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Jon Gosselin’s 2009 divorce from ex-wife Kate Gosselin left a strong divide between their eight children. The famous TV family split up into different states, with two of the former couple’s sextuplets, Collin and Hannah, staying with their dad in Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, twins Madelyn “Mady” and Cara and the remaining four sextuplets, Leah, Aaden, Joel and Alexis, moved with Kate to North Carolina. Though it’s rare for most of the Jon & Kate Plus 8 siblings to speak out, some of them have shared insight into their estrangement from each other.
Hannah Gosselin Reunited With Sister Leah
Hannah shared on her Snapchat Stories on November 5, 2024, that she had reunited with Leah, according to The U.S. Sun. “Spend the day with me and my sister,” she wrote over a selfie with her sister.
Jon, who has feuded with Kate since their divorce, revealed to Us Weekly in April 2024 that Hannah still spoke to her siblings in North Carolina.
“The other kids talk to Hannah, not Collin,” he explained.
While Jon gained custody of Collin in 2018, Hannah chose to live with her father.
“I chose to live with my dad, I feel like I just made the choice for myself. I have always been closer with my dad and we’ve always had a strong good relationship,” she told Entertainment Tonight in 2022. “It’s a lot, growing up in a very busy household with lots of kids. And there’s not really a one-on-one relationship, for attention, that you have with your parent. I felt like my dad gave me that attention and a feeling like I had a good solid relationship with a parent.”
With that said, Hannah added that it was “difficult” to leave her other siblings behind.
“I did not want to be separated from them or even, like, live in a different household than them,” she explained. “But I just feel like there was unfair treatment in my mom’s house and I just wanted to live with my dad.”
Collin Gosselin Has Shared Updates on His Estrangement From His Siblings
While Hannah has stayed in touch with her siblings across state lines, Collin isn’t on such good terms with them. He revealed in an August 2024 interview with Entertainment Tonight that he believes their negative opinions of him come from Kate.
“I love my siblings very, very much. I would never hurt them,” he said. “I would never trash their names in the media. But what I do believe is that my mother’s behind things they say in the media. She’s behind their opinion of me. I think if we knew each other today, we’d be very good friends.”
Collin has claimed that his mother treated him harshly and locked him in a “containment room” in the family’s basement as a child starting before he turned 10 years old. He also alleged that Kate put him in an institution in 2016 when he was “11 or 12” after he allegedly had issues with his fellow sextuplets, which derailed his dreams of completing training in the Marine Corps.
“I was starting to tell people what was going on at home and, you know, [Kate] caught wind of that and had to put me somewhere where I wouldn’t be able to get the secrets out,” Collin claimed in Vice TV’s Dark Side of the 2000s in July 2023, explaining why he believed he was separated from his siblings.
“I really, really hope one day that we can all reconnect and put [Jon & Kate Plus 8] behind us and just be siblings again and take back that time we didn’t have,” he said.
Kate denied the claims in a lengthy Instagram post. “Unfortunately, I believe Collin remains a very troubled young man who continues to need a lot of help,” she wrote. “His brothers and sisters and I have not been directly involved in his life due to his history of unpredictable behavior and violent tendencies towards us.”
Mady Gosselin Spoke Out Against Collin Gosselin
Mady also responded to Collin’s claims with her own statement on her Instagram Stories in July 2023.
“I never wanted to have to speak up about this in order to allow my brother the ability to live privately after the conclusion of our family’s TV show, but I’ve been overwhelmed by hate messages in the last few days and I feel I must set the record straight,” she wrote. “I do not owe my allegiance to any person(s) who has physically threatened me and every member of my immediate family (some incidents as recent as last year). Further, I will never allow someone who has exhibited hateful and even violent behavior toward others based on their racial identity, gender identity, or religious beliefs to be in my life.”
Mady went on to allege that Collin’s personal beliefs did not align with her own.
“Kindness, tolerance, love, and acceptance are core values in my life and I refuse to compromise them for ANYONE, even my brother Collin, who has unfortunately made his opinions very clear in private,” she continued, adding, “There is no further conversation to be had about rebuilding relationships with anyone in my life after reaching the point of physical violence and hate speech.”
“I cannot speak any further on why Collin has done these things, just that I have witnessed them,” Mady wrote.
Jon Gosselin Is Estranged From Most of His Kids
Jon has also struggled with being estranged from Mady, Cara, Leah, Aaden, Joel and Alexis through the years.
“I have no access to the kids I’m estranged from,” he admitted on Dark Side of the 2000s. “I have no idea why they stopped coming. I have no answers. Like, none. It’s the worst. I’d rather it be like, ‘You’re an asshole,’ or, ‘I hate you, and you did this to mom,’ or something. I have nothing. It’s like I have no closure.”
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