Kate Gosselin rose to fame in 2007 when she and her family were featured on the hit TLC reality show “Jon & Kate Plus 8”, which ran until 2011. The show took us through several changes within the family–which included twin girls and sextuplets–and ended with Kate and husband Jon divorcing amid a slew of paparazzi and tabloid covers. Now, the kids are growing up, and TLC is bringing back the family for a one-hour special to air in the summer. One thing that wasn’t included in the announcement for the special, however, was dad Jon.
Jon and Kate have famously been at odds since their split (well, since way before that, actually), with Jon telling Oprah that he is concerned for his children and their development.
“It just became stressful on the kids and stressful on me,” Gosselin told Oprah. “You’re trying to keep your marriage together, and you’re trying to keep your family ties together…Yes, they got to travel the world, and yes, they got these fabulous things, and yes, they have trust funds, and they’re taken care of educationally. Great. But developmentally, they have problems with their peers, and they have problems with talking to other people, and they have problems with wants and needs and manners and morals and what’s right and what’s wrong. I think more so than someone who grows up off TV.”
While Kate has admitted that having eight children was difficult on their relationship, Jon says the two of them grew apart over the years until they couldn’t agree on anything.
“At this point, there is no cooperation, there is nothing, There’s two different totally parenting styles, two different totally everythings. Which is a shame, because it affects me, but it really affects my children.”
Jon is now working in a Pennsylvania restaurant and has spoken out about his children appearing on television, so it’s not clear what his feelings are about the new special, which will air in June. TLC says the special episode will show us what the family has been up to since we last saw them and will look back on particular moments from their time on the show.
Image via Wikimedia Commons