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The Gosselin sextuplets are now 18 years old, which is mind blowing to me. I remember when their parents were separating and it was the biggest news for weeks in the tabloids, which were of course so much more influential than they are now. One of the more disturbing stories about the Gosselins in the last few years was their mother Kate’s own admission that she had sent son Collin, then 13, away to an institution for “behavioral problems.” (Collin told ET he was there from age 12 to 14.) Collin ended up pleading with his father, Jon, who helped him get out of the facility after two years and was awarded sole custody of both Collin and his sister, Hannah, in 2018. Kate never showed up to the court hearing determining custody. (Kate and Jon also have twins Mady and Cara, 22, who have been estranged from their father for years.)
Collin has done his first interview, with ET Online. He is an impressive young man who has obviously been through a lot of trauma. In his talk with ET’s Kevin Frazier, Collin was careful to parse his words about his mother. He made it clear that he would welcome a relationship with her, but he sounded detached like he is still processing what she did to him. Collin broke down when he admitted that he doesn’t talk to his six other siblings and said that he only has a relationship with Hannah. I’m glad to see him doing so well but I feel so bad for those kids. Collin has a full time job and is finishing up high school. He had a scary accident this year when he fell asleep at the wheel and totaled his car but said he’s fine now and that people should wear their seatbelts. Here’s some of what he told ET and you can see his interview on their site.
Kate revealed several years ago that Collin had been put in an institution to help him deal with his alleged behavioral issues. Upon leaving the institution, Collin went to live with his father and he says any connection to his mom has been severed after the experience.
“After being there, I didn’t have a relationship with her,” Collin tells ET. “Even before [being] there, I don’t think we had much of a relationship and I think that just kept tearing it even more down.”
Looking back at the drama and eventual estrangement with his mom, Collin says he feels it stems from the pressures of having your family star on a reality TV show.
“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 shares. “It gave us less time to actually be together as a family, [and] more time to be in the public eye.”
Thinking back to the friction and what he viewed as negative experiences with his mom as a kid, Collin claims it “was worse than what you would say the average teenage kid goes through with their parent.”
Because of this, Collin says he learned some lessons that have helped him understand and contextualize his turbulent childhood.
“I came to the conclusion that everybody has their own agenda, you know?” Collin explains. “My mom had her own agenda, and I don’t know exactly what that was. But I was put in a tough spot and my agenda was to make it out on top of that tough spot.”
Despite their conflicts and very public falling out, Collin tells ET he would be open to the possibility of reconciliation with his mother, and wishes he had a better relationship with Kate throughout his formative years.
“It’s unfortunate that we didn’t have a relationship,” Collin says. “I think every son wants to have a relationship with their mom. But I’m doing very well.”
When asked if he would still welcome a relationship with Kate, Collin says, “Yes, it would be ideal.”
Despite the struggles and challenges he’s faced in his 18 years, Collin’s outlook remains overwhelmingly positive and the message he hopes to share is one of hope and kindness.
“I want to say that in life we all go through hard things. We all get knocked down, we all experience really, really difficult things,” he shares, “But don’t sit around and mourn and cry about it, address the situation you’re in and fix it and come out on top of it. Because resilience is a really important thing.”
As for the message he hopes to express, Collin simply wants people to “spread kindness and love.”
Kate is a vindictive, fame-hungry person who never should have been given a platform. She very much deserves to be the patron saint of Karens and she clearly alienated her children against their father and against each other. It was abusive to send Collin to a facility and perhaps she did it as a warning to keep her other children in line. Jon is a tool in his own benign way but he tried to get his children off television and he did fight for them. I’m glad Collin is doing OK and that he is telling his truth in this interview. I hope his brothers and sisters see it and are able to contact him. If we learned anything from the Jon and Kate plus Eight debacle and all of the horror stories of child actors it’s that children need much more protection than they’re being given in the entertainment industry.
Also Hannah is glam and has her own beauty company!
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