Jon Gosselin used Jon & Kate Plus 8’s long shadow to draw a line around his son Collin Gosselin’s memoir, saying he will not let mental health be used to discredit him. On Thursday, October 15, he said Collin’s account of abuse and recovery should stand on its own.
“First and foremost, I couldn’t be more proud of my son’s heartbreaking memoir and his mission to help other victims of abuse,” Jon said in a statement to Us. He identified the book as In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood, and added that Collin has been evaluated by multiple independent psychiatrists.
Jon Gosselin’s warning
“Also, let me be very clear: If you continue to falsely label my son Collin as ‘mentally ill,’ you will be held accountable,” Jon said. He also said, “Repeating false claims about his mental health is damaging to his reputation, his credibility and his future,” then added, “Consider this fair warning: The days of using mental health to discredit and silence my son are over.”
Adriane Schwartz said Jon had stayed quiet so Collin could tell his story in his own voice. “Jon has remained quiet to give Collin the space to share his story in his own voice. He fully supports his son and is incredibly proud of him. Collin deserves to be heard and treated with respect, and Jon stands firmly beside him,” Schwartz said.
Kate Gosselin on TikTok
Kate Gosselin had already set the response in motion earlier this week with a TikTok comment that said, “I know rational logical [people] or anyone who has dealt with mental illness understands what’s going on here. I had nothing to do with it.” Jon’s statement answered that directly by rejecting the mental illness label and backing Collin’s account.
Collin said his mother stayed at the hospital for about 20 minutes and told him, “Collin, you destroyed our family.” He also said Kate Gosselin sent him to a psychiatric hospital without telling Jon Gosselin, and later said Jon removed him from the hospital in 2018 after discovering his location.
From TLC to 2018
Jon & Kate Plus 8 debuted on TLC in 2007 and ended in 2009 after five seasons, then Jon and Kate Gosselin divorced that same year. The show followed Jon Gosselin, Kate Gosselin, Mady, Cara, Hannah, Leah, Alexis, Joel and Aaden, and the custody split that followed kept the family in public view long after the series ended.
Jon’s statement pushes the public dispute beyond memoir promotion and into reputational damage, which makes the mental health framing the story’s sharpest fault line. Kate has not entered a new response in the material at hand, and her TikTok comment leaves the core issue unresolved: who she was addressing, and what exactly she meant by it.
