See How Kate Gosselin and Jon Gosselin's 8 Kids Have Grown Up Through the Years - E! Online (2024)

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Kate Gosselin Celebrates Sextuplets' 20th Birthday With Rare Photo

After the 2006 special Surviving Sextuplets and Twins,millions of viewers gladly accepted TLC's invitation to check in more regularly with Jon Gosselin, his wife Kate Gosselinand their eight kids.

was a strangely captivating hit upon its premiere in 2007, the how-do-they-make-it-work family dynamic being the initial draw. However, then the draw became the fact thatthe titular couple were not making it work, and the Gosselins' marital issues and eventual divorce in 2009 was one of the biggest can't-look-away stories of the late-aughts.

But forever joining Jon and Kate is their eight: Twins Mady and Cara, born Oct. 8, 2000, and sextupletsAlexis,Aaden,Collin, Hannah,Leah andJoel,born May 10, 2004.

The quick math you did (and then redid, because that outrageous number couldn'tbe right) is correct. Mady and Cara, who were 6 when the TLC show premiered, are now 23-year-old college graduates and their little siblings are 20.

And though the Gosselinshaven't had their own show in years, the drama never stopped.

Kate, who got full legal custody of the children in the divorce, shared in August 2016 that Collin had "special needs" and wasenrolled in a program away from home that wasmore suited to his"educational and social challenges." His absence left "a huge hole" in the family, she told People,but she and his siblings took comfort inknowing he was getting the help he needed.

During the same sit-down with the family, Mady and Cara told the publicationthat they had no interest in seeing their dad—but if he wanted to have a relationship with them, "talking about us on TV is not the way to make that happen."

A few months later, Jon said he had "an idea" of where Collin was but didn't know for sure, telling Entertainment Tonightheplanned to ask a judge to make his ex disclose their son's location.Kate pushed back at the speculation something nefarious was occurring.

Collin broke his silence on the ongoing rifts within the familyon theJuly 2023 episode of Vice TV's Dark Side of the 2000scalled "Jon & Kate: Family Circus," saying that he hadn't talked to any of his siblings other than Hannah since 2016.

"I think my mom kind of drove a social barrier between us," he observed. "She told them the story one way, and, obviously, I see the story a different way." But Collin was opento reconciling with everybody.

"I really, really hope one day that we can all reconnect and put the show behind us and just be siblings again," he said, "and take back that time we didn't have."

Afterwards Katedetailed her side of the story, writing on Instagram that she and Collin's siblings had not been "directly involved in his life due to his history of unpredictable behavior and violent tendencies." Mady also alleged on her Instagram Story, perPeople, that Collin had "physically threatened me and every member of my immediate family(some incidents as recent as last year)."