Collin Gosselin says his mother Kate Gosselin visited him just once during his years in a behavioral institution, and that she used the brief encounter to blame him for destroying their family.
The 22-year-old former reality star makes the allegation in his new memoir, “In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood,” published last month. The book details his experience at the facility, where he was placed at age 12 in 2016.
Collin writes that Kate, 51, appeared “disappointed” when she saw him, and that he surmised she was “horrified” by the weight he had gained. “She warned us about eating healthy and what would happen if we didn’t,” he writes. “But I didn’t really have a choice here. I ate what they gave me. And now, well, I was fat.”
The mother and son shared what Collin describes as a “stiff” hug. He told her he missed her, but she ignored him.
A doctor named Jack was present during the visit and mentioned that Collin had “lashed out a couple times” recently. Collin writes that his “crying fits” were actually about wanting to go home. After the doctor said the teenager was “responding well to the program,” Kate thanked him by his first name.
“I shifted uncomfortably in my seat,” Collin writes. “When did my mom and the doctor get on a first-name basis? How often were they in touch?”
When the doctor left, Collin showed his mother origami gifts he had made for his seven siblings. Kate refused to take them.
Collin felt his stomach “drop,” he writes. “These gifts were my chance to remind them I existed. If she wouldn’t take those, she wasn’t going to take me.”
In what Collin calls a “desperate” plea, he asked if he could come home. Kate allegedly said that “wouldn’t be appropriate” and told him his siblings were “doing so much better” with him away. She then allegedly bragged about birthday cakes she had ordered for the other sextuplets and shared details about the family’s upcoming summer break plans.
According to Collin, she then delivered four words that made him break down: “You are here because of you. You broke our family.”
The “Special Forces” star, who claims he had heard the comment before, says he “started to sob” and covered his face with his hands. The doctor reentered the room, and Kate declared she was leaving.
“I don’t remember saying goodbye,” Collin writes. “A nurse escorted me back to the pod. That was the first and last time my mom ever visited me in the institution.”
Collin eventually left the facility thanks to his father, Jon Gosselin, who was granted legal and physical custody of his son. The younger Gosselin has alleged in a 2025 interview that Kate sent him away because he didn’t want to continue filming TLC’s “Kate Plus 8” following his parents’ 2009 divorce.
Kate claimed in 2023 that she placed Collin in the institution “following years of outpatient treatment which proved insufficient for his needs,” and did so “for the safety of myself, his brothers and sisters, and for his own well-being.” The “Celebrity Apprentice” alum also claimed Collin “remains a very troubled young man who continues to need a lot of help.”
A source said last month that Kate, who remains estranged from Collin, is “nervous” about his memoir. “Kate doesn’t want anyone in the family to talk about their past,” the source said. “She considers any of the children who talk in the family as traitors.”
Collin also revealed in his memoir that he was discharged from the Marines because of his prior institutionalization.