Collin Gosselin says he and his siblings were ‘forced apart, pitted against each other’


The Gosselin sextuplets turned 21 this past May. The twins are 24. It’s blowing my mind that all eight of the Gosselin children are old enough to legally drink. Two of the sextuplets, Collin and Hannah, have lived with their dad, Jon, since they were 12. Collin and Hannah havebeen estranged from their mother, Kate, and the rest of their siblings for the last nine years. It was triggered by Kate sending Collin to an institution for “disruptive behavior” that he, Jon, and Hannah claim was actually a result of Kate’s abuse.

Collin must have been thinking about his other siblings a lot lately, because he posted an emotional TikTok with a message to them, set to an Adele song. The TikTok included a picture of them all together when they were little kids and a caption about how they were “forced apart, pitted against each other.”

Kate and Jon Gosselin‘s son Collin, 21, recently took to TikTok with a message for his seven siblings. He shared a photo of himself and his brothers and sisters as kids — with twins Mady and Cara, now 24, and his fellow sextuplets, Alexis, Hannah, Aaden, Leah and Joel, also 21, featured in the post.

“Born to be a team, us against the world,” he wrote. “Forced to do it alone, and wonder every day what our lives could’ve looked like.”

Collin reflected on how being in the spotlight affected his connection with his family, adding, “Forced apart, pitted against each other. All the fame and money in the world, but what about kids being kids?”

He concluded: “I will always love them more than anything. The tears I shed behind closed doors, thinking about the memories we could’ve shared. I love you guys.”

In 2007, Collin and his family rose to stardom with the premiere of Jon & Kate Plus 8, which ran for 11 seasons. (Kate, 50, and Jon, 48, welcomed twins Madelyn and Cara in 2000. Four years later, the sextuplets were born.)

After a decade of marriage, Kate and Jon called it quits in 2009 and began battling for custody of their children. Jon was the primary guardian for Hannah and Collin until they turned 18 but has been estranged from his other children for several years.

[From USWeekly]

Collin’s TikTok is really sad. My heart breaks for him and what he’s been through. I’m sad for all of those kids because they really didn’t get a chance to be kids. Their entire lives were disrupted when they were six and three. I’m absolutely sure they were also pitted against one another. We saw it play out publicly in 2023, when Kate sent Mady out to do her dirty work and hurl nasty accusations at Collin for speaking his truth.

Jon left a comment underneath Collin’s post that said, ”Maybe someday we can all be together again.” I bet it’s tough for him to not have any contact with his other kids, too. I sometimes wonder if any of the siblings have made attempts to reach out through the years, but I doubt it. I really hope that Collin and Hannah can reconcile with Alexis, Aaden, Leah, Joel, Mady, and Cara one day. Sadly, it’ll probably take a lot of deprogramming from whatever their mother has told them, and they’re going to have to want to put in that work.

Embed from Getty Images

Photos credit Getty and via TikTok and Instagram

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

15 Responses to “Collin Gosselin says he and his siblings were ‘forced apart, pitted against each other’”

  1. Deprogramming is absolutely correct. You could see what she was doing when their show was on and it was allowed. Nobody did anything they just kept filming this abusive bitch for ratings. Hannah and Colin are lucky to have gotten away from her but it’s sad that the rest of them still drink the Koolaid and do her bidding.

  2. somebody says:

    Not really that familiar with the family, but the tone of solely blaming the woman when both parents made a decision to put the family in the spotlight seems wrong.

    • Watch a few episodes if you can find them and then let’s see if you might have a different take. The mother was a nightmare who ran them all including the dad. She wanted the show and ran roughshod on all of them.

    • Bumblebee says:

      This isn’t blaming the woman. It’s blaming the abusive partner. Both parents do have responsibility for what happened. The father recognized the abuse and took steps to stop it and help his children. The mother continues the abuse to this day.

      • Grant says:

        In fairness, John wasn’t the perfect partner either and there were also claims that HE was abusive. After they split, he leaned into the Disney Land dad aesthetic, Ed Hardy shirts and all, and started dating women half his age. If you watched the show, he was a largely useless man-baby himself so I understood why Type-A neurotic Kate was the way she was. I can’t imagine having to parent eight kids AND take care of the overgrown man-child you married. That said, she made the choice to marry and have children with him…

        Not saying that Kate is perfect but I think lots of people are forgetting a lot of pertinent details and choosing to blame the woman.

      • Unproven claims by Kate herself who was a big abuser. Abusers like to blame others. If you can find them watch a few episodes. It’s very clear who did the abusing.

    • Bqm says:

      Jon is very imperfect but he put an end to the show by refusing to allow the kids to be filmed. It was only after the divorce and a lot of legal wrangling that Kate got her way and started a new show with them.

  3. Dee(2) says:

    That’s really sad, and I have a feeling when the kids with Kate will probably have some tension as they stretch their wings with their own families.

    I remember when this show was first on the air, and I could not figure out why Kate got so much sympathy when it was apparent how she was clearly verbally abusive. Jon definitely hasn’t made the best decisions either, but I always wondered why he was the villain to her and in how the show was framed a lot of the time.

  4. Walking the Walk says:

    I used to hate when my mom put this show on. She was verbally abusive towards Jon all the time and was focused on having cute family moments at any expense. She’s no better than a lot of TikTok parents nowadays. Makes me think of that case in Utah with the mother out there and how there’s now a law about people under the age of 18 being included in their parents videos.

    • tamsin says:

      I watched a few episodes because a friend of mine was obsessed with it. I just couldn’t continue watching Kates’ abusive behaviour. I wonder about the ethics of all those reality shows by that particular network.

  5. KC says:

    It’s amazing the control a narcissistic parent can have. My mom was one and she specialized in the silent treatment and victimhood.

    My SIL has gone down the rabbit hole even worse and has now weaponized her four adult children against her mom, my MIL, as well as the rest of the family. She’s demanded no contact with her own mom. It was bad enough when it was just my MIL, husband and me, but know she won’t speak to my son and neither will his cousins. He’s pretty broken hearted over it We suspect it’s over money, but who knows. There’s a sick kind of power for narcissists that can dominate one person over another.

    I suspect that Kate Gosselin will never have anything to do with Collin or Hannah as they’ve “betrayed” her by growing up and getting free.

  6. Rachel says:

    From the show I always remembered that Kate always had Collin and Hannah with her.

    Both seemed to be the favoured kids by Kate when the show was airing.

    It’s odd that now both are estranged from Kate.

  7. Lianne says:

    Hannah is in touch with all of her siblings but not her mom. If anyone is going to get any of them to talk to Collin again, it’s her. I hope at least his brothers can be brave enough to defy their mother and give him a call.

  8. Terri says:

    I did not watch the show regularly because i couldnt stand mom. She took all the kids camping w Sarah Palin, and the kids were having so much fun. Getting dirty, playing in a field, nature! The kind of fun where a normal parent would suck it up and let them continue.

    She made them pack up after just a couple of hours. The disappointment jumped off the screen, just a horrible woman.

  9. Paisley25 says:

    Kate is a terrible, abusive person. She’s a hitter. We saw it on the show. She singled Colin out for her abuse. You could see that from the show. I find it unforgivable that she isolated him at home while “homeschooling” him at age eleven and then put him in two shady psychiatric treatment centers. And then visited him only once or twice. Any “real” facility would have had some sort of regular family counseling with her and Jon and Colin and the other siblings with plans to reintegrate him back in the family. Instead, Jon and Hannah had to fight to get Colin released from the second facility and for Jon to get custody. Kate dragged that out and then skipped out on the custody hearing. My guess is she didn’t want the social workers findings about her parenting in the court records. Colin then went to high school and by all accounts did well and graduated on time. Kate is an awful person and her heart is ice cold.

Commenting Guidelines

Read the article before commenting.

We aim to be a friendly, welcoming site where people can discuss entertainment stories and current events in a lighthearted, safe environment without fear of harassment, excessive negativity, or bullying. Different opinions, backgrounds, ages, and nationalities are welcome here - hatred and bigotry are not. If you make racist or bigoted remarks, comment under multiple names, or wish death on anyone you will be banned. There are no second chances if you violate one of these basic rules.

By commenting you agree to our comment policy and our privacy policy

Do not engage with trolls, contrarians or rude people. Comment "troll" and we will see it.

Please e-mail the moderators at cbcomments at gmail.com to delete a comment if it's offensive or spam. If your comment disappears, it may have been eaten by the spam filter. Please email us to get it retrieved.

You can sign up to get an image next to your name at Gravatar.com Thank you!

Leave a comment after you have read the article

Save my name and email in this browser for the next time I comment