Collin Gosselin continues to speak out over his childhood as part of now-divorced Jonand Kate Gosselin’s “Plus 8.” The former child reality star, who was featured on the popular Jon & Kate Plus 8, dropped shocking new allegations against his mother in a new interview.
Now 20 years old and discharged from the U.S. Marines — which he says happened after his mother posted on social media about multiple mental health diagnoses that at one time saw him institutionalized for 22 months — Collin is pushing back. Hard.
“My mother many, many times — and most of the time — became physically aggressive, verbally very abusive with the things she would say,” Collin told The U.S. Sun in a new interview, “and obviously that carries over to the emotional side of things where a young child doesn’t know any better.”
The biggest bombshell allegation of the interview came right at the top, with Collin claiming “multiple times she had zip-tied my hands and feet together.” He further claimed she built a room in the family’s basement and would lock him in there, zip-tied in this manner.
“She would bolt-lock the door, turn the lights off and that camera’s there, just watching me,” he told The Sun. “In that room that my mother had built, oftentimes she had zip-tied my hands and feet together, and kept me locked in there for most or all of the day for multiple days.”
He said that he felt helpless and isolated during this time in his life, emphasizing, “I had nobody in my life then. I didn’t have my siblings, I didn’t have teachers at school, I didn’t have friends. I wasn’t allowed to visit my father. I had nobody to go to, not one person to talk to. I had no relationship with anybody.”
Further, he claims that his mother told him, “Nobody would believe me,” if he were to speak out about his alleged experiences.
According to Collin, when word started getting out about what might be happening in the home, child services got involved, and that’s when he suddenly found himself being sent to a mental health facility at 12 years old.
“In her desperate attempt to protect herself, she placed me in this institution with no notice,” Collin claimed. “I was one day just up and gone.”
In June 2017, Collin sent a letter written in crayon to his father, begging Jon to be his “savior” and rescue him from Fairmount Behavioral Health System in Pennsylvania, where he was staying. In particular, he remembered the reasoning behind his opening line.
“Dear Dad, I’m not trying to trick you, but I still love you,” he read from his letter during the interview.
“I remember saying that I’m not trying to trick you because I remember thinking that nobody believed me as a kid,” Collin said.. “My mom always told me nobody would believe me. I was that desperate that I had to explain to him that this wasn’t a trick.”
While he admitted being “scared” to write the letter, Collin said he’s proud that he did. It also worked, as Jon did ultimately remove him from the facility. In an interview this July, Jon said that even that experience wasn’t entirely in Collin’s control, as he was “awarded” custody by a judge.
“He didn’t really have a choice, and I think sometimes he feels slighted on that, like, he didn’t even have the opportunity to choose. But, I mean, I think everything worked out for both of them [for] the best.”
Without going into specifics, Hannah told Entertainment Tonight back in 2022 that she chose to live with Jon, with whom she’s always felt close, in part because she felt “like there was unfair treatment in my mom’s house.”
After integrating into middle school, Collin ultimately thrived, graduated, and fulfilled his dream of joining the U.S. Marines, which he had nothing but praise for.
“That brotherhood and that camaraderie and the leadership and just how my drill instructors and all the Marines on Paris Island carry themselves, it truly is amazing,” he told The Sun. “it’s breathtaking and it’s such an amazing organization. This country is lucky to have these Marines.”
Unfortunately for Collin, his dream would be short-lived. And he believes a lot of that has to do with his mother’s Instagram post about him and his troubled childhood on July 21, 2023.
In her post, which was shown during Collin’s video interview, Kate wrote, in part, “My son Collin, whom I love with all my heart, has received multiple psychiatric diagnoses over the years.” She claimed he was put in the mental health facility “for the safety of myself, his brothers and sisters and for his own well-being.”
She further emphasized that the decision was made by emergency room doctors “following one of his many attacks/ outbursts – this one involving his use of a weapon.”
She claimed Collin’s “unpredictable and violent behaviors” had continued, now directed toward his father, sister Hannah, and others around him. Citing “multiple psychiatric diagnoses over the years,” Kate wrote that “all measures that were taken in our home were at the explicit recommendation of his pediatric psychiatrist and/or his team of specialists.”
According to Collin, it was after this post that his superiors on Paris Island uncovered his past at Fairmount. In regards to the multiple diagnoses, Collin argued that as the military “couldn’t tell if they were true or not,” he was discharged “because I wasn’t able to provide sufficient evidence that these were false until I got home.”
Sharing a letter from the doctor who allegedly re-evaluated him, Collin provided a list of his initial diagnoses from Fairmount Behavioral Health that was now being re-evaluated. Those included:
While the documents acknowledge that he “on occasion will let his emotions get the best of him,” citing “one instance of pushing another recruit,” there were nevertheless “no symptoms of mental illness” present, per the evaluators.
The doctor’s conclusion in the written re-evaluation was that “Collin Gosselin does not meet criteria for any of the diagnoses of concern in your evaluation request. Nor do I see any evidence to indicate any other psychiatric diagnosis or behavioral disorder in his current functioning.”
“Due to these allegations that she posted on social media, my dream of becoming a U.S. Marine was crushed,” Collin said in the interview. “Now I have to fight and do everything I can to fulfill that dream, still.”
He further said, “it’s important for me for her to come forward with the truth, because I want nothing more than to serve my country.”
“You know, you think your mother is on your side of things, and I wish that things never went this way and I wish I didn’t have to come forward and put all this information out there,” Collin said. “But this is very important to me. I’m constantly having to defend myself. I’m constantly having to state the record.”
Citing HIPAA patient privacy laws, Fairmount Behavioral Health System did not specifically respond to Collin’s allegations about his time there, or the multiple diagnoses he received. They did, however, provide the following statement:
“While we cannot offer comment on specific patients or their care due to HIPAA patient privacy laws, I can share that at Fairmount Behavioral Health System, every day our staff strives to maintain a total therapeutic environment through individualized treatment for each patient. Comprehensive patient-oriented activities include group therapy, family therapy, allied therapy and educational services. Patient care is overseen by a multidisciplinary team led by a team of psychiatrists.”
Kate declined to comment, but her attorney Richard Puleo provided a lengthy statement responding to some of Collin’s claims, and defending Kate’s intentions.
“There’s always two sides to every story and when things take place in the past, it’s hard to determine because people have different recollections and perspectives,” he prefaced his remarks.
“However I can personally attest to this situation as I knew Kate and all eight of her children since they were small and I don’t believe Kate ever did anything intentionally to harm Collin,” he added. “I think she did whatever she did to protect her family from some of his troubled behavior as a child.”
“That’s not to say he’s got psychological impairment, I’m not a psychiatrist,” Puleo continued.
“However I think if Kate did the things Collin is accusing Kate of, she would have been investigated by the authorities and prosecuted,” Puleo noted. “Additionally I don’t think the Marine Corps saw Kate’s post and decided to throw Collin out.”
“Could Kate’s post have had some influence?” the attorney mused. “Sure, I think it may have made them delve into Collin’s history – but blaming his mother for being thrown out of the military is misplaced.”
During an appearance on VICE’s docuseries Dark Side of the 2000s last year, Collin and Hannah spoke out about their alleged experience living with their mom following their parents split.
In the doc, Collin — who has been the most outspoken sibling when it comes to his family — called out his mom for putting him in the live-in facility and accused her of treating him unfairly as a child.
Although he admitted he wasn’t a “perfect child,” he said his “misbehaving was no different” than his siblings. He said he believes that since Kate “was going through a lot of things” at the time, she unfairly took it out on him.
“I mean, a divorce and plenty of different things that can’t be easy to go through,” Collin said on the Dark Side series. “And, you know, I want to think that she needed someone to take out her anger and frustration on, and it was just kind of me. I was in the way, and I was there. So, she chose me.”
