Collin Gosselin alleges that his mother, Kate Gosselin, brutally locked him in a “small holding cell” for two years, where he was completely isolated from his siblings.
In his new memoir, “In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood,” Collin, now 22, describes his alleged horrific living conditions before being sent to a behavioral institution as a preteen.
He alleges that Kate once informed him that he was “moving” and had a contractor build a wall in the corner of their unfinished basement to create “a small holding cell.”
He claims he was only given an air mattress and a pillow, and that the room was off-limits to everyone, including the “Kate Plus Eight” film crew at the time.
Collin said he felt “trapped” in the room, which contained only books and that surveillance cameras monitored his every move.
“The cameras were connected to a device the size of a baby monitor, suspended from a cord so it could be worn around someone’s wrist,” he writes. “My mother would carry it, then give it to a nanny or helper when she left the house. It moved from person to person, a little display that meant eyes were always on me.”
He describes the room as having only one small window near the ceiling and as always being cold, with dusty and stale air. He claims he was only raised to eat after all his siblings had finished, even though he could smell their food through the basement vents.
“Once the table was cleared and the dishes piled up, after eating alone at the long table, I felt like a ghost who had missed his own life,” he writes. “After eating and doing my household chores, I was locked in the downstairs room again.”
He adds: “The door locks always made more noise than anything else. »
Collin describes hearing his seven siblings – sextuplets Alexis, Hannah, Aaden, Leah and Joel, as well as older twins Madelyn and Cara – having fun on the weekends, while he had to cruelly wait for Kate to wake up and come pick him up.
One morning he remembers that he couldn’t wait any longer and wet himself, since he couldn’t go to the bathroom because he was locked in the room.
“I stood in front of the cameras she had set up, calling out to her, then looking straight into their eyes, pleading,” he wrote. “I started crying, softly at first. Then louder. I was trying to wake her up.”
Kate, 51, has previously denied Collin’s multiple allegations against her over the years, including his claims that she “had to pray to God to stop hitting him” when he was just two years old.
“(He) has received several psychiatric diagnoses over the years. … Collin’s distorted perception of reality is one of many issues he has always struggled with,” she told People in a 2023 statement.
His statement continued: “His siblings and I were not directly involved in his life due to his unpredictable behavior and violent tendencies toward us.”
Most recently, Kate claimed in June via TikTok that she wasn’t suing Collin for defamation because she was a “public figure” and “the rules are unfortunately different.”
Kate and her ex-husband, Jon Gosselin, rose to fame on the TLC show “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” which aired from 2007 to 2017.
The exes were married from 1999 to 2009 and after a contentious divorce, Jon was awarded sole custody of Collin in 2018.
A source told Page Six last month that Kate was “nervous” about the release of Collin’s memoir.
“Kate doesn’t want anyone in the family to talk about her past,” the source said. “She considers all children who speak in the family as traitors.”
Collin also recently spoke to Page Six about his memoir, telling us he was “putting it all out there.”
“I’m an adult now, and my mother stole enough things from my life and my childhood,” he told us.
He continued: “This book will reveal a lot. … Children deserve to be protected, and that’s what you can expect from my story.”
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call or text the National Child Abuse Hotline at 800-422-4453.
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