Ashley H. said she saw Kate Gosselin abuse Collin Gosselin and reported it after working for the family for six months. The former house cleaner and part-time nanny told PEOPLE she wanted to validate Collin's experiences.
She said she was in her 20s in 2013, studying for a master's degree in social work, when she watched TLC's Kate Plus 8 and found an online posting for a nannying job for Kate Gosselin and her eight children. Ashley H. said her class schedule did not fit the nanny role, so she took work as a house cleaner and fill-in nanny instead.
Starbucks and Wernersville, Pa.
Ashley H. said Kate Gosselin met her at Starbucks in connection with the job and later took her to the family's home in Wernersville, Pa. She described a house with big family pictures on the wall and said the setting shaped how she saw the household from the start.
“I used to think, like, 'Oh, I can't wait to have this someday,'” Ashley H. said about seeing the family pictures. “Now, I have my nice little house, and I have my canvas pictures of my family up on my walls. But I promised my house would never look unlived-in like Kate's.”
Kate Gosselin and Collin Gosselin
Ashley H. said Kate Gosselin's home was much different from what was portrayed on TV. She said Kate Gosselin outwardly treated Collin differently and added, “She 110 percent abused Collin. It's hard to almost put into words the specific hate that she had towards Collin. You could just feel it. I saw her grab Collin many, many times.”
She also said the house came with a manual of rules for staff. Ashley H. said staff could not take pictures of the children, the family dog had to stay out of the house except for the basement, and the home had to look unlived-in at all times.
In The Shadow of Eight
Ashley H. said the children could not do anything and that there were never toys out. Her account adds a named witness to the claims surrounding Collin Gosselin and his memoir, In The Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood, while raising a direct question for readers: what response, if any, will Kate Gosselin or Collin Gosselin give to her allegations in the source?
