Kate Gosselin Reveals Daughters Mady & Cara Helped Choose Her Dates In New Show ‘Kate Plus Date’

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Kate Gosselin, 43, has the full support of her eight children as she steps back onto the dating scene in her new show, Kate Plus Date, airing in June on TLC! The reality star shares eight children — 14-year-old sextuplets Aaden, Alexis, Leah, Joel, Hannah and Collin, and twins Mady and Cara, both 18 — with ex-husband Jon Gosselin, 41, who she split from in 2009. This summer, Kate will take another shot at love with the twins right by her side. And, she admitted that Mady and Cara played a major role when it came to picking her potential suitors.

“Particularly with the dating show, because Mady and Cara are 18, it’s more comfortable at this time to have them weighing in and helping me out,” Kate said while discussing the new show at the 2019 Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour in LA. “So, it’ll be Mady and Cara on ‘Kate Plus Date’!” Then, Mady took the mic when a reporter asked if she and her sister have been urging their mother to get out there and date again. “Oh, absolutely,” she gushed, explaining, that her and her siblings have been trying to get Kate to date for a while. “We’ve been nudging her to date for years, I think, and we’re all, all eight of us are so glad that she finally is.”

Kate went on to reveal that filming the new show had its ups and downs. “I’ll be honest, I was out of the dating loop for, well since before I was married like maybe 20 years ago,” she began. “So, everything was different and the question that seems easy was very hard for me from a matchmaker [standpoint], in terms of ‘what are you looking for?'”

“I knew what I wasn’t looking for, but I could not easily articulate what I was looking for. So, their job was difficult. I had a say in terms of qualities and all of those things. It was difficult for me to articulate, but in terms of –- they were strictly blind dates. So, when it came down to who they matched me with going on whatever I was able to tell them, I didn’t know even really their name until, you know, minutes before. And a lot of it, because I couldn’t articulate, it’s a lot of the awkwardness, uncomfortable, terrified reactions came from the fact that, you know, they were kind of hit or miss — ‘Okay that guy didn’t work. Can you tell me why?'”

Kate continued: “It’s very difficult. It’s a very difficult concept. And, this was a very and is a very real show in that I am really looking for someone. And you really have to split hairs in terms of what didn’t work. Sometimes there really isn’t a word even for me to come up with to describe what exactly didn’t work. And so this was a journey and it was really neat because in coming up with this saying, ‘Yeah, I’d love to date, you know, on TV, the safety that it provides. I feel comfortable on television.’ The whole thing of it was, I didn’t realize how awkward I’d feel and how this whole journey takes place. I learned so much about myself and so much about how I react to different situations. And it’s painful at times. I’m hard to watch, exciting, awkward, fun and really rewarding.”

Viewers were first introduced to Kate in Jon and Kate Plus 8 (2007), which she starred in with her ex-husband, Jon and their children. She then continued the reality show circuit in Kate Plus 8. Now, Kate and her twins, Mady and Cara, will take on a new TV venture this June in Kate Plus Date. The show, airing on TLC, documents the mother of eight as she steps back into the dating scene.