14 DAY TRIAL // Much ink has been used to cover Kate Gosselin’s life in the tabloids and half of that amount probably went on describing how awful she used to be with her ex-husband Jon Gosselin. According to a new report in Radar Online, she continues to be that.
Jon and Kate were once the nucleus around which TLC built the very successful reality show Jon & Kate Plus 8, but things took a decidedly turn for the worst when they decided they wanted a divorce. Jon was later removed from the show altogether, and he’s been getting more and more vocal with his reservations on his kids being exposed to reality television, especially in recent years.
So, naturally, every time Kate lands a new TV gig or special, he does his bit, criticizing her publicly for traumatizing their 8 children together by exposing them this way in the spotlight and even occasionally threatening her with filing for custody.
TLC recently announced that, after this summer’s 2-part special with Kate and the kids, they would be coming back to the network as regulars with a new show. If everything goes according to plan and audiences welcome Kate back (i.e. the ratings are good), she might stick around for another season too.
This means fresh exposure on TV for the kids, of whom Jon long said that they’d developed behavioral problems because they grew up in front of the cameras.
Sources close to the former reality star, who now works as a waiter and lives in a cabin in the woods with no Internet connection and no cable, say that he’s considering going to court to ask for sole custody of the kids because, this way, he’d be able to shield them from all this.
The fact that Kate has been canceling his visits is only making him more bitter against her.
“He would love to take her to court and get total custody of his kids,” says the spy. “He doesn’t want them on TV and doesn’t want Kate’s influence on them. He’ll do whatever it takes.”
Jon might be willing to do that but his biggest problem is that he doesn’t have money – and he definitely doesn’t have the kind of money he’d need to win over Kate in court. No matter how many times she laments to the media that she’s barely making ends meet, Kate is still better off than Jon.
She’s counting on this, actually. “Kate knows Jon doesn’t have the finances to fight it, so she just does whatever she wants. [The kids] love spending time with Jon and wish they could see him more,” another source says.
Jon and Kate’s split was a typically Hollywood-ish one, in the sense that it was very nasty and highly mediated. Things were said both in interviews and in court that damaged their already damaged relationship beyond the point of no return. Obviously, Jon is still convinced that leaving the children with Kate was the worst idea ever.