Collin Gosselin, one of the eight kids of Jon and Kate Gosselin, lived a childhood wrapped in fame, under the spotlight of reality TV.
For a decade, Collin was part of one of TLC’s highest-rated shows, Jon & Kate Plus 8, chronicling the lives of the Gosselin couple. It was later rebranded as Kate Plus 8 following their controversial 2009 divorce, primarily focusing on Kate as a single mother and her kids.
Highlights
- Collin Gosselin, son of Jon and Kate Gosselin, recently challenged his mother to take a lie detector test about harming him as a child.
- Kate Gosselin addressed the allegations on social media, calling her son “mentally ill” and his claims a form of “malice.”
- Collin has previously accused Kate of locking him in zip-ties and unjustly sending him to a psychiatric facility.
Collin is now opening up about his side of the story with a memoir, accusing his mother of disturbing ill-treatment behind the camera in his childhood.
Kate has outright denied the allegations and fired back at her 22-year-old son after netizens asked for clarification, a move that didn’t sit well with many.
“Whatever did or didn’t happen, Collin is her son, and he’s been traumatized,” one reader said. “Kate should reach out to him and embrace him and try to help him.”
Collin Gosselin challenged his mother to take a lie detector test
Image credits: kate.gosselin
Jon and Kate Gosselin married in 1999, had their twins — Cara and Madelyn — in 2000, and then the sextuplets in 2004. After their 2009 divorce, Kate got custody of all the kids, and the nine of them appeared on Kate Plus 8.
Jon later said he didn’t want his children to be featured on the show and sent a cease-and-desist letter to TLC, demanding that the channel stop filming on his Pennsylvania property.
Image credits: kate.gosselin
Collin, one of the sextuplets who later went to live with Jon, has accused Kate multiple times of traumatizing him with child neglect, physical harm, and emotional distress.
In June 2026, he announced his book, In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood, set for release on October 13, 2026, in which he plans to tell it all.
The synopsis of the book revealed that Collin would be sharing his never-before-told story of a “secret childhood,” in which he was locked in a basement cell and force-fed a “cocktail of powerful antipsychotics” as a child.
Image credits: Heidi Gutman/NBC NewsWire
On June 27, appearing on Strange McKnight’s YouTube channel, Collin reiterated a previous allegation where he claimed Kate used to lock him up in zip-ties and challenged her to take a polygraph examination.
“I would like to invite my Mom to do a lie detector test, and that would be one of the questions, Mom… we’ll ask about the zip-ties,” he said, adding that she would be free to ask him if he was ever violent towards his siblings, an accusation Kate has previously made.
“I want to get into everything. This is where we are both hooked up to lie detectors, heart monitors, everything. They test for everything… For so long, she has been putting up this façade to the media, even before TikTok, and for me, I have nothing to hide.”
Image credits: kate.gosselin
He said he also had some questions about financial matters: “I want to ask about where all the money disappeared in the court documents that I’ve been reading.”
Earlier in the interview, Collin revealed that Kate’s boyfriend and former bodyguard, Steve Neild, tried to protect him from his mother back in the day. However, he refused to comment on the rumors that Kate cheated on Jon with Steve before their split.
An allegedly “spiraling” Kate Gosselin called Collin “mentally ill” in retort
Kate Gosselin was asked about the allegations in the comments section of a recent TikTok post about her rescue dog, Koda.
One fan urged her to sue Collin for defamation, to which Kate responded: “I can’t because I’m a public figure. Rules are different, unfortunately. Or I definitely would!”
“The rules are different for people in the public eye,” she explained in another comment.
“I consulted a high-power LA attorney (you’ve definitely heard of him) years ago when other people were putting crazy stuff out there, and that’s what he said. The courts don’t honor it if you’re in the public eye.”
Image credits: strangemcknights
“Malice is one of the hardest things to prove. I tried,” she said in a comment.
“Sadly, only parents who have a mentally ill child understand! It’s so tough, and I’m learning that people have NO ability to understand unless they’ve been through it themselves,” she said, thanking a mother who commented that she also felt “disparaged and lied about” by her child.
In response to one follower who asked if she would take a lie detector test like Collin suggested, she simply wrote, “Ha!”
Image credits: collingosselin1
An insider told the Daily Mail that Collin’s book announcement sent Kate “spiraling because she knows it’s about to hit the fan.”
“Kate can’t stop this book from coming out, but I have no doubt she wishes she could,” the source added.
Collin shared the aforementioned article on his Instagram Story, blurring his mother’s face and adding a fan comment that said, “What’s done in darkness will always come to light.”
Collin has accused both his parents of physical harm in the past
Image credits: collingosselin1
While this is his first time discussing his childhood in a book, Collin has leveled similar allegations at Kate multiple times before.
In 2022, he told Entertainment Tonight that his mother sent him to the Fairmount Behavioral Health System — a psychiatric hospital located in Philadelphia — when he was 12 years old, to seclude him so that he could not reveal her ill-treatment.
After spending two years at the facility, he left to live with his father, Jon, who was awarded full custody. He had written a letter to Jon from the ward, begging him for help. Since then, Collin hasn’t spoken to Kate or his other siblings, except for Hannah, who chose to live with their father.
Image credits: collingosselin1
Kate has always maintained that Collin suffered from multiple mental health issues, including bipolar disorder, autism, ADHD, ODD, OCD, and PTSD. She defended her decision to put Collin in a psych ward, saying it was done for his and his siblings’ well-being after years of outpatient treatment proved insufficient.
However, Jon had previously told the Daily Mail in 2019 that Collin had no known diagnosed medical condition at that time other than common ADHD. He also said on Vice TV’s Dark Side of the 2000s that he spent $1 million to get Collin out of treatment.
Image credits: collingosselin1
In 2024, in a conversation with The Sun, he accused Kate of severe physical and emotional mistreatment, which included tying his limbs and isolating him from the rest of the family.
“When my mother would put me in that room, multiple times she has zip-tied my hands and feet, bolted the door, turned the lights off, and had cameras there watching me,” Collin said, adding that he was often kept locked for multiple days.
“I had nobody in my life. I didn’t have my siblings. I didn’t have teachers at school. I didn’t have anybody. I didn’t have friends. I wasn’t allowed to visit my father. I had nobody to go to, not one person to talk to.”
Richard Puelo, Kate's attorney, told Fox News at the time, “Whatever took place, the ones that are truthful are the ones that took place… She has no comment because it won't change the past. And I don’t believe she intentionally harmed any of her children in any way, shape, or form.”
In 2020, Collin accused his father of physical harm as well, saying Jon punched him in the face and kicked him in the ribs. Kate slammed Jon in a statement, demanding that Collin and Hannah be removed from his care.
"I believe Collin 100%." Netizens took sides amid the mother-son drama between Collin and Kate Gosselin
