Collin Gosselin, who was one of the eight child stars on the hit TV series “Jon and Kate Plus Eight,” claims that his mother “zip-tied” his arms and legs together and locked him in the basement as a youngster in a bombshell interview.
The 20-year-old made the shocking accusations against his mom Kate Gosselin in an interview with the US Sun that was published Monday.
He alleged his mother would keep in an area of the basement that was “specially-built” for his punishment, spending hours or even entire days alone in the dark while she monitored him on security cameras.
“It was like a containment room, literally,” he told the outlet. “It had a mattress on the floor and that’s how I lived.”
Collin alleged that Kate had him admitted to a mental health facility when he was 11 years old after he was diagnosed with several psychiatric conditions he says he never actually had — even sharing private medical records with The Sun as evidence.
“It was rough. I definitely went through it a lot as a kid from my mother’s end. So it was tough,” Collin told the paper.
“I just remember being isolated from my siblings and constantly taking the fall for her emotions or the tough things going on in her life,” he continued. “I just remember being a scapegoat and always taking the brute end of things.”
Collin’s siblings, however, were not subjected to the same treatment, he said.
“I was 100% treated differently [than my siblings],” he said. “I was isolated and I was taken away from them and I didn’t eat dinners with my family.”
He said he was barred from playing with his brothers and sisters and “never really had a relationship with them growing up.”
The alleged abuse escalated when he was around eight or nine years old.
Around that time, Kate allegedly started regularly locking him in the basement for “most of the day.” After a certain point, he stopped going to school.
Collin’s allegations come just weeks after TLC announced it planned to start airing old episodes of the reality show — 13 years after it was abruptly canceled.
Kate’s attorney Richard Puleo, who represented her in her last case against Jon, told the US Sun he did not believe she had done anything to “intentionally harm” Collin.
Rather “she did what she did to protect herself and her family” from what he alleged was “troubled behavior” by Collin as a child.
“If Kate did the things that Collin is accusing Kate of, she would have been investigated by the authorities and prosecuted,” he said.
His claims are supported by his father, Jon Gosselin, who won a bitter, 14-year-long custody dispute with Kate.
Jon said the alleged abuse occurred after he and Kate divorced and he moved out of their Pennsylvania home when he had no custody over his sextuplets Collin, Hannah, Alexis, Aaden, Leah and Joel as well as twins Mady and Cara.
Medical records submitted as part of the custody dispute showed that Collin reported Kate’s alleged abuse to his counselors and teachers at the time.
“My mother at many, many times, and most of the time became physically aggressive, verbally, very abusive with the things she would say,” Collin said.
“And when my mother would put me in that room multiple times, she had zip-tied my hands and feet together and bolt locked the door, turned the lights off and had cameras there just watching me,” he said.
Jon told the US Sun that he’s spoken to the people that bought the Gosselins house and they told him that the basement room where Collin suffered is still there.
“It must have been terrifying for him.”
Jon said he “never found out about her [Kate] singling out Collin, and the basement and the zip ties, until way afterwards. That kind of thing didn’t happen until after I left.”
The father recalled receiving letters from Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services’ Office of Children, Youth, and Families notifying Jon of there were nine reports of abuse but said the claims were “unfounded.”
Jon said the letters made him feel “powerless.”
“Look at those letters and look at all those ‘unfoundeds’. It’s such a f–king crock of s–t.
Collin was later admitted to the mental health facility with a bogus diagnosis, he believes.
He would stay there for 22 months, and received no formal education while there, he said.
When he was 12, he managed to send a letter to his dad that he scrawled on notepaper in crayon, begging him to come and rescue him and let him live with him.
“Dear dad, I’m not trying to trick you, but I still love you. I told mom I want to live with you and she said no. But right, she can’t choose for me. And I’m old enough now, I’m your son, not hers,” Collin read through tears.
“She was abusive to me after I left her house. And I’m sorry, I’m sorry, take this to court. …dad, you’re my savior. Please help me. And let me meet Colleen. I’m counting on you to get me out of here.”
Jon said the letter was “heartbreaking” and immediately began working to gain custody of Collin and bring him home, which he did in 2018.
Collin got himself off the medications he had been taking, graduated high school with honors and finally achieved his life-long dream of joining the US Marines.
However, last year Kate claimed in a lengthy social media post that Collin was, in fact, mentally ill and had undergone “multiple psychiatric diagnoses over the years.” One month later, Collin was dismissed from the Corps for “non-disclosure of pre-enlistment history.”
The Marines said Collin must undergo a psychiatric evaluation if he wished to re-enlist, which he did last October.
Doctors concluded that he “does not meet criteria for any of the diagnoses of concern in your evaluation request. Nor do I see evidence to indicate any other psychiatric diagnoses or behavioral disorder in his current functioning.”
