Jon Gosselin is publicly backing his 22-year-old son Collin after Collin accused his mother, Kate Gosselin, of childhood abuse in a newly released memoir, and Jon is warning that anyone who tries to discredit Collin by calling him mentally ill will be held accountable. The dispute centers on Collin's memoir, In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood, published this past Tuesday, which details years of alleged mistreatment inside the family home that once anchored the hit TLC series Jon & Kate Plus 8.
Collin, one of the sextuplets who grew up on camera during the show's run, alleges in the memoir that he endured sibling isolation, physical abuse and verbal attacks as a child, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He accuses Kate of repeatedly locking him in his basement bedroom, and claims she hired a contractor to build a wall creating the enclosed room, where he says he spent roughly 70 percent of his time. He has also alleged the space contained two cameras and was locked from the outside, requiring him to ask permission even to use the restroom.
In the memoir, Collin further accuses Kate of wrapping his arms and ankles with zip ties, and he has said daily physical discipline damages a child's brain. He says he was admitted to a behavioral institution in Philadelphia shortly before his 12th birthday in May 2016, and that he has not spoken to his mother since his stay there. He has accused staff at that facility, Fairmount Behavioral Health System, of restraining and sedating him, and says he once wrote a crayon letter to his father and asked another child to try to deliver it while attempting to leave the institution. Representatives for Fairmount and for Kate Gosselin have not responded to requests for comment, per the Star-Telegram's reporting.
A Father's Public Defense
Jon Gosselin, 49, told Us Weekly this past Thursday that he was proud of Collin for sharing his memoir and his mission to help other abuse victims. Jon also issued a sharper warning the same day, saying people who label Collin mentally ill would be held accountable, and asserting that multiple independent psychiatrists had evaluated Collin and that the mental-illness narrative was categorically untrue. He condemned anyone spreading what he called false claims about Collin's mental health that could damage his son's reputation, credibility and future, and said the use of such claims to discredit and silence Collin had ended.
Kate Gosselin pushed back directly. In TikTok comments posted on October 13, she defended herself against the memoir's allegations, writing that “rational logical [people] or anyone who has dealt with mental illness understands what's going on here,” and maintaining that Collin's institutionalization was “medically necessary,” according to Morning Honey. Her account directly conflicts with Jon's statement that independent evaluations found no mental illness, and the dossier does not resolve which account is accurate.
Custody Fight Stretched Over A Decade
Jon and Kate divorced in 2009 after ten years of marriage. Jon obtained legal and physical custody of Collin and daughter Hannah in 2018, after a Berks County, Pennsylvania court awarded him sole legal and physical custody that December when Kate and her attorney failed to attend the scheduled hearing, according to iHeart. That ruling allowed Collin to leave inpatient care and move into his father's home that year. Jon has said that over twelve years of continuous custody disputes with Kate, he spent approximately $1.3 million and retained nine different attorneys before securing primary custody of Hannah and Collin, a figure he disclosed in a February 2020 interview reported by KVUE.
Collin, who spent more than 20 months at Fairmount Behavioral Health System before being transferred to a residential program and then living with his father in 2018, maintains a close relationship with Jon despite being estranged from Kate. He has said he felt imprisoned as a child while other children at the institution came and went. In a USA Today interview, Collin said his mother told his siblings negative things about him and that they did not witness much of what happened, since he was home bearing his mother's anger while they were at school. He has said he does not blame his siblings — twins Madelyn and Cara, and sextuplets Alexis, Aaden, Joel and Leah — for living private lives, even though none of them have publicly supported him.
A Setback That Followed Him Into Adulthood
The institutionalization has carried consequences well beyond childhood. Collin disclosed in an August 2024 interview that his 2016 stay at the facility directly led to his discharge from U.S. Marine Corps recruit training shortly before graduation, because military background checks flagged his record at a mental health facility regardless of the circumstances surrounding his placement, according to Newsweek. Following that discharge, Collin enrolled at Pennsylvania State University to pursue a finance degree while continuing to live in Pennsylvania, the same outlet reported.
Memoir Draws High-Profile Support
Collin's memoir has drawn endorsements from well beyond the family's usual orbit. High-profile advocates including Paris Hilton and podcast host Jay Shetty publicly backed the book following its release this month, with Hilton commending Collin's courage in addressing what she described as institutional trauma and turning his personal pain into child advocacy, as noted by Rolling Stone.
That attention echoes the scale of scrutiny the family has faced since its reality-TV years. At its commercial peak in May 2009, the fifth-season premiere of Jon & Kate Plus 8 drew nearly 11 million viewers for TLC, making it one of the most-watched cable reality broadcasts in history, Rolling Stone also noted. The show's massive audience helped trigger a 2009 state labor investigation that led Pennsylvania to pass its 2012 Child Labor Act, making it the first state to explicitly extend child labor protections, work permit rules and trust account requirements to child reality television performers, according to the BizParentz Foundation. In April 2010, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry had formally determined that the show broke state child labor laws by failing to secure work permits for the eight children, though officials declined to file criminal charges after TLC agreed to obtain permits for future filming, per CNN. Under Pennsylvania Title 43 P.S. Labor Section 40.5, employers featuring minors in reality productions filming ten or more days within a 30-day period must now secure special entertainment permits and ensure the environment is not hazardous to a minor's safety or well-being, according to FindLaw.
