Jon Gosselin and Kate Gosselin‘s daughter Hannah reflected on how their reality show forever changed their family.
“[Filming] made my siblings and I closer to each other, even though it made my parents further from each other,” Hannah, 21, told Teen Vogue in a feature titled The Kids of Reality TV Stars Didn’t Choose This Life, But They Would Do It All Again, published on Wednesday, May 14. “It’s hard to go back and watch my parents argue.”
Hannah acknowledged the challenges that came from the experience, adding, “You’re always surrounded. The film crew was there 24/7.” According to Teen Vogue, as Hannah and her seven siblings got older, they would say a brand name “over and over,” something the network couldn’t run “because of trademark and product placement issues,” if they ever wanted to stop filming or not talk about something on camera.
Despite the hard times, the outlet reported that Hannah was able to pay for “about half of her college education” with the money from the TLC series. She also noted that she watches clips of the show when she misses her brothers and sisters, and often shows her friends scenes if she’s describing a childhood memory.
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In 2007, Hannah and her seven siblings entered the spotlight with the premiere of Jon & Kate Plus 8, which ran for 11 seasons. (Kate, 50, and Jon, 48, welcomed twins Madelyn and Cara in 2000. Four years later, Hannah and her sextuplet siblings — Alexis, Collin, Aaden, Leah and Jo — were born.)
After a decade of marriage, Kate and Jon called it quits in 2009 and began battling for custody of their children. Jon was the primary guardian for Hannah and Collin, 21, until they turned 18 but has been estranged from his other children for several years.
“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,” Hannah 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.”
Jon, meanwhile, claimed his ex-wife played a role in the distance that exists between him and his family.
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“[Communicating with] the children that live with Kate is very difficult, because I don’t have an open relationship with them. I feel it’s a really poor decision on Kate’s part, because she alienated me from those kids,” he alleged to ET in May 2022. “I think it was a poor parenting decision. It would’ve been much better if she would have been more open with them and explained things better.”
At the time, Jon said he hoped to build a better bond with his kids as they got older.
“They’re going to figure out who [their] parents are, and what transpired in the past, and how relationships build, and how relationships fail,” he continued. “Sometimes you hide those things from your children. Sometimes it’s difficult to say those things to your child, because you’re afraid they aren’t mature enough to understand those things.”
Jon added: “It’s horrible. Of course, I miss them. That’s why I post things on my Instagram, like, throwbacks, TBTs. It’s bittersweet, but [Hannah] and Collin live with me, so I kind of just focus on them.”
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Kate has denied Jon’s version of events. She has also shut down allegations from Collin, who has claimed Kate was abusive.
“It has taken me a long time to find the strength needed to speak about my mother’s abuse. I have finally found my voice, and I hope to be the voice for children everywhere facing abuse. It is never OK. Your story can be told, just like mine,” he wrote via Instagram in September 2024 after speaking out in various interviews and Vice’s Dark Side of the 2000s. “As well, I wish to bring attention to the system that failed me as a child, and hopefully, in turn, it will help others. Seeing pictures of my younger self is still incredibly difficult, but today I feel a small sense of justice by speaking it.”
Collin concluded with a shout-out to Jon, adding, “I’d like to thank my father for fighting so hard to obtain custody of me, and saving me from the institution where I was wrongfully committed. Thank you dad.”
Earlier this month, Kate shared an Instagram post celebrating the sextuplet’s 21st birthday with Hannah and Collin not pictured in the series of photos.
