Kate Gosselin has proven time and again that she’s an unpleasant, demanding piece of work. We’ve seen her personality on her reality show, on Dancing with The Stars, and even in brief TV interviews. She’s not a nice person, and it’s easy to imagine how hard it must be to live with her.
So that’s part of the reason it’s strange to me that outlets are running details of a book we first heard about two years ago, Kate Gosselin: How She Fooled the World, as if this is new information. Kate succeeded at first in having the book blocked, and she sued the author and her ex husband, Jon, for digging into her personal digital files for source material. It’s available on Amazon again so I suppose the author must have won some legal battle to release it. (Based on excerpts I saw on the author’s blog, it seemed very poorly written and I wouldn’t bother reading it.)
Author Robert Hoffman has released the book again and details are coming out which are of course not flattering to Kate. To those of us who pay any attention to her, it’s not news that she practices corporal punishment of her kids, or that she runs the household with an iron fist. The Enquirer is making this their cover story this week though, and here’s what they say about it:
In an Exclusive special investigation we uncover the truth inside “Kate Plus 8”’s family compound.
Reality TV mom Kate Gosselin is a “witch on wheels” who terrorizes her nannies and orders her kids around like a drill sergeant, say sources.
Kate not only demands her help complete a back-breaking regimen of daily household chores, she also expects them to clean up after her chickens, The ENQUIRER has learned.
The hard-driving 39-year-old mom’s rulebook, the “Gosselin Manual” – obtained exclusively by The ENQUIRER – spells out the duties that she expected her nannies to perform while she gallivanted around the globe for work and lavish vacations.
In addition to watching her brood, Kate demanded that her help handle cooking, laundry, landscaping, pool maintenance, trash duty and even tend to her flock of chickens.
I don’t think it sounds so unreasonable to have a list of tasks for staff to do, including cleaning up after chickens if it needs to be done. This is Kate, though, it’s probably unreasonable the way she wants everything done a certain way or there will be hell to pay. The Daily Mail has more from the book, including a disturbing incident in which Kate tried to push one of the kid’s faces into dog poop, and the fact that Kate was also abusive to the family dogs. Horrible and cruel, but we’ve heard these stories before.
Kate has been trying to promote her TV special, the second segment of which airs tonight in the US. Two preview clips have been released ahead of the show, one of which has Kate claiming that she sometimes cries because things are hard for her as a single mom. She said “It was never my intent to portray myself as superwoman or whatever. I mean, I cry behind closed doors, I struggle… When I’m worn out I just need to remind myself and take a step back and say ‘it’s you’re one shot, you’re going to mess up, but just don’t give up.’” Is she talking about her kids or her career?
Kate also recently claimed that the only reason she’s still on TV is because she needs to support her kids. She said “If there was another way to singly support eight children, you would not know this name and I would be on an island, and so would they. You would never hear from us again.” She has a nursing degree, she could ‘support’ her kids with that type of work easily. This is her go-to line when it comes to her choice of a career and it’s getting old.
Kate is shown on GMA on 6-19-14. All the photos were like this, I didn’t just pick the worst ones. Credit: WENN and FameFlynet
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: would anyone here want her as a nurse? Imagine being ill and hospitalized. Imagine that harridan coming at you with anything from a glass of water to a syringe.
No way.
She probably can’t get work as a nurse because one look at her and it’s clear that she’s a mean, self-absorbed woman. Who would hire her?
+1000
I don’t know what she was like before reality fame came her way but I definitely would not want her to be my nurse now.
I’m a Registered Nurse and proud of it-she however is an embarrassment not only to my profession but to motherhood and humanity in general. I’ve watched her show and read on Gosselins Without Pity and anything she is reported to have said or done I can believe-now can raising all those children be easy? Heck no but she doesn’t know how fortunate she was/is/will be to have had healthy,normal children and to have survived that high risk pregnancy! Believe me my spouse and I raise a severely disabled former preemie and work jobs and somedays we merely survive some days in our lives
She has also had help all along, be it volunteers or nannies. I remember my mother watching their show early on and believing Kate was doing it with little if any help. Then the curtain started to lift.
I completely agree that she doesn’t seem thankful for their health and that she has nothing near a full time job to juggle.
She was a high-risk pregnancy nurse before becoming a harridan.
Imagine how she felt about fat pregnant women being sent to her
It seems like the book rehashes a lot of stuff that happened right when the six were born. Like turning down unmatched cribs and used hand me down type clothing. She was apparently pretty awful to the troops of volunteers (not staff at this time) who did things like rock and feed the children. I think it’s very telling that this woman has no relationship with her family whatsoever, especially those who were very active in the kids’ lives early on. She’s something else.
It’s nothing new, just rehashing old stories about her now that she’s popped up again.
As usual, some stuff is bad and other stuff sounds reasonable (when you have 8 kids, you need order and teamwork. And the staff has to work for their wage).
Can we just move along and ignore her so she’ll go away?
Is blanket really worth over a billion? Wasn’t michael in debt? I didn’t think his kids would be worth that much
I don’t know if he is worth a billion but they are worth some bucks MJ (trust) is worth more now than when he was alive. Plus nobody is buying zoos or elephant man bones.
Michael was in debt but his death was a huge windfall to the estate which made a boatload of money on sales of the back catalogue, merchandise, etc. Many iconic celebrity’s estates amass more wealth after the death than the celebrity had alive
“I don’t think it sounds so unreasonable to have a list of tasks for staff to do, including cleaning up after chickens if it needs to be done.”
Except that she consistently DENIES having staff at all! Plus a whole lot of other lies (“good bra,” anyone?). She has publicly vilified her ex-husband to anyone who would listen and refuses to co-parent with him. Give the choice of her marriage or her TV “career,” she chose TV (plus bodyguard). She cries poor all the time, but continued to go to churches for $25,000 speaking fees PLUS cash “love offerings” for months after she purchased a $1.2mm home. It’s the LYING that is so galling. LOTS of material to work with here.
Her crying poor and acting as if her only option is shilling those kids is grating. I cannot believe a network caved and gave her and the twin girls a special or whatever it was. She’s probably Octomom’s role model and that’s it.
The book to watch for will come in about 10 years, written by one or more of the kids. Mommie dearest may look like a walk in the park by comparison.
She seems like a psychopath. Her eyes are hard and cold. I bet her poor kids live in terror every day – someone should be calling CPS.
She’s definitely got Narcissistic Personality Disorder. But psychopath is another strong possibility.
I think it is completely unreasonable of her to expect the nannies to clean the chicken coop! Many nannies are educated in infant and early childhood development and have trained specifically for child care. It’s offensive to assign farmhand duties to a paraprofessional tasked with the safety and well-being of children. This just shows how little she values her nannies and her kids that she feels caring for her kids = cleaning a coop.
Cleaning a chicken coop is hard work and I don’t look down on those who do it. However the skill set for nanny and farmhand are quite different. It’s gross that Kate doesn’t get this.
Kate doesn’t hire well trained nannies. The untrained ones (generally young) are easier for her to control and won’t question anything.
Yea I can understand cleaning up after the children during the day, but not after chickens. Ugh.
They are also cheaper untrained.
THANK YOU. I was shocked to read that sentence. I work as a nanny and I would never accept or stay at a job where I was expected to clean a chicken coop. That task has nothing to do with the work of child care- which is plenty of work to fill the day, especially with 8 children. If a person doesn’t want to do a single chore in their home they can hire a full staff: a cook, cleaners, gardeners, a farmhand, dog walker, etc. Nannies aren’t domestic catch-alls.
I don’t know how many nannies are working at the same time, but it is impossible for 1 or 2 nannies to properly care for 8 children and do anything but the lightest of household tasks.
I wish Kate would go find that island so we never have to hear from her or see her again.
With her rep, who would take the chance to hire her as a nurse?
I think she’s a cold, unsympathetic woman but to be quite honest she probably couldn’t afford child care for all of those kids on a nurse’s salary, let alone bills, mortgage payments, and groceries. Still, the exploitation is strong with this one, and it doesn’t seem like she’s had a day of fun in over a decade.
Other families of multiples manage at their age. They need help in the very beginning and also help with housing can be great (although another family managed on one income and lived in a large trailer for quite a while). Kate acts as though it’s impossible but other families do it. By this time, the dynamic is basically just a large family, the only difference is lack of hand-me-downs. That can be remedied easily with used clothing and gifts of hand-me-downs. She couldn’t afford the mansion and its upkeep or private schools, but that would probably work better for the kids. If she did that, the show money would have lasted a long time and she may not have had to work an outside job at all. Jon’s show money was primarily blown on child support at her high standard of living, so the divorce wouldn’t have affected anything except her ability to live like a rich person. They would have been quite comfortable, just not matchy matchy. The kids do ok with their dad and he’s always lived more simply.
What happened to that boatload of money they made in the TV show years? If they’d put even half of it away (and they’d made a lot of money) that family would be sitting pretty. Instead its an army of nannies (for children that are reasonably aged to not need intense supervision like an infant or toddler), plastic surgery, bodyguards, first class travel, the list goes on.
That’s what I was thinking — a nurse’s salary might not be enough to raise eight kids given she has to pay for child care; there’s no other adult at home.
That said, Bridget makes a good point… Where did all the money go? For someone so famously in control of her environment, there’s no excuse for her to have not controlled her spending.
Speaking of horrible nurses, my appendix ruptured in 2004. By the time I got out of recovery, into a room, etc. my first post-op pain shot was due like 10pm. I asked the nurse for it around 11 when she hadn’t come in on her own, and she told me I couldn’t have it because I’d get nauseous! WTF?? I waited a little while and called again hoping Id get someone else, but no. The same nurse came in and fussed at me for wasting her time. So I laid there all night in pain, counting the minutes until shift change. When the new nurse came in, I asked for a shot immediately and she (barely glancing at my chart) said, no I couldn’t have one because I was maxed already. I sat UP in bed and said no ma’am, I kept asking for my shot all night but that nurse wouldn’t let me have it. After I explained what happened, she was back very quickly with pain meds. Took me a moment to realize she wasn’t furious with ME, because she told me through gritted teeth that I NEVER had to wait for pain meds. Then later administration came into my room and took a report on it. I was very thankful that that nurse had a huge port-wine birthmark on her face or I could never have identified her. If Kate Gosselin was actually working as a nurse, this is how I privately feel she would treat patients. **shudder**
I am so very sorry to hear about your post-op suffering! I am an RN and I’ve been on that side of the equation by a few bad nurses myself. I don’t know if requesting to speak with the charge nurse or hospital nursing supervisor would have helped any or worsened things for you,sigh. I once was hospitalized for three infections in my tonsils at once and I never saw my nurse until after 11 am one day and when I questioned him about it I got screamed at for criticizing him for it-my son was overdosed as an 8 month old by his PICCU nurse who gave him10 times the correct dosage amount of vancomycin a powerful medication that could have killed him and/or damaged his kidneys and hearing and for months we were uncertain if he could hear. I have other stories but I should stop now.
Eileen: OMG, you guys have sure been through it! I hope your baby is ok with no lasting effects–((hugs)). That must have been hell; I’m so sorry that happened to y’all.
I had a nurse like that once. I was in hospital for my back, I prolapsed a disc and was in horrible pain and couldn’t move. I had to use the bathroom but she refused to help me. I couldn’t use a bedpan because my muscles were spasming and it wasn’t until I was desperate and begging that she finally told me she’d get me a commode – something that was available all along. I had to pull myself up without help and she also didn’t pull the curtain to my area closed so I had to go in front of everyone but by that stage I didn’t care. Later that day it was lunch time and she stood at the door to my room and literally threw a sandwich at me. Lovely woman.
Yesterday I read an article on another site about this book. One point that wasn’t brought up here is that the author alleges that Kate intentionally got pregnant with the sextuplets (and twins) because she wanted a super-sized family for freebies and attention. I was shocked at how many commenters found this allegation ludicrous because there was no way she could find a doctor to implant that many embryos. Apparently everyone has forgotten about Nadya Sulemon. I’m not saying Kate did or did not do this intentionally, but her public persona is such that I won’t dismiss it.
I actually think, in one of their first specials, that they kind of discussed this. Not the fame aspect, of course. But I remember that Jon was happy with the twins and Kate wanted one more. IIRC, he really wanted her to only implant one or two embryos, but she “didn’t want to go through this again” so I think they implanted 7 or 8, with six surviving til birth.
Kate had iui, not ivf. In iui, the sperm is directly placed in the uterus. There is no taking out or implanting embryos.
However, most patients doing iui with stimulation medications are closely monitored and if she was as overstimulated as she claimed she was, the iui should have been canceled that month to prevent high order multiples from happening. That leads me to believe that she either wanted it to happen or had some less-than-diligent doctors or bothz
That’s what I thought I remembered hearing as well Red32, but I think the article said IVF. So either the article is wrong or the book is. But yeah, I wouldn’t put it past her to intentionally try for multiples.
She herself admitted (in a book?) that the doctors told her not to try that month because she was overstimulated and there were too many follicles. I’ve always figured she didn’t tell Jon.
I have never heard of IUI. Is it more or less successful than IVF? Is it a more expensive procedure or less, and what are the chances of successful pregnancy? Is it highly/often recommended?
She DIDN’T implant. She used IUI. The author found packaging for HCG imported from Canada that she threw away (it was addressed to an alias at her PO box), and he SPECULATES that, once the doctor had identified at least FOUR mature follicles due to the treatment HE was giving her–and subsequently advised her NOT to have sex at this time for fear of multiples–she went home, injected herself with more HCG, and talked Jon into bed. Next visit to the doctor? SEVEN mature follicles. The doctor was apparently gobsmacked, and THAT’s when she informed him that, as a devout Christian, she couldn’t possibly contemplate selective reduction.
Sounds pretty twisted, but given her focus on money and fame? I think in her mind she hit the jackpot. And it’s not a wholly implausible scenario given the sort of treatment she was receiving. The only person who could really confirm this line of thought is Jon, and he’s not talking. I think the author believes that Jon had NO knowledge of the imported HCG she had on hand. Which is what would have turned four mature follicles into seven.
So he found garbage from before she was famous and knew to save it? Or she waited, what 8 years to throw it out. Can’t stand the woman, but this ‘fact’ is highly suspicious. Don’t you think?
A similar incident happened to me and my husband at an emergency room. He was there 18hrs w/o meds because the nurse said they were waiting on his test results (gall stones)
He was in agony and I finally called his internist to call the hospital to intervene. I found out later from the same Dr. That the nurse was being investigated for stealing patient drugs for herself!! His chart indicated that he had been receiving meds when he wasn’t!!
Sounds eerily similar
Annie, that’s exactly what I thought was happening (after my meds kicked in and I could think straight), and I told the admin person that. Wouldn’t doubt it a bit. That’s the dirtiest, low-down thing you can do to a person who is suffering; withhold vital medication. Grrr that makes me SO angry! I am so sorry your husband suffered that. 🙁
She had an IUI, I believe, not IVF.
How does she afford staff anymore?
Hate to say this – but I am from Reading, PA about 25 minutes from where they live. TV might really be the only career for her because her nursing degree does not matter here – she burned all of those bridges long, long ago.
Noel, what do you mean? Her behavior has ruined nursing jobs in that area?
I’ve heard the same thing from others in the area. She would have trouble getting a local job because of her past history, not because of a nursing job shortage.
So Bill Clinton is not Chelsea’s real dad? Those magazines really just make things up as they go along, don’t they? No wonder no-one has the time or money to sue their pants off them. Sorry, off-topic, but the headline just caught my attention.
You are not supporting 8 kids on a nurses’ salary.
signed,
a nurse
Co-signed by this nurse. She’s been out of the field too long at this point anyway.
I live next door to an EL Triage nurse. She works insane hours – up to 18-24 hours straight. Her shifts are supposed to be 12 hours max. She drives home, sometimes says hi to me, has a shower, eats, collapses into bed. She works mostly night shifts; and sleeps during the day. She has No Life outside of her job. I try to be a quiet neighbour so she can sleep. There is no way Kate could work as a nurse and manage all her children, and pay for child care. Most of Kate’s nannies quit anyway. I truly wonder why Kate is estranged from her family. Her coldness makes me question if she was abused herself.
“Reality show participant” isn’t exactly big bucks either though, unless you are at the top of the heap. People tend to overestimate how much people are paid to be on reality tv.
Jon Gosselin is a lying, cheating, brash, lazy unemployed idiot who possibly had relations with an underage teen–but I always find him more sympathetic and believable than Kate. THAT is how bad she is at crafting her public image.
I am no fan of hers, I’ve never watched an episode of her show. But I have worked with nurses for many years. I think you have an inflated idea of what they earn. A nurse can do very well, but enough to support herself plus eight children? That would be extremely difficult or even impossible. I’m not saying she shouldn’t go back to work, but she would absolutely need assistance from other sources just to maintain a reasonable quality of life.
It’s immaterial at this point. Kate is rich, hasn’t worked an honest job since the show started. She doesn’t need the money. What she needs is to be on TV and will do anything to get away from the kids and spend time with Steve. She’s a famewhore.
Think about it, how could she make it all this time without working if she needed the money? She can still pay for nannies, tutors, a chef, pool boys and everything else it costs to keep up the house of horrors such as taxes, home insurance, electricity, etc. She also has three vehicles to insure in a household with one licensed driver, one being a two seater sports car.
Kate abuses the children and animals horribly along with anyone else she comes in contact with. When, in her opinion, someone is no longer of use to her or disagrees with her, they are kicked out of her and the kids lives. RV Episode anyone? Those poor children have no family members involved in their lives whatsoever. They get spanked as hard as she can spank them because they want to spend more time with their father! WTF?
To the author, it’s not unreasonable to have a list of tasks for the staff, however how many times has Kate claimed she has no help, poor me, wah, wah, wah. Another one to add to her endless list of lies!
This book is definitely worth reading, it has a little bit of everything. Child abusers should NEVER be protected and it is upsetting to me that the author of this states he/she wouldn’t bother reading it because it was very poorly written. By the way, It has been updated and edited. Robert should do a follow up book IMO, hopefully about her being imprisoned for child abuse, fraudulently stealing for innocent churchgoers while banking almost 2 mill a year and animal cruelty.
I’m sure a family with 8 kids requires a lot of money. But I think her standards are ridiculous. My husband makes a really great living and I still shop at second hand stores for clothing for my kids. Not because I need to, but because why not? I have no respect for her “I’m better than that” attitude.
My grandparents had 10 kids and they didn’t go on tv to make ends meet. They ran a farm and the kids helped.
My BIL comes from a family of 10 kids too. Their parents ran a junk yard and did just fine. He and his brothers and sisters are well-adjusted and always had clothes on their back and food in their stomach.
There are other ways Kate… don’t go using ‘poor me, I have 8 kids!’ as an excuse for your fame whoring. Not saying that she could feed 8 kids on a nurses salary, but I am saying that if she had put away money at the beginning things could be different now. It seems like she spends a lot of money on her appearance, the kid’s appearance, vacations, ect. instead of being frugal. How much does she spend on her hair, makeup, gym membership, clothes alone?
Kate has a strange sense of entitlement. Nobody can change her character or personality. Kate is addicted to the money and attention. I feel sad for the children. They have to survive in an abusive environment, and pretend to be happy when the cameras roll with their demonic Barbie mother.
Well said, prettylights.
I want to know what’s going on with the Clinton headline!
Shes such a unimaginative dope. If shes a nurse…if shes really GOOD at what she does and really knows her $**t she COULD have spun herself into a “health expert”. What with 8 kids and her nursing career she COULD have billed herself as the “Healthy Living Mom” the “health expert” ….how to care for your kids with organic remedies etc etc. The possibilities are endless if she really knew what she was doing. The 8 kids thing is a one trick pony. is anyone really interested anymore even?? Im not. She should have focused more on what she could have brought to the table.
#Clueless
My mom was widowed with 6 kids under the age of ten. I was raised with a squeaky tight lower middle class upbringing (partly because she owned our home, so no fear of homelessness.) At no point did she need to pimp out her kids for anything.
We were on government assistance and everything was secondhand, but we has good educations and never lacked for anything important.
She needs to stop selling that line of BS, ain’t nobody buying it.
It would be hard to support 8 kids on a nurse’s wages. Daycare, food , clothing just the basics needs will add up fast. I’m sure mortgage isn’t cheap in a integral neighborhood. Last I read, her ex didn’t make much & doesn’t even live in a suitable home big enough to comfortably house all 8 kids. Now if Kate were a doctor at least made $100,000/ year, I would say that she wouldn’t need to go to such extremes as having a show.
Since when do 13 years olds and 10 year olds need day care? And the house is already paid for via TLC.
Nothing at all wrong with telling the housekeeper, landscaper, cook, nanny, etc. exactly how to do their job. But Kate has always claimed that she did everything herself, that she had no help, that it was just her, and maybe a part time baby sitter sometimes. She continually lies about not having help. She has to. Because she also claims she is worried about money, that she needs reality tv jobs to feed her family, when the truth is she has a fleet of servants to take care of her unemployed self, and her million dollar house
She’s going to really suffer the day these children are adults and don’t have to put up with her bull crap anymore. She’s not nurturing them if she’s bullying them. This doesn’t lead to loving feelings in adult children. She’s in trouble.