I can't even imagine having two kids, let alone eight. Jon and Kate Gosselin certainly had their hands full when they welcomed sextuplets just three years after having twins!
But despite having their own TV show, things seems to go to hell in a handbasket for the couple pretty quickly. The Gosselins announced they were separating on a 2009 episode of Jon & Kate Plus 8. There was a lot of speculation as to what led to the split, with each party blaming the other.
"I really would have thought [Jon would] have been here for the long haul," Kate said in a 2016 interview. "The weirdest thing is that overnight he became a different person. People closest to me thought I was crazy and making it up. When they saw it for themselves, they were like, 'Whoa.' They saw the proof."
Jon, on the other hand, said his marriage was more like a business transaction than an actual marriage.
The biggest misconception is the reason for the divorce is that I cheated on my wife, but I didn't. [It was] "very non-affectionate" and "just kind of like 10 years of a business transaction.I always felt like I did Kate's task list. 'Here's the Post-it note. This is what you have to do. This is how you're a good husband. This is how you're going to behave.' [I thought], 'OK ... I'm going to complete these tasks, and she'll love me because I do these things.'
Jan. 16 was when I did all my stuff. I went out to a bar and stayed out till 4:00 in the morning. When I came home that morning, she said nothing. So I did it the next night.
And by the time of that next night, Jon had realized his relationship with Kate was ending. "I knew [the marriage] was over [on] Jan. 17, 2009. That was the definitive day. I just knew.
What followed was, and still is, constant bickering between the former couple, especially regarding their kids. Jon has been vocal about Kate not allowing him to see his kids on a regular schedule, and even revealed that his ex-wife sent his son Collin away without consulting him...but more on that later. First, let's focus on Kate's issues with Hannah and Jon being close.
Kate vs. Hannah vs. Jon
"I haven't seen all of my kids together in about three years," he told Steve Harvey in a 2016 interview. "I only get what I get. Whoever comes down the driveway, that's who I get."
Kate even went so far as to call the police on Jon after he picked Hannah, one of the sextuplets, up from a dentist appointment. She claimed Jon had "kidnapped" Hannah, and even went so far as to say that Jon "is a drug dealer, who uses his disc jockey employment as a front to sell narcotics."
The most offensive accusation, however, was when Kate told the police that she "detects suspicious behavior between Jonathan and their 10-year-old daughter [Hannah]." This was out of the blue, and seemingly without evidence.
"Jon had no idea at the time that she accused him of having an inappropriate relationship with Hannah," an insider said at the time. "He was upset when he found out."
Three years later, police in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania were called to respond to a "verbal domestic dispute over child custody involving one minor (Female/13 years old)." It's believed this incident involved Hannah.
According to the report, the daughter was taken to an orthodontist appointment by one of her parents (it does not state who), and the argument erupted over who would be taking her home.
"The call came in at 1:10 this afternoon for a verbal domestic argument ... over the custody of one of their 13-year-old daughters," a Wyomissing Police Department spokesperson told Entertainment Tonight. "No one was arrested and the daughter did go home with the father after she expressed that was her desire to do."
That wasn't the first time Hannah had expressed disinterest in going back into Kate's care. Jon spoke about another instance where Hannah "didn't want to go home for some reason.]
She just didn't want to go home. She wasn't getting out of the car, she just had a fear, and I wasn't going to discuss it at the end [of the] driveway. So, Leah went down, Aiden went down and Joel went down [to the gate of Kate's house], and then I just texted Kate."I'm like, 'I'm taking Hannah back,' and of course she flipped out. So, I was like, 'You know where I live, here's my address again in case you forgot it. You know you can call me.'
I kept Hannah and she just explained she was really stressed out and all this stuff, so I kept her [at my house] and Kate called the cops and filed a police report against me.
But despite Kate's best efforts to keep all her kids under one roof, it appears that Hannah has made the decision to permanently live with her father.
Hannah's Choice
Last week, Kate posted a picture of six of her kids on the first day of school.
Noticeably missing from Kate's picture were Hannah and Collin. Collin has been absent from Kate's Instagram for years now, but Hannah's absence was strange. It wasn't until Jon posted on Instagram a week later that things started to make sense.
Congrats Hannah on your first day of school, proud of you. I admire your bravery starting fresh!!!I Love you very much and we have worked really hard to get here. Dedication has really paid off.
I'm so happy you integrated yourself into the community, you made friends all summer and now you will grow and graduate with them.
I'm honored to be your father!!! Love you, Dad #newbeginnings
Jon seemed to imply that Hannah was now living with him full-time, talking about how she integrated herself into the community. Hannah has appeared on Jon's Instagram account frequently over the last little while, but this is the first indication that she is most likely with him permanently.
Jon even posted a picture of Hannah and Collin together on their birthday, which was the first time Collin had been seen since Kate sent him away.
And why exactly did Kate send Collin away? I'm glad you asked...
Collin's Mysterious "Treatment"
In 2016, Kate revealed that Collin required treatment for his "special needs."
"This is a work in progress for him that we've sought many specialists help on," Kate confessed on an episode of Kate Plus 8. "There are changes coming for him. I think it will result in a change of school for him for this upcoming year and beyond that, we'll see."
That "change" was sending Collin away from the entire family.
"[There's] a fairly fluid diagnosis of what those needs are," Kate said at the time. "But he needs to learn certain strategies to help him deal with things. This has been a struggle we've had for a very long time, and it's one I've dealt with on my own. I've felt very alone in this. By the same token, it's not something that has only impacted me or him "” our entire family has been impacted."
Kate made this decision without informing Jon.
"I have an idea where he is but I don't really know where he is," Jon told ET. "[Kate] says that Collin is in a special school for special needs kids with behavioral problems." However, Jon says he's been told otherwise by law enforcement officials, but he would not clarify what that meant.
"I mean, I ask but she doesn't tell me," Jon said about Collin's current whereabouts. "She doesn't answer any of my texts."
As for what exactly Collin's "issues" are, it's not clear. Jon says he never saw any behavioral problems in Collin, but said he was always really smart and incredibly intuitive.
"I could see my kids getting annoyed with that because he's the smartest and he does this, and he does that, and he always wants it his way," he said. "He's very particular, which could be bothersome. But, he's very loving too. He was a cuddly kid as a baby."
Even though Kate has tried in the past to separate Hannah from her father, it seems as though their relationship is as strong as ever, and the young girl is getting some much-needed quality time with her dad!