Jon Gosselin is opening up about his family. ET's Kevin Frazier spoke with Jon on Tuesday, and the 45-year-old former reality star chatted about his kids, his life today, and his ex-wife, Kate Gosselin.
Jon and Kate were married from 1999 to 2009 and share eight children: 18-year-old sextuplets -- Alexis, Aaden, Joel, Leah, Hannah and Collin -- and 21-year-old twins, Cara and Madelyn.
ET's chat with Jon came on the sextuplets' 18th birthday, a day that meant a lot to him, as it marked the end of his custody back-and-forth with Kate.
"I am free in the aspect of I have adult children now... I have my own businesses and now it's time for me to move on. Dating, moving on with my own life. It's like starting over pretty much," he said. "... There’s no more custody court. It's over. We are done today. It's over... This weight has been lifted off my shoulder... It is just a big relief."
As of August 2021, Hannah and Collin lived full-time with Jon, while the other sextuplets were living with Kate. Cara and Madelyn are both away at college. According to Jon, he does not have "an open relationship" with his kids, save Hannah and Collin, something he's hoping will change thanks to the sextuplets' milestone birthday.
"[Communicating with] the children that live with Kate is very difficult, because I don't have an open relationship with them," he said. "... [Hannah] communicates with them. She has a really good relationship with the other kids. I have been alienated from those children."
Jon alleged that it's Kate who's caused strife with his children.
"I feel it's a really poor decision on Kate’s part, because she alienated me from those kids," he claimed. "I think it was a poor parenting decision. It would’ve been much better if she would have been more open with them and explained things better."
Now that they're 18, Jon claimed, "they’re going to learn all of that and how that all transpired."
"They’re going to figure... out who [their] parents are, and what transpired in the past, and how relationships build, and how relationships fail," he said. "Sometimes you hide those thing from your children... Sometimes it's difficult to say those things to your child, because you’re afraid they aren’t mature enough to understand those things."
As for Maddy and Cara, Jon said, "I texted Maddy and Cara. I've done that, but never gotten any response. I texted Maddy and Cara on their birthday and never got any response."
"It's horrible," he said of not being in touch with some of his kids. "Of course I miss them. That's why I post things on my Instagram, like, throwbacks, TBTs. It's bittersweet, but [Hannah] and Collin live with me, so I kind of just focus on them. Now, the other four being adults, maybe they will realize what the truth is and what has transpired and maturity steps in. Maybe they'll go discover the truth or they'll ask Hannah or ask Collin."
As for what split up Jon and Kate in the first place, Jon now claims that the network covered up what he said is the real reason their 10 year marriage ended.
"Why did the divorce happen? Because a certain person left me for a certain somebody," Jon claimed.
"I knew," Jon claimed of the alleged affair. "I was like, 'End it.'"
Kate has always denied ever having an extramarital affair, and has accused her ex of having one of his own. Jon has denied those allegations.
At the end of the day, Jon said, "I think divorce was inevitable, because of personalities."
"I thought in the fourth season that I was moving towards divorce, because I thought I wanted to leave the show, and she wanted to continue on the show, and that is what happened anyway," he said of Jon & Kate Plus 8, the reality show that put his family in the spotlight. "It was getting more commercialized. I moved back to my hometown and just kind of wanted more of my own life. She wanted to continue to film."
"I felt like she wanted to be this big, big star on TV and continue on and use the kids to film and create this enterprise," Jon added. "I felt that if you wanted to do TV, you should just kept doing TV on your own and let them be kids. We just had a difference of opinion."
That difference of opinion has seemingly continued in the years since their split, down to whether or not the family should participate in a TV reunion of sorts, something that Jon said he would "absolutely" like to do.
"I asked about this. I wanted to do a reunion kind of thing, but I got shot down amongst Kate and a couple other siblings," he claimed. "I always initiate. Maybe not a TV reunion, but maybe something else."
Hannah, who joined her dad for ET's interview, added that "there’s always a possibility" of getting the whole gang back together. "The door's not shut between us, so we still talk about it. So, I mean, maybe," she said.
Hannah noted that she's "always" wished her parents got along better, telling ET, "It would be nice to stand in a room with them and not think that they hate each other, but it's fine. It is what it is. Things played out how they did. They still both love me, so it's fine."
As for what Jon would like to say to his ex, he said simply, "Own the truth."
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