Separate lives. Jon Gosselin revealed exclusively to Us Weekly that he doesn’t believe he and former wife Kate Gosselin will “ever” be able to coparent their eight children.
The Jon and Kate Plus 8 alum, 42, opened about his family life with Kate and their twin daughters, Madelyn and Cara, 18, and sextuplets Collin, Hannah, Leah, Alexis, Aaden and Joel, 15, during David and Jackie Seigel’s Victoria’s Voice event held to raise awareness for America’ teen opioid crisis at The Westgate Hotel in Las Vegas on Friday, October 25.
“I don’t think coparenting is ever going to exist between us because we are never going to see eye to eye,” Jon explained. “We have completely different parenting styles and she still wants to film, but I’m never going to sign work permits. That already went to court and I won but she went against my legal rights.
Jon went on to explain that while he has custody of Collin and Hannah, he rarely gets to visit his other six children and has little-to-no relationship with them due to Kate’s interference.
“I agree [that they are my children] but their mother [Kate] puts roadblocks all the way,” the DJ told Us. “So, at this point I’ve agreed that as long as Hannah and Collin still talk to their siblings and the kids can interact with each other, then that’s fine with me. I’ll go along. And I don’t have no direct contact as of right now.”
Jon and Kate tied the knot in 1999 and welcomed Madelyn and Cara in 2001. The sextuplets were born in 2004 and the family began filming Jon and Kate Plus 8 three years later. Jon left the show in 2009 amid his divorce from Kate, 44. He now says that the hit TLC series has become a cautionary tale for fans.
“It’s weird because our show became almost political, a big controversy,” the part-time prep cook said. “Then I was like, ‘This isn’t for me’ and I wanted to leave. Then I saw a decline in some of my children and I decided this wasn’t for my children and I wanted to take some of them off [the show]. And then for future shows, she was like ‘yes’ and I was saying ‘no,’ and then it became this legal battle because we’re trying to decide what’s right and what’s wrong. Any time there is turmoil, that becomes a media circus. So, here we are.”
The former reality TV star has been vocal about his children’s desires to stop filming in the past but told Us that he plans to be more reserved when speaking about his kids in the future.
“My twins have asked me not to speak about them to the media and I’ve stopped,” he said. “Their birthday came up and I didn’t say anything. And the two that live with me [Colin and Hannah] I decided that I’m not going to talk about them anymore because now I know they’re safe, they’re OK. And so, I’ve decided to just let all the kids be teenagers. Anything else that comes up will just be about me and her, whatever that might be.”
