Fall From Reality TV Fame! What Happened to the Gosselin Family? ‘Jon and Kate Plus 8’ Update

Doing their own thing. Former Jon & Kate Plus 8 stars Kate Gosselin and Jon Gosselin and their eight kids were household names following their first television appearance in April 2007. Keep scrolling to find out what happened to the Gosselin family since finding reality TV fame. 

When Did ‘Jon and Kate Plus 8’ Premiere?

Kate and Jon share twins Mady and Cara, who were born in October 2000, and sextuplets Aaden, Alexis, Collin, Hannah, Joel and Leah, whom the couple welcomed in May 2004. Their self-titled series, Jon and Kate Plus 8, premiered on TLC on April 4, 2007. 

When Did Kate and Jon Divorce?

Jon and Kate announced on their hit TLC show that they were separating, concluding the June 22, 2009, episode with the following announcement. “On Monday June 22, 2009, legal proceedings were initiated in Pennsylvania to dissolve the 10-year marriage of Jon and Kate Gosselin.” Any hint at divorce was not given at the time. 

The estranged couple had mixed reactions to the announcement, with Kate crying throughout much of the episode. “It’s a fork in the road and goals are different now,” the mom of eight said. “But I don’t hate him. Never have, never will. He’s the father for my children. They’re great kids. The best.”

Meanwhile, Jon had a different approach, telling the cameras, “It’s life, it’s a rollercoaster, it’s the way it happens. Sometimes you just go off the tracks. I’m excited as well because I have a new chapter in my life.” 

In the same episode, Jon and Kate addressed the future of their hit TLC show, telling the cameras that they were unsure of their future on television. Amid their separation, the network morphed Jon and Kate Plus 8 into Kate Plus 8, taking Jon off the air. By August 2011, Kate Plus 8 was canceled, before returning after three years for another run. The show ultimately concluded in 2017.

Following the TV parents’ tumultuous ​separation in 2009 after ​10 years of marriage, the family divided due to a heated custody battle. 

Who Was Awarded Custody of the Gosselin Kids?

Following the split, Kate was awarded full legal custody of the duo’s eight kids, but the exes shared physical custody. While the dad of eight was supposed to have regular visits with his kids, he told ET in November 2016 that chores “superseded” any activity and only saw his kids one night a week and every other weekend, however not all together. 

“Their chores even supersede my custody,” Jon explained of his children’s lives at their mom’s house in November 2016. “So if they don’t get their chores done, they’re not coming to my house.”

That same year, Kate later revealed that their son Collin was admitted into an institution to deal with his behavioral issues. “After being there, I didn’t have a relationship with her,” Collin told Entertainment Tonight in November 2022 of his time in the Fairmount Behavioral Health Institute. “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.”

After a years-long custody battle, Jon was awarded custody of Hannah in 2018. Months later, the matriarch lost custody of Collin in December 2018 after Jon petitioned the court and she didn’t attend a hearing regarding the matter. Kate had requested the court date be postponed prior to the meeting. However, the request was denied, and Jon was granted sole physical and sole legal custody of Collin. Collin went to live with Jon after he was released from the institute.

Meanwhile, the ​former couple’s other sextuplets – Leah, Alexis, Joel and Aaden – as well as their twins, Mady and Cara, remained in Kate’s custody. Collin and Hannah have lived with Jon full-time since 2018.

In November 2023, Kate lost her court battle seeking $132,875 in back child support from Jon for their eight children, according to online records viewed by In Touch. She initially filed an adverse revival against her ex-husband on September 7, 2022, ​with a 2012 judgement note in Kate’s favor at the center of the lawsuit.

Where Is the Gosselin Family Now?

 After Jon left the long-running series in 2009, he returned to his profession as an IT technician and became a DJ. Meanwhile, Kate held onto reality TV stardom, appearing on shows like Say Yes to the Dress, The View and Dancing With the Stars, before TLC “terminated their relationship with her” after she was found in contempt of court for filming her children without work permits, In Touch previously confirmed in December 2018.

“The guardian ad litem said filming wasn’t in the best interests of my children, the judge said it wasn’t in their best interests, but Kate went ahead and did it anyway,” Jon told the DailyMailTV following the ruling. “But this order now puts her on notice that she has to do everything by the book.”

The matriarch moved to North Carolina and has flown under the radar since 2019, with a source telling In Touch that she had already been living a “relatively normal life in Pennsylvania for years after her reality show fame began to fizzle out.”

In Touch confirmed that Kate had obtained a “multi-state license” from the North Carolina Board of Nursing on June 30, 2021. Before the family entered the world of reality TV, Kate was a labor and delivery nurse at the Reading Hospital and Medical Center. 

Kate made a brief return to reality TV, competing on season 1 of Fox’s Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test in January 2023, but departed halfway through the show’s first episode after suffering a neck injury. Still, she hopes to make money in that field as a source told In Touch exclusively that Kate hasn’t sought work in healthcare. “Nursing doesn’t pay great — especially compared to what she gets on TV,” the insider revealed, adding, “She doesn’t know how she’s going to make ends meet. She’s desperate at this point.”

As for the Gosselin family dynamic, the family remains estranged. A source told In Touch in February 2023 that Collin continues to have a strained relationship with his siblings since moving in with his father.

“None of the kids have even spoken to Collin in five years,” an insider close to the family exclusively revealed in February. “And even in 2018, when they had a mandatory visitation, and the other kids treated him terribly.”

Kate and Jon recently reunited for the graduation of Hannah and Collin in June 2023, with a separate source telling In Touch that exes remained distanced and Kate did not speak with her son. 

Jon revealed in August 2023 that he hadn’t spoken to twins Mady and Cara in 10 years, and it had been five years since he last talked to the four sextuplets who remained with Kate.