I'm sure that Jon Gosselin didn't wake up one day as a young man thinking he would one day be a part of one of the strangest reality TV trends for a show that would lead to the dissolution of his marriage. Not many people can predict that kind of thing. Now, seven years after his divorce and final full-time episode of TLC's Jon & Kate Plus 8, Gosselin has revealed he is currently getting far less quality time with his eight children than ever before.
I haven't seen all eight of my kids together probably in three years. Three to four years. . . . Madelyn and Cara, I don't see that much, or often. We're kinda not talking right now. The kids that I do get are Hannah, Leah, Joel and Aaden. Sometimes I get Alexis, but not often.
Wow. That has to be a pretty rough thing to deal with, especially after spending so many years with eight children and a wife always around, along with the camera crew. I guess he's had time to get used to the number of kids he sees dwindling down, but I don't know that any parent ever really gets used to not seeing his or her children for extended periods. Gosselin did make it clear to Entertainment Tonight that while he does see ex-wife Kate on occasion when the kids are being dropped off, he doesn't talk to her anymore, and isn't interested to. Eesh.
Madelyn and Cara are the 15-year-old twins, and Gosselin claimed they basically stopped visiting when they were around 12-13 years old, choosing to be with friends instead. All of the sextuplets are currently 12 years old, so there are almost certainly some more emotional changes to come in that bunch once the teenage years begin in earnest.
You may have noticed that one name was missing from that bunch: Collin. Here's how Gosselin says that relationship is going.
I was just focusing on the ones that did come and then a couple years went by and then Collin stopped coming. I thought, maybe he just wants to do stuff with Mommy or whatever, and then it became long term.
He went on to say he hasn't even seen Collin in two years, which is both shocking and rather sad. I dare not wager a guess at the complications involved, but here's hoping that those troubled waters can be crossed by all involved when the time is right.
Viewers have been able to see Collin, Cara, Madelyn and all the rest over the past year and a half, as TLC brought Kate Plus 8 back in 2015 after its 2011 cancellation for a series of specials that led to an eight-episode fourth season, which concluded back in January. It's unclear if it will be moving on past that or not.
