Kate Gosselin has addressed recent claims that her estranged son, Collin Gosselin, made on social media this month.
In an Aug. 7 TikTok video, Collin shared a throwback photo featuring his seven siblings, including older twin sisters Mady and Cara and his fellow sextuplets Alexis, Hannah, Leah, Aaden and Joel.
In the caption of the video, he reflected on his fraught relationship with his siblings, writing, “Forced apart, pitted against each other.”
A TikTok user shared a screenshot of Collin Gosselin’s post in the comments section of one of Kate Gosselin’s recent TikTok videos. The former reality TV star had a brief response regarding her son, who has been estranged from most of his family for several years, aside from his father, Jon Gosselin, and sister Hannah.
“He knows why..,” Kate Gosselin commented, with a crying-face emoji.
In Collin Gosselin’s original post, he shared an old photo featuring his siblings dressed in coordinating outfits with the caption “Born to be a team, us against the world,” set to Adele’s song “Hometown Glory.”
In a second photo, he shared a selfie, adding, “Forced to do it alone, and wonder everyday what our lives could’ve looked like.”
“All the fame and money in the world, but what about kids being kids?” he wrote in the caption. “I will always love them more than anything. The tears I shed behind closed doors, thinking about the memories we could’ve shared. I love you guys.”
Both Collin and Hannah Gosselin were absent when their mom celebrated the sextuplets’ 21st birthday in May.
Kate Gosselin shared a photo with Alexis, Leah, Joel and Aaden enjoying a dinner out for the occasion, while Hannah seemingly celebrated separately with her father and his fiancée, Stephanie Lebo.
Over the years, members of the Gosselin family, who starred in the reality show “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” have spoken publicly about their fractured relationship, with Collin Gosselin telling “Entertainment Tonight” in November 2022 that he had not spoken to his siblings in “probably five or six years now.”
The following year in July 2023, Collin and Hannah Gosselin appeared in Vice’s “Dark Side of the 2000s” series. Collin Gosselin said that his mom was “going through a lot of things” during her divorce from Jon Gosselin in 2009, claiming that she took her anger out on him.
After Kate Gosselin was awarded full legal custody of the couple’s children following their divorce, she told People in 2016 that Collin Gosselin was sent to a residential program for children with special needs.
During the Vice series, he said that “being in an institution really took a toll on me mentally” and accused his mom of being “abusive” at home. (Kate Gosselin “firmly denied” Collin’s abuse allegations, according to Vice. She did not respond to an email from TODAY requesting comment at the time.)
In the docuseries, Collin Gosselin said when he didn’t want to film, he would shut down. Hannah Gosselin said their mom responded by keeping him separate.
“Like he would not get to come and play outside with us. He would eat different at different times than us,” Hannah Gosselin said in “Dark Side of the 2000s.”
In July 2023, Mady Gosselin shared her side of the story on social media after the series aired, writing in part, “To those of you saying my brother was a child who experienced trauma and so I must swiftly forgive and forget, please remember that I was a child too.”
“I have empathy for him and what he’s been through, but that doesn’t erase the trauma I’ve suffered at his hands,” she added.
At the time, Kate Gosselin also responded publicly to her son’s claims on Instagram, stating that he had “received multiple psychiatric diagnoses” and that his “unpredictable and violent behaviors” continued after treatment.
