What Happened Between Kate Gosselin and Her Son Collin? Inside Their Yearslong Estrangement

Rebecca Aizin, Emily BlackwoodThu, July 2, 2026 at 12:30 PM UTC

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Kate Gosselin in December 2025; Collin Gosselin in June 2026Credit: Kate Gosselin/Instagram; Collin Gosselin/Instagram -

Kate Gosselin and her son Collin Gosselin have been estranged since at least 2020

Collin accused Kate of abuse and claimed she isolated him from his siblings when they were children

Kate has denied the allegations, claiming that Collin’s mental health struggles led her to take action for his well-being

Kate Gosselin and her son, Collin Gosselin, have been estranged for at least six years.

They rose to fame on their TLC reality show Jon & Kate Plus 8, which followed Kate and her then-husband Jon Gosselin as they welcomed twins Mady and Cara in 2000, and, four years later, sextuplets Alexis, Hannah, Aaden, Collin, Leah and Joel. The series ran from 2007 to 2017, chronicling the birth of the sextuplets, the Gosselins' divorce in 2009 and the growth of the Gosselin children as they entered their teen years.

The family has faced a number of controversies following Kate and Jon's split. 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 later told Entertainment Tonight in May 2022 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. However, Puleo denied claims of abuse to The Sun, stating that Kate never "intentionally [harmed]" Collin and "she did what she did to protect herself and her family" from what he described as "troubled behavior."

Following Collin's June 2026 announcement of an upcoming memoir, the mother and son have been engaged in a tense back-and-forth online. Kate replied to a comment on one of her TikTok videos that she "def would" sue for defamation if she wasn't a public figure. Later that day, Collin alleged on his Instagram Stories that his mom wrote about physically abusing him in her diary.

Here's what to know about the relationship between Kate Gosselin and her son Collin Gosselin, and what the two have said about each other.

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

Hannah and Collin Gosselin with their dad, Jon Gosselin, on their graduation day in June 2023Credit: Collin Gosselin/Instagram

Kate and Jon divorced in 2009 when the sextuplets were 5 years old following allegations that Jon had been cheating on Kate, which he denied. 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, she 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, Collin and Hannah, 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

Jon Gosselin celebrating Collin's birthday in May 2019Credit: Jon Gosselin Instagram

Later in 2020, 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 wasn't 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

Kate Gosselin with all eight of her children.Credit: Donna Svennevik/Getty

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

Mady Gosselin of 'Kate Plus Date' speaks onstage during the TLC portion of the Discovery Communications Winter 2019 TCA Tour at the Langham Hotel on February 12, 2019 in Pasadena, CaliforniaCredit: Amanda Edwards/Getty

In July 2023, Collin, Jon and Hannah appeared in an episode of Vice TV's Dark Side of the 2000s, during which 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."

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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

Cara Gosselin, Kate Gosselin and Mady Gosselin of the reality TV show "Kate Plus 8" visit "Extra" at The Levi's Store Times Square on June 11, 2019 in New York CityCredit: Michael Loccisano/Getty

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

Kate Gosselin of 'Kate Plus Date' speaks onstage during the TLC portion of the Discovery Communications Winter 2019 TCA Tour at the Langham Hotel on February 12, 2019 in Pasadena, California.Credit: Amanda Edwards/Getty

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 didn't respond to a request for comment, and according to what her attorney told Fox News, she had no plans to.

"She never wants to comment because she always knows that this gets taken out of context," Puleo said. "She doesn't want to comment. Doesn’t need to. The record speaks for itself."

Collin said he and his siblings "don't know each other"

The Gosselin kids on 'Celebrity Wife Swap'Credit: Donna Svennevik/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

In a TikTok live video posted in August 2025, Collin said that he's not in contact with any of his siblings other than Hannah.

"I don't talk to my siblings, and I very much wish that we did and that they knew who I actually was because we don't know each other at all," he said, adding that he hoped to use the social media platform as a journal and that his brothers and sisters would see his videos.

The former reality star had previously opened up on TikTok about growing up on TV with his siblings and shared a throwback photo from their childhood with a message that read, "Born to be a team, us against the world."

“Forced to do it alone, and wonder every day what our lives could've looked like,” Collin added in the caption. "The tears I shed behind closed doors, thinking about the memories we could’ve shared. I love you guys."

Collin announced a memoir in 2026

Collin shared in a June 2026 Instagram post that he had written a memoir about his childhood. He wrote in the caption that while he was unsure if he'd ever tell his story, doing so helped him find his voice.

"People felt like they knew me ... But there was so much they never saw," he captioned it. "Writing this book forced me to revisit some of the hardest moments of my life, but it also gave me something I’ve been searching for for a long time: my voice."

He concluded, "This isn’t the story people think they know. It’s the story I’ve lived."

In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood is set to be released on Oct. 13, 2026.

Kate said she would sue for defamation if she wasn't a public figure

Kate GosselinCredit: Kate Gosselin/TikTok

Following the memoir announcement, both mother and son have shared seemingly pointed messages about each other online.

On June 27, Collin posted a New York Post article with the headline, "Kate Gosselin 'spiraling' ahead of estranged son Collin's bombshell memoir: 'She knows it's about to hit the fan' " to his Instagram Stories. He didn't caption the post, but did include a comment from a follower that read, "What's done in darkness will always come to light."

He later said that he would invite his mom to take a lie detector test during a June 2026 interview on Strange McKnight's YouTube channel.

Days later, Kate addressed several comments about her estranged son on TikTok days later, writing to one follower that she "def would" sue him for defamation if she wasn't a public figure.

"Malice is one of the hardest things to prove. I tried :(," Kate wrote in another comment, asking if she would take a lie detector test.

"The rules are different for ppl in the public eye," she added. "I consulted a high power LA attorney (you've definitely heard of him) years ago when other ppl were putting crazy stuff out there and that's what he said. The courts don't honor it if you're in the public eye :(."

The same day, Collin seemingly reacted to his mom's comments on his Instagram Stories, alleging that his mom "would write in her diary how she 'had to pray to God to stop hitting me' " when he was 2 years old.

Kate later responded to a TikTok follower's comment seemingly about the drama. "I’m fine," she wrote. "Nothing surprises me anymore in that department 😳."

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”