JON and Kate Gosselin, from TLC’s Jon and Kate Plus 8, were together for nearly a decade before they divorced 11 years ago.
The pair split in December of 2009 after ten years of marriage.
Their hit reality series aired for 11 seasons on the TLC network before it abruptly ended, leaving fans shocked and saddened.
The pair were together for ten years before they divorced.
After the messy breakup, Jon, 43, walked away from the family show.
“She did not want to be married anymore… because I didn’t want to film anymore. I wasn’t part of the business model anymore,” Jon told Dr Oz last year.
“The network thought I was nuts. They actually hired me a therapist and a psychiatrist.
“Because I would give up millions of dollars not to film and just go live a normal life.”
Kate, now 45, revealed to People in an interview in 2009 that the two had troubles “for a while.”
“I don’t know that we’re in the same place anymore, that we want the same thing,” Kate said.
“I’ve been struggling with the question of ‘Who is this person?’ for a while. I remember where I was the first time I heard her name.
“It’s one of those things where you can try to make it go away, but there’s blaring, red flashing lights.”
By “her,” Kate is referring to Deanna Hummel, a 23-year-old that Jon was papped leaving a bar with in April 2009.
As a result, cheating rumors swirled.
Kate also claimed Jon was unfulfilled in his life, which may have been a contributing factor to the couple’s demise.
“I’ve walked through this with him for six months,” she said.
“First he said he’s unhappy, he needs a career. ‘Great,’ I said. ‘Go get a part-time job.
“Volunteer at the girls’ school, at our church, do whatever you want.’
“Never happened. So I said, ‘Go back to school! You wanted to finish your degree? Now is the time!’ Yeah, that never happened.”
Kate is rumored to be dating her bodyguard Steven Neild.
It was speculated that Kate may have also cheated during her marriage, as there were whispers that Steven and Kate got cozy before Kate and Jon were officially divorced in 2009.
Jon told Good Morning America: “I speculate, but I don’t know. When they were traveling together, I felt jealous.
“Here I’m Mr. Mom. And then there’s some other guy traveling with my wife.”
Kate denied any romantic rumors with the Australian bodyguard, although he frequently appeared on Kate Plus 8, a spin-off from the family’s original series.
Kate premiered a new show, Kate Plus Date, on TLC last week.
The show follows Kate as she looks for love, 10 years after her divorce.
At the moment, only two of Jon’s eight children are speaking to their father.
Leah, Alexis, Joel and Aaden, all 15, are all in Kate’s care, along with older twins Mady and Cara, and the six are thought to have little contact with their father.
Mady said in an interview with People in 2016 “he makes it seem like we’re being kept from him, which is insane.
“He should maybe spend some time thinking about why we don’t want to see him, and maybe realize that if he ever does want a relationship with us, talking about us on TV is not the way to make that happen.”
“He doesn’t even know us. How can he dare to talk about us?” she added.
Collin and Hannah both live with Jon full-time.
Jon said that Collin spent three years at a special needs facility after Kate “institutionalized” him against his wishes.
Jon, who was awarded sole custody of Collin in 2018, said that the high schooler in the US Army Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps and is “doing great.”
“Kate institutionalized him without a diagnosis and then created a diagnosis,” Jon alleged.
“He did not need to be in an institution. Just because he was a difficult child did not mean he needed to be sent away against my will, against my rights. I did not know where he went.
“It took me two and a half years to find him. It took me another year to get him out.”
Back in October, Jon filed a petition for contempt against Kate, claiming she filmed the four children she has custody of without his consent for an episode of Kate Plus 8.
The Sun exclusively reported she then filed a counterclaim against him, accusing him of continuing to publicly embarrass her and “tarnish” her reputation, and blamed him for TLC’s cancellation of her show.
The divorced couple has eight children altogether – with two of their 15-year-old sextuplets Collin and Hannah living with Jon, four living with Kate and two older children Mady and Cara, 19, living away at college.
They have been embroiled in a vicious court battle for custody since their 2009 divorce, which ended earlier this year according to Jon.
Their sextuplets, who all starred in TLC’s Jon and Kate Plus Eight, are allowed to decide which parent they wish to live with now that they are of age.
“It’s like chickens, it’s free-range now. You can do whatever you want and there’s nothing we could say,” Jon, 43, explained.
Jon told Oz that he believes Kate suffers from “narcissistic personality disorder,”
“There is a lot of stuff that happened abuse-wise, mental and physical. Even though they’re 15, they might be like 12 mentally,” Jon said on the “Dr. Oz Show.”
“I have consistently made it a rule never to respond to Jon’s delusional ramblings, and I will not break that rule now,” Kate replied to the accusations.
“However, at some point soon, I look forward to making sure the absolute truth about our family is known.”
The kids have their own lawyer, or a guardian ad litem, who is a representative of the court to make impartial decisions on the children’s behalf when there is a dispute between the mother and father.
