Kate Gosselin’s letter to her son Collin from her 2010 book, I Just Want You to Know, is making headlines again after she revealed last month that the 12-year-old is away from home at a program for his special needs.
The memoir included messages to all eight of her children: twins Mady and Cara, 15, and sextuplets Alexis, Aaden, Leah, Collin, Hannah and Joel, 12.
In the note to Collin, the Kate Plus 8 star, 41, called her son “sweet, kind and helpful” and praised his math skills, but revealed that he had a tendency to act out. “As you have grown, however, I must say you have also challenged my authority greatly,” she wrote.
Gosselin explained that she had struggled with Collin’s unruly behavior for years. “At two and a half, you began testing and trying my parenting at every chance. I called Daddy at work many days crying because you would not obey,” she wrote of her ex-husband, Jon Gosselin. “I had to ask you every day, ‘Who’s in charge here: you or me?’ You would reluctantly answer, ‘You are.’ As you have grown, this has not changed. You continue to be determined to do what you want to do, and I continue to try to rein you in.”
The year before she wrote the letter, she and Jon went through a messy and very public divorce in 2009. “I know the recent events in our family structure have greatly upset you, maybe you most of all. I want you to know that I have made and will continue to make decisions based on what I believe is best for you and your brothers and sisters,” she noted. “These changes, I realize, are still painful and hurt a lot.”
Jon has previously said that he has not been able to see his son for about two years. “I can’t do anything,” he told Yahoo in June of the situation, despite the custody agreement that entitles him to weekly dinners and overnight visits. “It’s unfair for her to do that, considering she claims that she does her best for all my kids.”
The DJ opened up to Us Weekly back in January about his relationship with Collin. "I don’t know what’s going on. The whole point is I’m left in the dark. There’s no explanation. It’s disheartening," he told Us. "I don’t ever see Collin, ever. Not off the bus because he doesn’t go to school. Not at the gate because he doesn’t come down. Nothing. I am totally estranged from Collin because of Kate."
