11 Things You Didn’t Know About Jon And Kate Gosselin’s Relationship
Published on November 25, 2016. Updated August 27, 2019Ever since Jon and Kate Gosselin found out they were having sextuplets, their lives changed forever. They rose to reality stardom when they were offered the chance to star on their own weekly reality series called Jon & Kate Plus 8. The show was incredibly successful and became one of TLC’s highest rated programs. It lasted for four seasons from 2007 until 2009 when the couple went their separate ways. Jon and Kate had been married for 10 years and were in the middle of raising eight children when they announced they were getting divorced. Viewers have watched the demise of their relationship over the past seven years, so much so that it’s hard to remember what it was like before it all fell apart! Here are 11 things you probably didn’t know about Jon and Kate Gosselin’s relationship!
11. How They Met
Jon and Kate met on October 5, 1997 at a company picnic. “Jon was walking across the grass and I saw him and was instantly intrigued! Our eyes met and continued to meet from across the way all afternoon. Finally, I arranged for someone to introduce us,” said Kate. She was immediately attracted to him because “he seemed very put together. And of course he was very good looking.” In Jon’s mind he knew right away that Kate was the one for him and things would be different with her. She wasn’t like any other woman he’d met before. “Everything clicked. It sort of felt together like it never felt before. This time was different,” he said.
10. Their Wedding
Their entire relationship was a total whirlwind that moved extremely fast, especially since they were so young. Kate was 24-years-old when they got married and Jon was only 22. The reality couple got hitched on June 12, 1999 in a friends backyard in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. In her book, Multiple Blessings, Kate wrote that married life was everything she’d imagined it would be and they were completely in love at the time. “Married life was all I had imagined and more. We were young, healthy and ambitious, and it wasn’t long before baby fever set in.”
9. Welcoming Twins
Jon and Kate didn’t wait long after getting married to start having kids. It was only a year later that they welcomed their twin girls, Cara and Madelyn. When they first started looking into having children, Kate found out she would be unable to conceive because she had polycystic ovary syndrome. Due to her condition, she and Jon sought out fertility treatments which lead to the birth of their twins on October 8, 2000. They were five weeks premature.
8. Sextuplets
Jon Gosselin told the Today show back in 2008 that he didn’t want to have a third child, but Kate wanted more. In 2003, they did another round of fertility treatments and found out they were carrying seven embryos! Kate refused selective reduction when the doctors recommended it because it went against her Catholic religious beliefs. When they were given the news, Jon crouched down on the floor to keep from fainting. “I [was] thinking of my twin daughters and, ‘How am I going to afford this?’ As a father, I think you want to take care of your family and do the best you can,” he said. The sextuplets were born at 30 weeks on May 10, 2004, nearly 10 weeks premature and only one embryo failed to grow out of seven.
7. Making Ends Meet
Naturally, raising eight children was financially draining. In 2005, Kate was being denied financial support from Medicaid, who she demanded pay for her expensive baby nurse. The controversial couple was making waves long before their show and nasty public divorce. Kate challenged the ruling that denied her financial aid which caused an outcry of angry letters from people all across Pennsylvania who claimed she was a “diva.” To make matters worse, Jon lost his job and the family was quickly becoming more and more misunderstood in their community. “People were saying, ‘Oh, goodness, they’re unemployed, and they have eight kids.’ There was a lot of yuck,” said Kate when she appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show with her family. “We were given six more children, but that didn’t mean we didn’t love them and want them…We had to stretch our hearts, essentially, and people didn’t understand that.”
Source: Sydney Morning Herald6. Becoming Reality Stars
In desperate need of help, the Gosselin parents agreed to let camera crews into their home when the sextuplets were only 17-months-old for an NBC reality show called Home Delivery. This lead to a one-hour special Surviving Sextuplets and Twins on the Discovery Health Channel in 2006. Jon and Kate were hoping if they did these specials that they would make a bit of money and they’d also clear up their image in the community and get a chance to explain themselves. The special did so well with viewers that Jon and Kate were offered a weekly show called Jon & Kate Plus 8 on TLC which would air the following year.
Karen Alquist/TLC5. Kate’s Demeaning Behavior to Jon
According to Bill Hayes, who was part of the production team for their Discovery Channel special, “you could see the friction [in their relationship] from the start.” Eileen O’Neill, president of TLC said the show did so well because of the dramatic dynamic between the two: “[The show] rising in interest based on the unfiltered, sometimes cantankerous relationship of this couple.” Being on the show made their relationship worse because the production team would have Jon and Kate rehash their disagreements during their weekly couch sessions. During one particular episode, Jon said, “She just, like, snaps,” and said he felt abused. There was another particular incident when Kate was cooking pancakes and Jon served them to the kids, working as a team. Kate said, “I’m the cook, he’s the waitress.” Jon simply replied, “Waiter.”
TLC4. Jon Didn’t Want to do the Show
There has been a lot of speculation about whether or not Jon was ever really into the idea of becoming famous or allowing cameras into his home. Reports in the media stated that Kate loved the limelight and welcomed stardom with open arms while Jon was a little more reserved and didn’t accept it fully which caused friction in their marriage. However, at the time, the couple made sure the public knew that they were all on board with the show, including the children. “Every time a season renewal comes up, we have a family discussion. Our kids are 80 percent of the family. If they don’t want to film, we’re not filming. We’re outnumbered,” said Jon. When their marriage fell apart, Jon was the first out of him and Kate to quit the show.
3. Renewed Their Wedding Vows
Despite seemingly troubled waters in their relationship, Jon and Kate renewed their wedding vows in August 2008. The whole family, including all the kids, traveled to Hawaii for Jon and Kate’s second wedding ceremony. Part of Jon’s vows read, “Our marriage has been a wonderful and adventurous nine years.” In a later interivew with Good Housekeeping, Kate said, “Listening to Jon’s touching vows, I was absorbed in the moment – but at the same time, trying to keep an eye on all the kids.” The ceremony aired on their show and less than a year later the couple announced they would be separating.
2. Rumors of Infidelity
In 2008 Jon quit his job as an I.T. analyst and became “Mr. Mom” while Kate traveled on book tours, building up her reality fame. It quickly became clear she was much more into fame and fortune than Jon. Prior to the official announcement of their separation, accusations of infidelity flew from both sides of the relationship. In April 2009, tabloids began targeting Jon and linking him to several women and, in May 2009, Kate was coming under fire for having an unprofessional relationship with her bodyguard while on the road. Jon went on Good Morning America that following September and said, “I speculate, but I don’t know. When they are traveling together, I felt jealous. Here I’m Mr. Mom. And then there’s some other guy traveling with my wife.”
1. The Divorce
A week before their 10th wedding anniversary, Kate was seen on a family vacation without Jon. She took the kids to the beach in North Carolina and both Jon and Kate admitted they were dealing with some tension in their marriage. Things were headed South: “I don’t know that we’re in the same place anymore. [Or] that we want the same thing,” said Kate. On June 22, 2009, an extended one-hour episode aired and Jon and Kate announced they were separating. Despite announcing it was merely a separation and not a divorce, that day the couple met with their respective attorneys to finalize plans for divorce. It was agreed that the children would stay in their Pennsylvania mansion the two of them had purchased only a year prior. Kate was granted primary custody while Jon moved out, and the children would be shuffled back and forth.
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