his lifelong dream of joining the military, but he was dismissed from the Marines in August last year during training for “non-disclosure of pre-enlistment history.”
He believes his mother’s claims of him having mental health issues had something to do with his dismissal. Despite having no relationship with him since he left the mental health facility, she shared a social media post about him in July, saying he received "multiple psychiatric diagnoses over the years."
Kate shared a social media post in July saying Collin's "distorted perception of reality is one of the many issues that he has always struggled with"
Father Jon believes his ex-wife is trying to protect herself by maintaining that their son has mental health issues.
“[Kate] tried to prove that he has mental health issues so he doesn't have viability when he talks to the press,” the father told the outlet. “... She discredits him by saying he's got all these illnesses and he doesn't.”
Kate’s lawyer, Richard Puleo, said he doesn’t believe the mother-of-eight did anything to “intentionally harm” Collin over the years.
Collin believes his mother's claims of him having "multiple psychiatric diagnoses over the years" are stopping him from fulfilling his lifelong dream of serving in the military
"She did what she did to protect herself and her family" from Collin’s "troubled behavior," the lawyer added.
Collin said he wanted his mother to come clean so that he can fulfill his dream of becoming a U.S. Marine.
"It's very important to put these allegations to rest and it's important to me, for her, to come forward with the truth because I want nothing more than to serve my country," he said.