Jon Gosselin Is ‘Absolutely Furious’ About ‘Kate Plus 8’ Special Episode Filmed ‘Illegally’

Just over a week after TLC aired a special episode of Kate Plus 8, dad Jon Gosselin is firing back, both at the network and his ex. On Thursday, October 10, the former Jon and Kate Plus 8 star opened up to DailyMailTV about the “College Bound” episode of Kate Gosselin‘s spin-off series. In the interview, he accused the show of filming his children illegally, violating a 2018 court order.

“I’m furious. Absolutely furious. They didn’t care. It’s really upsetting that big business and big corporations go do whatever they want, against a parent’s legal right,” he said. “The judge and the guardian ad litem both agreed that it wasn’t in my children’s best interests to be filmed, but my ex-wife and TLC had other ideas. They put profits and ratings ahead of the well being of my children and filmed illegally without work permits.”

According to DailyMailTV, the Department of Labor denied the show filming permits in 2018. The Pennsylvania Bureau of Labor Law Compliance also reviewed the applications and denied them, stating, “There are serious questions about whether Kate Gosselin has the legal authority to agree to have her children filmed as part of this reality television program.”

Though Kate seems to have sole physical custody of four of the couple’s minor children — Jon claims he doesn’t “have any interaction” with them — the outlet alleged the parents share legal custody. A series of appeals lead to the case being seen by the Pennsylvania Superior Court, in which Judge Timothy J. Rowley responded, “The Court concluded that involvement of the children in filming is not in their best interests.”

Despite that, the special aired on October 1, 2019. “TLC were completely aware of the court order but filmed anyway,” Jon told DailyMailTV. “They filmed in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. … Kate filmed my kids without written consent from me.” But even besides that, the father of eight took issue with the show. Though he didn’t watch it, he did read a recap and had several points of contention.

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“First of all, it’s called Kate Plus 8 which is absurd. There’s not eight children there. Two kids live with me, Hannah and Collin, they’ve lived with me for over a year,” he said. “At the end of the show Kate said that kids keep leaving — kids don’t keep leaving, you threw one out. Institutionalized one. So he didn’t leave on free will, Collin was kicked out of your house, thrown into an institution, mentally abused by you and the institution, so he didn’t leave. Let’s just put that on there.”

He also attacked TLC and Kate directly. Slamming TLC for allegedly being willing to “pay all the fines” for disobeying the court order rather than follow the law, he ranted, “This is all about money.” He claims the same is true for his ex. “This has nothing to do with anything else other than Kate’s lifestyle, not the kids’ lifestyle. Go get a job. Support your own family. It’s disgusting.”