Jon Gosselin Reveals How He Feels About Hannah Being on Social Media: ‘I Try Not to Follow My Kids’

Supportive from a distance. Jon Gosselin explains how he feels about daughter Hannah Gosselin’s strong social media presence in an exclusive interview with In Touch, revealing the reason why he avoids following all of his children online. 

“I’m a parent with a child, they don’t take my advice,” the Jon & Kate Plus 8 alum, 46, says while promoting his second single with The International DJ Casper. “I offer suggestions and stuff like that, you know, and kind of build a foundation. But you know … you have to let kids make their own mistakes. So, like, even though you think it’s inappropriate or it’s not cool, you know, you’re just old. That’s what I’m figuring out. It’d be discouraging if I say, ‘Don’t post that’ or anything like that.”  

Hannah, 19, who just graduated from high school, has developed a large following on TikTok, but she “knows the fine line,” her dad says, adding that she “has management” for guidance. In addition to the teenager, Jon also shares sextuplets Alexis, Aaden, Collin, Leah and Joel and twins Cara and Mady with ex-wife Kate Gosselin. 

“I try not to follow my kids because I don’t want, like, crazy fans dumping over and, like, Mady just posted that thing, you know?” he says.

Hannah isn’t alone in her social media usage. Earlier this year, Mady, 22, posted a TikTok clip clapping back at a social media troll by captioning her post, “I’ve been getting hate mail since I was 6, but that doesn’t mean you need to keep sending it. Learn how to respect people’s boundaries and practice kindness.

In her video that she shared on February 4, the college student addressed the “rhetoric” she had seen in the comments of her videos “about childhood drama and healing,” pointing out that her personal life and family aren’t anyone else’s business. 

“Perpetuating the narrative that we are damaged or that we are crazy child stars or whatever you want to say is extremely harmful, as myself and my siblings are going out into the world and will be functioning members of society with careers,” the Kate Plus 8 alum continued at the time. “Regardless of whatever narrative you have created in your head from what you’ve seen, my siblings are doing so well. They are all amazing people. They are all smart, they are all kind, they’re driven students, they’re working hard, they’re funny, they’re stylish.”

While speaking with In Touch, Jon explains that while his children are “still kids,” he still wants to “let them be independent and grow up.” 

“I mean, I pretty much went to college when I was 17, then I moved to Europe, and then I came back, then I worked, then I got married ‘cause I got married super young,” he recalls. “So, they’re at that age where, you know, within the confines of being celebrity children, [they have] to make their own decisions and learn from them.” 

While the former reality TV star ensured that his children were taught a “foundation” such as managing finances, he points out that “you just gotta learn” how to navigate other “life things.”  

“I’m telling you, as a parent, you can say whatever you want,” Jon says before noting that kids are “gonna do the opposite.” 

“I’m like, ‘Oh, now I know what my parents were talking about,” he adds. “I don’t listen to them at all. So, it is karma, I guess. But, you know, I can only love and support them and, if they come to me and say, ‘Why didn’t you say anything?’ I’ll then I’ll be like, ‘Well, I usually do say something, but I didn’t say anything this time.’”