Collin shed light on his childhood in his newly released memoir, “In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood.”Collin shed light on his childhood in his newly released memoir, “In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood.”
Kate Gosselin called out her estranged son Collin Gosselin’s allegations against her in his bombshell memoir, “In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood.”
“Rational logical [people] or anyone who has dealt with mental illness understands what’s going on here,” the “Jon & Kate Plus 8” alum wrote via a TikTok comment Tuesday.
The reality star’s remarks were in response to a supporter who labeled Collin’s claims as “terrible lies” and said it “should be illegal to defame someone” in a memoir.
“I know you already know this, but you have the support of so many,” the supporter wrote under a video of Kate, 51, giving her followers a life update. “I just wanted to say you are doing a great job keeping your head up through all of this.”
Additionally, Kate “liked” a comment that alleged Collin, 22, would “regret all of this someday” and that he was “encouraged and enabled by other dysfunctional and mentally ill people.”
“Exactly! I had nothing to do with it, except for consent because it was medically necessary,” the TV personality wrote.
In Collin’s memoir, released Tuesday, he shed light on Kate’s alleged wrongdoings throughout his childhood and her decision to put him in a mental institution in 2016. Collin claimed Kate only visited him once and infamously told him, “You broke our family.”
Kate previously defended her decision to institutionalize her son in 2023, alleging that she made the move “following years of outpatient treatment which proved insufficient for his needs” and “for the safety of myself, his brothers and sisters, and for his own well-being.”
She labeled Collin as “a very troubled young man who continues to need a lot of help.”
Additionally, Collin wrote in his book about how Kate would allegedly command her eight kids — fellow sextuplets Hannah, Alexis, Leah, Aaden and Joel, and older twins Cara and Madelyn — to “act happy” or be punished. He claimed Kate would “lean in and hiss through clenched teeth: ‘Smile.’”
Collin also recalled the alleged “small holding cell” the matriarch kept him locked up in for two years in their basement.
He detailed how Kate, who has previously denied the allegations against her, allegedly told him he was “moving out” and had a contractor make the “holding cell.”
Collin claimed he was only allowed an air mattress and a pillow in the tight space, stating that the “Kate Plus 8” camera crew and his siblings were prohibited from seeing him.
Kate shares her sextuplets and twin daughters with her ex-husband Jon Gosselin, with whom she was wed from 1999 to 2009. The family rose to fame on “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” which filmed from 2007 to 2009.
Jon, meanwhile, lost custody of all his children when he and Kate split, and their show was later rebranded to “Kate Plus 8.”
Nearly two years after Collin was institutionalized, Jon filed for full custody of Collin in 2018 and brought him home.
Additionally, he also gained custody of his daughter, Hannah Gosselin, while the remainder of the sextuplets — Alexis, Joel, Leah and Aaden — stayed with Kate.
Despite being estranged from most of his siblings, Collin wrote in his memoir that he “love[s] them very much.”
