Updated October 13, 2026, 3:49 p.m. ET
Collin Gosselin, one of the sextuplet siblings on “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” thinks his mother, Kate Gosselin, has good reason to be nervous.
Collin, described as “stubborn, but kind” in the TLC series’ credits, spent his adolescence in front of American audiences as camera crews followed him and his seven siblings through pumpkin patches, playgrounds and international vacations. The producers imagined the story of a (very) big happy family, but Collin remembers a fabricated reality, marked by allegations of verbal and physical abuse, neglect and isolation when the cameras weren’t rolling.
In Collin’s memoir, “In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood,” (available now), he says he provided new details about an attempted runaway, his basement bedroom that was locked from the outside, the time his mother Kate allegedly wrapped his arms and ankles with restraints and his time spent in the Fairmount Behavioral Health System psychiatric facility.
Although estranged from his mother, Collin still maintains a close relationship with his father Jon Gosselin, who gained legal and physical custody of him and his sister Hannah Gosselin in 2018. Although twins Madelyn and Cara Gosselin and sextuplets Alexis, Aaden, Joel and Leah Gosselin have not been outwardly supportive of him, he says he doesn’t “blame” their decision to live a private life.
“My mom told them so much about me and they didn’t see much of what happened,” Collin, 22, told USA TODAY. “They would go to school every day. I would be home. I would put up with my mother’s anger.”
Order Collin Gosselin’s memoir today
Below, Collin talks about feeling “imprisoned” in the behavioral facility, why he feels the need to take a polygraph test on Kate, and the push for surveillance of child performers.
Representatives for Fairmount Behavioral Health System did not respond to USA TODAY’s requests for comment. Representatives for Kate also did not respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment.
Question: There’s a moment in the book where you talk about how your mother would often pull your ear to discipline you. At what point did you start to think that this wasn’t discipline and that it could be something more serious?
Collin Gosselin: I have been pulled by the ear many times. I don’t think as an adult that’s something you do to a child. I think discipline and abuse…are two completely different things. I don’t think putting your hands on your child on a daily basis is what I would consider discipline. It does nothing to a child’s brain except damage it.
In the book you mention a basement bedroom that is locked from the outside. What is the longest time you have been locked up there? How did you manage that?
The weekends were really horrible because my mom would sleep in, and I would get up early and stay there until the afternoon. My brothers and sisters were running around the house. I could hear them upstairs.
All kids look forward to the weekend because they’re like, “Yeah, I can go out with my friends or I can do this or that or have fun.” » On weekends I would sit there – and I mean for hours, sometimes whole days, when she would leave for work and ask the nannies to put me there and tell them it would probably be easier if I was there while she wasn’t in the house. So I spent many, many hours during the day in this room.
You alleged that your mother, Kate Gosselin, tied your arms and legs.. How did you feel putting these allegations on the page? How are you coping with this now?
It was one of the most essential things to write and put on paper. It’s scary because it seems so unbelievable that a parent could do this to their child. This is why I wanted, on several occasions, to do a lie detector test on my mother.
What would you ask him?
Connected to a bunch of machines, I asked him: have you tied me up? Because she says no, and she won’t accept my invitation to take a lie detector test, which I would really like to do.
How long were you tied up in this room?
Time was really blurry. It was a weird moment because I was bonded by my mom and I was like, “What? This is not normal.
You say these events were the result of your attempt run away. What was going through your mind when you made this choice?I was scared because I wanted to go out and had to go straight back to the exact spot. People don’t understand how scary it is. When you leave a place where you are not safe, and you realize that you have nowhere to go, you literally turn around and have to go back to the exact place where you are not safe. It’s one of the hardest things to do.
After spending 22 months At the behavioral institution, you left it in 2016. How did you live for almost 2 years?
I see online that it says I was admitted at 12 years old. Actually, I was 11 years old. It was four days before my 12th birthday, which is insane. Every day I wondered why I was here and every day I wondered when I was leaving. I just don’t know how to explain it. It’s just crazy. When I think back, I was imprisoned as a child and I would see all these kids coming and going and I would try to make friends with them and then they would leave. Then you wonder after seeing 100 people come and go, why am I still here? What’s keeping me here?
Kate made an Instagram post in 2023 in which she alleged that you had multiple psychiatric diagnoses and that the decision to institutionalize you came after one of your outbursts involving a weapon. Can you tell us about what she meant by weapon?
My mother had hired one of her friends to come to my house throughout the week I was homeschooled to be my art teacher. And there are these hook and latch kits. It’s this little grid and you take a piece of wire and you hang it. My art teacher introduced this to me as something calming. I like to focus on things and complete projects. And that’s what my mother claimed was a weapon. If you look at a fish hook, there’s nothing sharp on it.
What is your relationship with her now. Have you had any conversations?
The last time I spoke to my mother was during a 20 minute period when she came to Fairmount (Behavioral Health System). (It was) the first time I had seen her in a little over a year and the whole time she was lecturing me and telling me that I had broken our family and that I deserved to be exactly where I was. Told me how well my siblings were doing without me. That they don’t want to see me. They don’t want to talk to me, none of that. I was in tears and that was the last time I spoke to my mother.
You talked about the lack of oversight for children growing up online. Do you draw parallels with the experience you had?
The problem is not the children who are featured on television, it is not the children who are featured on social media, it is the parents who are not protecting them. A child can have a talent and he should be able to use it and show it to the world, but he must be protected. It’s often the parents who don’t say, “You have a choice here. You don’t need to do this for several hours a day, every day.
I say it again and again, your children are not your meal ticket. Parents need to stop relying on their children to earn money to pay their bills. This is not the child’s job and I will stand on these 10 toes. It’s a shame that this has to be said.
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