Why did Jon and Kate Gosselin split? Son Collin says he 'doesn't have a relationship' with estranged mom
Collin Gosselin, the 18-year-old son of reality stars Jon and Kate Gosselin, has spoken out about his mother's ongoing separation from the family. While the teenager has lived with his father since leaving a special needs facility his mother sent him to for behavioral concerns in 2016, he alleges relations between him and Kate were tense before he entered the institution.
He stressed by saying that he believed what he had seen with his mother "was worse than what you would say the average teenage kid goes through with their parent." "After being there, I didn't have a relationship with her," Collin told ET. "Even before [being] there, I don't think we had much of a relationship and I think that just kept tearing it even more down." Before his parents' acrimonious separation and subsequent divorce, the youngster was one of eight children and six sextuplets who starred on the family's reality show ‘Jon & Kate Plus 8’ back in the day. Some of their children have chosen sides since the breakup, teaming up with Collin and Hannah who live with their father.
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In 2017, Hannah began living with her father and in 2018, Collin followed suit. When Kate failed to appear for the hearing which she had wanted to have postponed at the time, Jon was reportedly given exclusive custody of the child. Collin stated that her not showing up "didn't really bother me." "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," he said. "I came to the conclusion that everybody has their own agenda, you know? 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."
In the interview, Collin also expressed his opinion that the family's exposure to the media contributed to the separation of the family. "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," he explained. "It gave us less time to actually be together as a family, [and] more time to be in the public eye." Although he said that his mother and he "don't have a relationship," he added that he is "doing very well" and that it "would be ideal" if they were able to patch things up in the future.