On different pages. Jon Gosselin thinks his ex-wife, Kate Gosselin, has changed for the worst after skyrocketing to fame on their former reality show, Jon and Kate Plus 8.
Jon, 42, explained whether he considered Kate an “unfit mother” on an episode of The Dr. Oz Show set to air on Monday, November 18.
“Well, I believe that her belief system is skewed,” Jon said in a preview clip released on Friday, November 15. “That’s what I believe. I believe her intentions in the beginning were good intentions. Bringing kids into the world that she fought to have, these kids. But I think once fame and money got involved, it twisted her belief system. On my end, I’ve been fighting to get my kids off TV forever.”
In another clip, the former reality TV star detailed how TLC came to sue him for breach of contract in 2009 when he refused to film the reality TV series any longer.
“I literally hung a sign on my gate saying if any crew members show up I’ll have you arrested for trespassing,” he told host Dr. Mehmet Oz. “They [TLC] sued me for breach of contract. I pretty much bankrupted myself but I did it for moral reasons, obviously.”
He claimed that he spent $1.7 million in legal fees for the lawsuit, while TLC paid for Kate’s lawsuit fees and her divorce legal fees.
“I didn’t understand, at first, why but now I understand why,” Jon said. “All she wanted was legal custody to film my kids to sustain her lifestyle and their lifestyle. It gets all warped. That’s fame though. It just twists things around.”
Kate filed for divorce from Jon in 2009 after 10 years of marriage. They are the parents of 19-year-old twins, Cara and Mady, and 15-year-old sextuplets, Aaden, Collin, Joel, Alexis, Hannah and Leah. The exes were embroiled in a bitter custody battle for their children for years.
Hannah and Collin currently live with Jon. The other four children reside with Kate while Cara and Mady are off at college.
In October, Jon slammed Kate yet again when she allowed their children to appear on a Kate Plus 8 special for TLC, despite a judge ruling that filming wasn’t good for the children.
“The judge and the guardian ad litem both agreed that it wasn’t in my children’s best interests to be filmed, but my ex-wife and TLC had other ideas,” he said in an interview with DailyMailTV at the time. “They put profits and ratings ahead of the well-being of my children and filmed illegally without work permits.”
Jon told DailyMailTV that Kate put Collin, who has ADHD, into a special needs institution for three and a half years before he begged his father to get him out. “Kate … couldn’t deal with him,” he said. “It was inhumane.”
Jon told Us Weekly exclusively in October that he doesn’t think he and Kate will ever be able to work together as coparents.
“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.”
He continued that he doesn’t get to see his other six children because Kate “puts roadblocks in the way.” However, he told Us that he allows Hannah and Collin to still keep in contact with their siblings.
Kate’s rep did not respond to a request for comment on her ex-husband’s Dr. Oz interview, but she has spoken out about his claims in the past. In 2013, the reality TV star posted a statement on her blog, writing, “I find it very heart breaking that my children’s father chooses a public forum to discuss his current opinions of the ‘development’ of our children. These opinions are, in reality, value judgements made about our children and they are based on his limited visits (albeit mutually agreed upon) with our children.”
