- The Gosselin family rose to fame when their TLC reality show, ‘Jon & Kate Plus 8’ debuted in 2007. The show documented their life as a family of 10.
- Jon and Kate entered a bitter divorce battle, and the show changed to ‘Kate Plus 8’ in 2010.
- Several of the kids are estranged from each other and only speak to one of their parents.
Jon and Kate Gosselin rose to national fame after the 2007 premiere of their TLC reality series, Jon & Kate Plus 8. The family became a household name as fans watched the two young parents handle a household with a set of twins and sextuplets. While the family’s fame and fortune grew, Kate and Jon’s marriage unfortunately fell apart. The pair divorced in 2009, and the show’s title was shortened to Kate Plus 8. After 11 seasons, Kate Plus 8 finished in 2017.
In the years since the show ended, the Gosselin children have grown up quite a bit. The twins, Cara and Mady, are now 22. And all the sextuplets, Aaden, Alexis, Collin, Hannah, Joel, and Leah, graduated high school in 2023. Jon and Kate’s relationship is not the only one that disintegrated after the Gosselin family found reality television success: both Jon and Kare are estranged from some of their children. In 2023, Collin even spoke out about his relationship with his mother and accused her of taking out her stress on him. Learn about that and the seven other Gosselin children and their relationships with their parents below.
Mady Kate
Mady Gosselin graduated from Syracuse University in May 2023, as she revealed in a TikTok post that can be seen HERE. She now seems to have started her career as an influencer, as she attended the Bubble skincare SPF launch event in June 2026 and added the hashtag, “#ilovemyjob” to the caption. She has also taken on paid partnerships with Planned Parenthood, author Rebecca Yarros, Bloom, and more.
Although Cara is now an influencer, she does appreciate privacy. She addressed her concerns about the public’s interest in her personal life and the hate comments she receives about the state of her family on TikTok in Feb. 2022. “This is the singular time I’m going to address this because it is sending me over the edge,” she began in the below video.
@madygosselin Replying to @slagathor42 i’ve been getting hate mail since i was 6 but that doesn’t mean you need to keep sending it. learn how to respect people’s boundaries and practice kindness. i bet your life will be so much more enjoyable because of it!
“The rhetoric in so many of my comments about childhood trauma and healing and whatever you want to say about my family, my life, my parents, whatever is not your business,” she slammed. “As is the case with every other person in the entire world it is not anybody else’s business what they are dealing with behind closed doors if they don’t want it to be your business.”
Addressing the constant gossip around the family, she added, “Perpetuating the narrative that we are damaged or that we are crazy child stars or whatever you want to say is extremely harmful as myself and my siblings are going out into the world and will be functioning members of society with careers.”
“Regardless of whatever narrative you have created in your head from what you’ve seen, my siblings are doing so well,” she continued. “They are all amazing people. They are all smart, they are all kind, they’re driven students, they’re working hard, they’re funny, they’re stylish.”
“You should choose to be kind to people and respect their privacy on the internet,” Mady concluded.
She is also proud of her Korean-American heritage, which she celebrated in a 2022 Instagram post for Korean-American Day, as seen above. today is korean-american day. “having grown up 50/50 (white and korean), i was hyper aware of my ethnicity from a young age, but the transition from awareness to shame was a slow progression that i didn’t notice happening until i was much older,” Mady explained. “so i want to make it known that i’m so proud to celebrate being korean-american today. i’m proud to be a part of a community that has suffered through decades of ridicule and hate in this country (only made worse in the last 2 years) but have persevered through it powerfully and gracefully.”
Cara Nicole
Cara attended New York City’s Fordham University, where she was a member of the rowing team. A dedicated student, she double majored in interdisciplinary math and economics, according to her student-athlete page. Cara has her Instagram set to private and has zero posts as of July 2023. It is not clear what her post-college endeavors include.
Aaden Jonathan
Aaden, along with the rest of the sextuplets, was born on May 10, 2004. Aeden has remained under his mother’s roof following her and Jon’s divorce. The last big update that came from Aaden is when he got his braces off in July 2020. Kate celebrated the exciting event by making her son a cake decorated with candy to look like him (now braces-free). She also posted a photo of Aaden wearing a Nike t-shirt and holding up the cake. “Braces are a thing of the past in this house,” she wrote in the caption.
Leah Hope
Leah got her braces off several years before her brother in 2016, which Kate also documented on Instagram. Leah is the smallest of her siblings, and in 2017, she expressed her dismay. “It’s not fun being the smallest always,” she told PEOPLE.
Joel Kevin
Kate posted a photo of the four sextuplets she has custody of and the twins back in Oct. 2019, when they had a day of family fun on go-karts. Leah, Aaden, Alexis, and Joel were all 15 in the photo. Despite not even being old enough to get a driver’s license, Joel showed that he may be something of a natural driver. Kate wrote that he won the races for the day in her Instagram caption.
Alexis Faith
Alexis was the first sextuplet to be born, per CBS News, and is the fourth sextuplet that resides with their mom. Although it is not clear what she is doing with her life now that she is a high school graduate, Alexis told PEOPLE in 2016 that is “definitely going to work with animals someday.”
While the above four sextuplets don’t stay in touch with their dad, Jon has publicly sent his well-wishes to his kids on occasion. In a May 2020 Instagram post, Jon extended his well-wishes to his estranged children on their sweet 16. “I miss you Leah, Joel, Alexis, and Aaden. I hope your 16th birthday is just as memorable,” he penned.
Jon also told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY in 2021 that he would love to reconnect with Aaden, Alexis, Joel, Leah, Cara, and Mady. “I always have hope,” he stated. “I hope one day maybe they just knock on my door or maybe drop me a line or text me. Something like that.”
Collin Thomas
Collin, also born in 2004, moved in with his father after being institutionalized by his mother as a pre-teen due to behavioral issues. His dad helped him get out of the Philadelphia-based institution in 2018 after he received a heartbreaking from Collin asking to be saved. “I was in a dark place mentally [at Fairmount Behavioral Health],” Collin candidly recalled to Entertainment Tonight in Nov. 2022. “I think being in a place like that does more damage than it helps you.”
“I spent my 13th and 14th birthday there, so I was young,” he added. “I didn’t have a lot of life skills. I didn’t really know even what to expect, what to think of being there at the time, so I was hopeless and, you know, I figured out how to write to my dad and that was kind of one thing that kind of helped me mentally figure out that there was a way out of there in fact.”
Collin also confirmed that he had no relationship with his mother. “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.”
Less than a year later, in July 2023, Collin opened up about what it was like living with his mom as a child. “I’m not going to say I was a perfect child, but I’d say my misbehaving was no different from my siblings,” he claimed in a documentary titled Dark Side of the 2000s by ViceTV. “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,” he added. “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 graduated high school in 2023, like the rest of his siblings.
Hannah Joy
Like Collin, Hannah also lives with her dad. She got her driver’s license before her brother, and Jon told HollywoodLife that she’s a good student, calling her “straight-A Hannah.” In May 2021, a source close to Jon told HL that he threw Collin and Hannah a huge birthday bash, with sparkler candles on their cake and got them fresh clothes and jewelry. At the time, a source also said Hannah and Collin keep in touch with their siblings and text each other occasionally. However, Collin has since confirmed that he no longer speaks to his six other siblings.
Hannah also spoke to Vice for the 2023 documentary and remembered her beloved brother being treated unfairly at home. “He would be separated from us. He would not get to come and play outside with us. He would eat dinner at different times than us,” she claimed. “I don’t think effort was made in the home to help him learn what behavior is acceptable, and what behavior is not acceptable.” Fans can keep up with Hannah on Instagram. It’s not clear what her post-high school plans are.