Collin and Hannah Gosselin — who have lived with their father, Jon Gosselin, since 2018 — have made new claims about how Collin was treated under their mother, Kate Gosselin‘s, roof as kids. In an upcoming documentary titled Dark Side of the 2000s by ViceTV, both Collin and Hannah said their mother did not treat him fairly, with Hannah accusing her of keeping Collin from the rest of his siblings. “He would be separated from us. He would not get to come and play outside with us,” the 19-year-old high school graduate said in a preview clip from the doc, which can be seen below.
Collin Gosselin shares his experience on the reality TV show "Jon & Kate Plus 8," growing up in the spotlight and his estranged mother.
More on the season premiere of Dark Side of the 2000's airing July 18, 9P on VICE TV. pic.twitter.com/riCUNN3Hom
— VICE TV (@VICETV) July 7, 2023
“He would eat dinner at different times than us,” she added. “I don’t think effort was made in the home to help him learn what behavior is acceptable, and what behavior is not acceptable.” Collin, also 19, corroborated Hannah’s claims to Vice with his own recollections of their childhood.
“I’m not going to say I was a perfect child, but I’d say my misbehaving was no different from my siblings,” he explained. Seemingly trying to empathize with his mother, Collin added, “I know my mother was going through a lot of things. I mean, a divorce and plenty of different things that can’t be easy to go through. And I want to think that she needed someone to take out her anger and her frustration on and that it was just kind of me. I was in the way and I was there, so she chose me.”
Collin is now estranged from his mother, who institutionalized him as a pre-teen for behavioral issues. Jon helped get Collin out of the Fairmount Behavioral Health outside Philadelphia after Collin’s roommate smuggled a letter out of the facility, per Jon’s 2019 interview with DailyMailTV. “You’re my dad, my savior, Please help me,” a photo of the alleged letter, which appeared to be written in black crayon, read. In 2018, Collin moved in with Jon, and Hannah followed the same year. Collin and Hannah make up two-thirds of Jon and Kate’s sextuplets. The other four include Aaden, Alexis, Joel, and Leah. They also have 22-year-old twin sisters, Cara and Mady. Collin does not have a relationship with his other siblings.
Collin previously opened up about being institutionalized and how that affected his relationship with Kate in Nov. 2022. “After being there, I didn’t have a relationship with her,” he told Entertainment Tonight. “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.” He added that his experience growing up with his mom was “was worse than what you would say the average teenage kid goes through with their parent.”
He also said that he believes being on reality television played a huge part in his turbulent childhood. “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 hypothesized. “It gave us less time to actually be together as a family, [and] more time to be in the public eye.”
Collin was first introduced to the world on TLC’s Jon & Kate Plus 8 in 2007, which later became Kate Plus 8. The show ran through 2017.