Celeb Kids
Looking Back ‘Jon & Kate Plus Eight’ Was Absolute Chaos
Explore the rise and fall of Jon and Kate Plus 8, the TLC reality series following the Gosselin family, their infamous divorce, and life after the show.
Jon & Kate Plus 8 was a staple on TLC that ran from April 2007 to July 2017. The series chronicled the lives of Jon Gosselin and Kate Gosselin and their eight children. The reality series originally aired on Discovery Health Channel for its first two seasons before moving to TLC. The Gosselins first gained public attention after the success of their specials Surviving Sextuplets and Twins and One Year Later.
The series quickly became one of TLC’s most popular programs, but no season of the show was as infamous as its fifth. During this season, which aired in 2009, tabloid rumors regarding the couple’s infidelity began circulating. Us Weekly alleged that Jon was having an affair with grade-school teacher Deanna Hummel. It was then rumored that Kate had been having an affair with her married bodyguard Steve Nelid. At the time, Kate said the rumors were “disgusting, unthinkable, unfathomable.”
In June 2009, Kate filed for divorce, telling People at the time, “My dream and my hope is that we can share holidays and birthdays and, for the kids, have it be peaceful. All of those times that we can pull together and drop our issues at the door, it just benefits our kids.”
Following their publicized divorce, the series was renamed to Kate Plus 8, focusing on her life as a divorced mother. However, filming was temporarily suspended after Jon filed a cease and desist barring production from their Pennsylvania property. Kate Plus 8 aired for two seasons between 2010-2011 and three seasons from 2014-2017.
While Kate received primary custody of all eight children, by 2022 their son Collin and daughter Hannah were living with Jon full time. The rest of their six children had little contact with their father. In a 2025 interview with Teen Vogue opened up about how the show impacted her parents’ marriage.
“[Filming] made my siblings and I closer to each other, even though it made my parents further from each other,” she said. “It’s hard to go back and watch my parents argue.”
Jon has since remarried Stephanie Lebo in 2025, and while Kate has not remarried, she has been in a long-term relationship.
