Collin Gosselin, 18, Speaks Out In 1st Interview & Reveals Where Relationship Stands With Mom Kate
In his first solo interview, Colling Gosselin – one of the sextuplets featured on ‘Jon & Kate Plus 8’ – reflected on the falling out with his mother, Kate Gosselin, and where they stand today.
Years after Kate Gosselin sent her son, Collin Gosselin, to an institution to help him with his alleged behavioral issues, their relationship is practically nonexistent. “After being there, I didn’t have a relationship with her,” Collin, 18, told Entertainment Tonight in his first one-on-one interview. Collin said that even before Kate, 47, sent her him away, “I don’t think we had much of a relationship, and I think that just kept tearing it even more down.”
Collin — whose father, Jon Gosselin, won sole custody of him in 2018 – theorized that the drama and eventual estrangement were due to the pressures of living in front of the camera. “I want to believe it was because of TV and what being in the public eye does to a family. I think it tore us apart,” said Collin. “It gave us less time to actually be together as a family, [and] more time to be in the public eye.”
When asked if he was open to reconciling with his mother, Collin said the door was open for the healing to begin. “Yes, it would be ideal,” he told ET. “It’s unfortunate that we didn’t have a relationship. I think every son wants to have a relationship with their mom. But I’m doing very well.”
Jon won custody of Collin in 2018 — when the boy was just 14 — after Kate and her lawyer failed to show up to the custody hearing. Kate had requested that the hearing be postponed, but the request was denied. Her failure to appear resulted in Jon being awarded custody. “It didn’t really bother me,” Collin says of his mother ghosting the hearing. “I mean, it’s like I said, it’s on her own terms, and if she doesn’t want to show up, she doesn’t have to show up.”
“I came to the conclusion that everybody has their own agenda, you know?” Collin explains. “My mom had her own agenda, and I don’t know exactly what that was. But I was put in a tough spot,and my agenda was to make it out on top of that tough spot.”
That toughness has taught Collin resiliency – but has also instilled a positive outlook. “I want to say that in life ,we all go through hard things. We all get knocked down, we all experience really, really difficult things,” he told ET. “But don’t sit around and mourn and cry about it, address the situation you’re in and fix it and come out on top of it. Because resilience is a really important thing. My one message to everybody, to the world, in general, is just be kind to people,” he continues. “It’s really not that hard, you know? Be kind, talk to people, hear other people’s stories, just spread kindness.”