Years after “Jon & Kate Plus 8” ended, sextuplet siblings Collin Thomas Gosselin and sister Hannah Joy Gosselin are opening up about what it was like to grow up on the TLC reality television show that had audiences fixated in the aughts.
There were challenges filming the show, the siblings said on the first episode of Vice TV’s “Dark Side of the 2000s,” the season which premiered Tuesday. The lives of parents Jon and Kate Gosselin were chronicled alongside their now 22-year-old twins Madelyn “Mady” Kate Gosselin, Cara Nicole Gosselin and now 19-year-old sextuplets Collin, Hannah, Alexis Faith Gosselin, Aaden Jonathan Gosselin and Leah Hope Gosselin.
Collin, who was not yet 3 years old when the show premiered, said he struggled with the near-constant filming schedule.
“To be honest, I don’t have any clear memories of before the cameras were there,” he told Vice. “You know, they were always there.”
By the fourth season, even dad Jon said he was “done.” The Gosselin parents’ divorce, in which Kate landed full custody of the kids, was also televised.
The Gosselin family, who filmed the show from 2007 to 2010, lived in Pennsylvania as the cameras rolled. Then-Pennsylvania state Rep. Tom Murt pursued legislation to protect child performers like the Gosselin kids, and legislative hearings disclosed that “Jon & Kate” producers filmed the children changing clothes and going to the bathroom as part of potty training.
USA TODAY has reached out to TLC and Kate Gosselin’s rep for comment.
On the spinoff “Kate Plus 8,” which began airing in 2015, Collin said he started to struggle more and sometimes refused to participate.
“I was quiet. I would just be there and be completely silent in interviews and not interact or do what I had to do,” Collin said.
As a result, Hannah said Collin was separated from his seven siblings. “He would not get to come and play outside with us. He would eat different at different times than us.”
Eventually, he said his mom sent him away to a behavioral institute.
“Can I use the word abusive?” he mused on the Vice episode. “I mean, that’s kind of the reason why she sent me away.”
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Long-standing issues, including a sibling rift created from his separation, remain for Collin.
“You know, at the end of the day, none of us decided be on TV,” Collin said. “We didn’t get the choice. It was our parents’ decision.”
Contributing: Marsha Mercer, Pew/Stateline Staff Writer
