A lawyer for Kate Gosselin says her estranged husband Jon won't have much luck halting production of the TLC show, Kate Plus 8.
"These parties entered into an agreement once the divorce action was filed that allowed each parent – who had physical custody of the children – to make the filming decisions when the children were with them," lawyer Mark Momjian said on the Today show Friday.
"When the children are with Kate, Jon agreed that Kate would make the filming decisions involving the kids," he added.
He said that Kate "really does want to engage Jon, it's just that he's not engaging her back. And that's really regrettable in any custody case."
Momjian also slammed Jon's claims on Larry King Live Thursday that an "epiphany" led him to want to end the story.
Said Momjian, "This is less about a change of heart and more about a change of strategy on Jon's part."
Momjian said Jon could have announced he didn't want his kids to be on the show "a year ago, but he didn't."
"His active participation and encouragement of the show involved all the children and a decision by both parents to include the children and continue production," he said.
Jon's lawyer, Mark Heller, told Larry King Thursday that show will be scrapped because no judge would ever "subject the children to the show if the father believes it's detrimental."
In a statement to Usmagazine.com, Heller says: "Jon wants to thank everyone who is supporting his decision as a father and realizes that the environment for his children to be filming while he is going through a divorce with his wife understands that he does not that is the best set of circumstances for him to be under. He doesn't want the kids on the show because he is going through a divorce with his wife and he doesn't feel its a suitable environment mentally and emotionally for them right now."
But Kate's lawyer, Momjian, said on the Today show the eight children — 5-year-old sextuplets Hannah, Leah, Alexis, Joel, Aaden and Collin and 8-year-old twins, Cara and Mady — "are loved by both of their parents. Jon admits that his wife is a wonderful parent, they live in their family home. Kate is their primary caretaker. They've reached agreements about custody."
Kate "is going to honor her contract," Momjian said. "She'd like to continue with the show. She loves doing the show."
