Jon Gosselin alleged that his past marriage to ex-wife Kate Gosselin took a negative toll on his relationships with his own family.
“I was segregated from my family with Kate. It was Kate and the kids and that was it,” Jon, 46, told The U.S. Sun on Tuesday, August 1. “She doesn’t talk to her own family so she tried to segregate me from mine until I woke up one day. Now I call my mom every day and I call Steph’s mom every day.”
In that same interview, Jon and his girlfriend, Stephanie Lebo, went public with their relationship after keeping things under wraps for two years. Jon and Kate, 48, were previously married for two decades before she filed for divorce in 2009. They share eight kids — twins Mady and Cara, both 22, and sextuplets Collin, Hannah, Alexis, Aaden, Leah and Joel, all 19.
Jon went on to state that Lebo, 35, and his mom are “always texting,” adding, “It just makes my family dynamic much easier. I didn’t have that so much in previous relationships, especially with Kate. Hell no.”
Noting that some people might think he’s “the difficult character” in his and Kate’s past relationship, Jon told the outlet that he’s “actually on good terms with all of my exes — Kate is the only one I don’t speak to.” One of those friendly exes includes Colleen Conrad, whom he dates for seven years before splitting up in August 2021.
Jon’s most recent comments about Kate come two weeks after Collin accused his mother of being “abusive” on an episode of Vice’s Dark Side of the 2000s series. Collin claimed that Kate’s alleged abuse was the reason she had him institutionalized in 2016 for “special needs.” It wasn’t until he was moved to another facility that he wrote a letter to Jon asking for help.
“I used to go to my kids’ school and have lunch with all of them, and that’s when I would see them — I could see them all collectively,” Jon explained during the episode. “One day, I look around and say, ‘Where’s Collin?’ And [the other kids] don’t say anything, which really scared me. I’m like, ‘Where’s your brother?’”
Jon later had Collin removed from the facility and has been living with his son and Hannah since 2018. Hannah, for her part, claimed during the episode that none of their other siblings speak to Collin.
Kate responded to the series by calling Collin a “very troubled young man who continues to need a lot of help.” She told People on July 21 that Collin “received multiple psychiatric diagnoses” over the years and his “many attacks/outbursts” influenced her decision to enroll him in a treatment facility. Despite Collin’s accusations, Kate noted that she still loves her son with “all [her] heart.”
Jon, however, slammed his ex’s comments. “Kate posting cruel false accusations regarding Collin seems to be just another way for her to justify her inexcusable horrific past behavior toward him,” a rep for the former TLC personality told The U.S. Sun on Friday, July 21. “True love for a child wouldn’t include a mother attacking their son to the public. … Do not forget that a judge awarded sole legal and physical custody of Collin to his father.”
Following the Dark Side of the 2000s episode, a source exclusively told Us Weekly that “the kids who live with Kate haven’t had much contact with Collin and his sister Hannah since they went to live with Jon,” adding, “It’s safe to say they won’t now after this doc.”
