In the summer of 2009, millions of people around the world watched as Jon Gosselin and Kate Gosselin’s marriage publicly fell apart amidst rumors that Jon was having affairs.
“I’ve never quit anything in my life,” Kate said about ending her marriage in a 2009 TLC interview. “Our goals just very much changed… I just think somewhere along the lines his goals changed and they felt detrimental to me and the kids.”
According to Kate Gosselin: How She Fooled the World‘s Robert Hoffman, Kate’s story was very different from what really went down when the Gosselins’ marriage actually ended — in 2007.
Robert, who formed a friendship with Jon while reporting on the family for Us Weekly, said Jon told Kate he didn’t feel comfortable continuing Jon & Kate Plus Eight in late 2007.
“That’s when Kate told him that their marriage was over and that she wanted to live separate lives, except for filming the show,” Robert claimed in the newly re-published book. “Kate gave Jon carte blanche to see other women and do whatever he wanted, as long as he was present and on time for filming… She used the words ‘open marriage’ to Jon.”
In 2009, when the public charade was up, Kate’s brother and sister-in-law made the same claims about a “marriage contract” Kate issued Jon.
“Kate came to him with a contract saying he could have girlfriends and that he could do his own thing,” said Kevin and Jodi Kreider, who are estranged from Kate. “In exchange, Jon needs to show up for filming. But otherwise he has the freedom, certain days, to do whatever he wants.”
In the book, Robert said Jon wasn’t initially interested in the offer. Instead, he wanted to go to marriage counseling with Kate, but she flatly refused and supposedly told him, “If something is wrong with you, you should go and fix it.” Robert said Jon did try to do that by “spending a small fortune” on his own therapy sessions.
Despite the problems behind closed doors, Jon and Kate moved into a new $1.3 million home. Besides Robert’s claim the house was largely paid for and furnished by sponsors, he said it appealed to them because there was an apartment above the garage for Jon: “Jon never even got to sleep in the master bedroom.”
Robert explained the wheels fell off the plan only when Us Weekly exposed Jon’s relationship with a new girlfriend. From that point on, Robert claimed TLC’s parent company, Discovery, did everything possible to control the “divorce storyline.” He added they aimed to paint Kate as a sympathetic figure, because that was their best chance to keep the show running. (As it eventually did with Kate Plus Eight.) To do this, producers reportedly chose to focus on the angle that Jon was cheating on Kate and stealing the family’s money, which left her with no choice other than filing for divorce. To some extent, Jon was “forced” to go along by filming The Divorce Episode, which was the series’ highest-rated.
Robert said Kate was also given the advantage of Discovery’s heavy-hitter attorneys for the divorce proceedings while Jon was left to fend for himself.
