What Happened Between Kate and Collin Gosselin? A Look at Their Estrangement Amid Abuse Allegations

Former 'Kate Plus 8' star Collin Gosselin has alleged that his mother, Kate, abused him as a child

Kate Gosselin earned fame alongside her husband, Jon Gosselin, on their TLC reality show Jon and Kate Plus 8, which was later renamed Kate Plus 8 after the pair split in 2009. Now, 15 years later, Kate is estranged from her son Collin, who has accused her of abuse.

The reality TV alum welcomed twins Mady and Cara in October 2000, followed by sextuplets — Alexis, Hannah, Aaden, Collin, Leah and Joel — four years later. The TLC show ran from 2007 to 2017, chronicling the birth of the sextuplets, the Gosselins' divorce and the growth of the Gosselin children as they entered their teen years.

However, the family has faced a number of controversies following Kate and Jon's divorce. Collin and Hannah chose to live with their father while the other six children stayed with their mother and cut off contact with Jon.

Hannah told Entertainment Tonight that she has a "stable" relationship with Kate, while Collin has been vocal about his fraught connection with his mother. In September 2024, he accused Kate of abusing him starting at 8 or 9 years old in an interview with The Sun.

He alleged that his mom "isolated" him from his seven siblings and that he often took "the brute end of things." PEOPLE reached out to Kate and her attorney, Richard Puleo, for comment but did not receive a response. Puleo did, however, deny claims of abuse to The Sun, stating that Kate never did "intentionally harm" Collin and "she did what she did to protect herself and her family" from what he described as "troubled behavior."

Kate has maintained over the years that she struggled with Collin’s mental health, which she claims led to him having violent tendencies. Jon called her claims ‘false.'”

Here's what to know about the relationship between Kate and Collin Gosselin and what the two have said about one another.

Collin and Hannah chose to live with their father after their parents' divorce

Kate and Jon divorced in 2009 when the sextuplets were 5 years old following allegations that Jon had been cheating on Kate. The two aimed to be amicable for the sake of their children, Kate told PEOPLE in 2016, however, after a long and difficult custody battle, Kate was granted primary custody of all eight children.

Collin was placed in a program for children with special needs when he was 12 and lived there for two years before moving in with his father.

“Collin has special needs,” Kate told PEOPLE in 2016, when she first enrolled him in the program. “[There’s] a fairly fluid diagnosis of what those needs are, but he needs to learn certain strategies to help him deal with things."

By 2018, Hannah and Collin, two of the sextuplets, were living full-time with Jon, who said he wasn't in contact with his other children at the time. Jon was granted full custody of Collin in December 2018.

Two years later, Jon said in a February 2020 interview on the First Class Fatherhood podcast that Kate had "no contact" with Collin, though Hannah was still talking to her mother.

“There’s no contact between Collin and his other siblings,” he said. “There’s contact between Hannah and the other siblings. So the problem right now is we have parent alienation and sibling alienation."

Collin accused Jon of abuse in September 2020

Later that year, a 16-year-old Collin accused his father of abuse, including allegedly punching and kicking him. PEOPLE confirmed that Kate was notified by police of the alleged incident at the time.

"You do not punch and kick your children," Kate told PEOPLE in a statement at the time. "You do not kick a child. I don't want to hear any excuses from anyone, not from his father, not from local law enforcement, not from court personnel whose job is supposedly to ensure the best interests of my children."

Collin had alleged in a since-deleted Instagram post that his dad was a "liar" and that "he beat me up and thought nothing of it, he punched me in the face and gave me a swollen nose and I started bleeding. He then continued to kick me in the ribs after I was on the floor."

According to a source, the altercation unfolded after Collin got upset with his father in the car, and when they got home, he ran out of the vehicle and threw a "big heavy bottle of liquid" at Jon's car. Jon then allegedly "got out of the car enraged, put him in a headlock, punched him square in the nose, and when Collin fell to the ground, then he kicked him in the ribs."

Jon was never charged with abuse and denied the allegations in a statement to Entertainment Tonight.

"It escalated into something, you know, I had to restrain him and I've done that a couple times," he said. "I didn't think he would call the police but he wanted to get his way and the police did their investigation and there were no charges or citations filed."

Collin has said reality TV tore their family apart

After two years out of the spotlight, Collin gave a rare interview in November 2022, sharing that he believed growing up on reality television broke his family.

"I want to believe it was because of TV and what being in the public eye does to a family. I think it tore us apart," Collin told ET. "It gave us less time to actually be together as a family [and] more time to be in the public eye."

He added that he felt his relationship with his mom drastically deteriorated after she sent him to the special needs program, though he added that he didn't have a strong relationship with her before then either.

Asked whether he would want to reconcile with his mom, he said, "Yes, it would be ideal."

Mady alleged that Collin "physically threatened" her

In July 2023, Collin, Hannah and Jon appeared in an episode of Vice TV's Dark Side of the 2000s where they each spoke about their relationship to Kate.

"I don't know who my mom was before TV but I think she was a different person," Collin said. "I think she has a good heart and she has good intentions, but TV and fame and money changes people."

He also detailed how his mom put a "barrier" between him and his siblings, with Hannah sharing that Collin "would not get to come outside and play with us" and ate dinner separately.

"I don't think effort was made in the home to help him learn what behavior is acceptable and what behavior is not acceptable," she said.

A few days later, Collin's older sister, Mady, spoke out about her brother's latest allegations on her Instagram Stories, penning a lengthy statement in which she accused him of physically threatening her and her family.

"I do not owe my allegiance to any person(s) who has physically threatened me and every member of my immediate family (some incidents as recent as last year)," she wrote. "Further, I will never allow someone who has exhibited hateful and even violent behavior toward others based on their racial identity, gender identity, or religious beliefs to be in my life."

Mady added that in private conversations with Collin, he had expressed views that did not align with her values of "kindness, tolerance, love and acceptance."

In response, Jon told PEOPLE in a statement, “It took courage for Collin to sit down and speak about his past and the last thing I would have expected was more abuse to come his way from a sibling that hasn’t seen or spoken to him since he was in sixth grade.”

Kate spoke out about Collin's "psychiatric diagnoses" after her daughter's statement

Following Mady's statement, Kate told PEOPLE that she backed everything her daughter had said and doubled down on Collin's mental illness.

"My son Collin, whom I love with all my heart, has received multiple psychiatric diagnoses over the years," she said. "For the safety of myself, his brothers and sisters and for his own well-being, he was placed in a facility following years of outpatient treatment which proved insufficient for his needs."

Kate continued by claiming that Collin had a "distorted perception of reality" and that all the measures that were taken, including sending him to a live-in facility, were "explicit recommendation of his pediatric psychiatrist and/or his team of specialists" for the protection of herself and her family, as well as Collin's wellbeing.

Following Kate's response, Jon told PEOPLE that Collin was focusing on his goals of joining the Marines at the time after his high school graduation in June 2023.

"Regarding these brand new false accusations, it seems clear that even today after not seeing her son since the 6th grade, Kate is unable to control her abusive words towards him," he added.

Collin alleged Kate abused him in September 2024

Though Collin was training to become a U.S. Marine, he revealed in August 2024 that he was discharged at the end of training because "the paperwork was looked into, and they found out that I was, in fact, in an institution at one point in my life," he told ET.

The following month, Collin detailed the alleged abuse he experienced as a child at the hands of his mother in an interview with The Sun.

"My mother had a room built in our unfinished section of the storage basement," he alleged to the outlet. "She had a room put up with cameras in it, a tiny window in the corner and it was bolt-locked from the outside. It was like a containment room, literally, and it had a mattress on the floor and that's how I lived."

He added that he mostly spent time alone from his siblings and stopped attending school, claiming that Kate was also "physically aggressive, verbally, very abusive with the things she would say."

Kate has yet to respond to request for comment.

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