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Kate Gosselin's Brother Says Her Marriage is "Over"

by Amy Hatch (Subscribe to Amy Hatch's posts) May 15th 2009 11:00AM

Categories: Behaving Badly

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Kate Gosselin's brother Kevin Kreider say that his sister's marriage to husband Jon Gosselin is "over" and that their relationship is now governed by a "secret contract" in order to preserve the high ratings of their popular TLC reality show, "Jon & Kate Plus Eight."

Kate Gosselin of Jon and Kate Plus 8

    Rumors are swirling about Jon and Kate Gosselin's marriage. Is it over? Or is this just the stuff of reality TV? It's hard to know what's true, but it's even harder to look away.

    David Livingston, Getty Images

    Do you ever wonder what life would be like if you had one more child? How about two more? How about SIX more?

    Four years ago, Jon and Kate Gosselin went from being parents of two to parents of eight, and their lives have never been the same.

    Getty Images

    Today we all have a window into that life on TLC's Jon and Kate Plus 8. And of course, part of peeking into someone else's life is hypothesizing how we might do things differently or better, because it's always easy to imagine what you would do in someone else's shoes.

    What is harder to imagine is what it would really be like to walk in those other shoes -- what's it like to wake up every morning and be Kate Gosselin? ParentDish had a chance to ask her just that recently.

    TLC.Discovery.com

    In a normal week, the Gosselins have a television crew in their house about half the time, which is a lot, if you think about it. And while they will occasionally opt out of filming specific moments with their kids, the Gosselins have no editorial control over the show -- what you see is what you get, packaged by a team of folks at Discovery and TLC. But, Kate says, this is reality TV, and it accurately reflects life at the Gosselin house; nothing is pre-planned or made up. "We don't have time to memorize scripts," she jokes.

    I believe that.

    "We set out to show the truth," Kate says, "I couldn't watch it if it weren't true." What you see, in every televised moment, is precisely what is happening -- no stage directions or do-overs. This is life at the Gosselin house.

    Getty Images

    Kate Gosselin has gotten quite a bit of flak, both from the media and from viewers, for the way she treats her husband; the two are often shown bickering during the show. Kate says the criticisms don't bother her; she doesn't Google herself or make a practice of reading about herself on or off line. "Everyone has an opinion," she says, "and I'm only paying attention to my own." But she does admit that the way the show is edited affects how people see her family and her marriage. "If Jon and I have three spats over a two day period, they're going to edit it to make it look like those happened in the 22 minute period." The show is just a small slice of her family's life, after all.

    TLC.Discovery.com

    Kate is clearly focused not on what goes on outside her family but on her children. Her goal, she says, is to treat each child like an only child -- a hard thing to do when you're the mom of eight. "I hold myself to a very high standard," she says. At the same time, though, she's not trying to be perfect, or even to appear perfect to viewers of the show. She's just living her life.

    And yes, she's living it with television cameras in her house, but it's still her real life. Kate says that while the experience of being on television has changed her life, it hasn't changed who she is. She says the same about having eight children -- "It's hard to live through what we have lived through and not change. We are the same -- it's how people treat us" that is different.

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    One of the hardest things about her family, Kate says, is the noise; there are days when the older girls, Cara and Mady, come home from school and their reports about what they have done are drowned out by the noise of the sextuplets. More than anything, she says, she longs for peace and quiet -- otherwise, she would not change a thing about her life.

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    Kate finds the humor in her life -- recently, she partnered with P&G to help promote some of their brands, including Bounty paper towels, which she refers to as "my weapon of choice." She also laughs about the end of nap time at the Gosselin house; the sextuplets are four now and no one, Kate says, naps any more. But it's a rare night that the family gets through dinner without someone dozing off at the table. Recently, Jon said, "I think we can kiss goodbye ever having a family dinner again." A good night, Kate said, is when the kids push their plates out of the way before they fall asleep.

    You have to laugh about that, and Kate Gosselin does.

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    The Gosselins have a strong faith in God; they are often seen on the show wearing t-shirts with scripture on them and attending church. But despite the fact that the show doesn't highlight their faith, the Gosselins see it as an opportunity to share what they believe. Their website, The Gosselin 10, includes prayers and devotionals, and Jon and Kate travel around speaking to various churches and groups about their life and faith. The show, Kate says, has given them this opportunity to share what they believe.

    Amazon.com

    And for the Gosselins, being on television is about opportunity, not fame. The show has opened a variety of doors for them; Kate and Jon both work from home, which makes their life as parnents of eight more manageable. But it's not easy by any means -- there are days, Kate says, when she and Jon work until midnight.

    Kate has three pieces of advice for other parents. "Every morning, before my feet hit the floor," she says, "I pray for strength, just enough to get through that day." She reminds parents that a sense of humor can get you through nearly everything -- laugh, she says, don't cry. And finally, the most important lesson of all: "Always remember that bedtime comes, every single day."

    sixgosselins.com



Kevin Krieder, 32, tells RadarOnline.com: "Six months ago Kate came to Jon and said, 'Hey, it's over.'" He says that the couple fought so fiercely that the show's production crew had a hard time getting enough footage to patch episodes together. Krieder also reveals that some members of the crew had concerns over how the Gosselin children were treated during filming.

Krieder's wife, Jodi, adds that her sister-in-law "exploits" the couple's eight children and that they are suffering because of it. She then goes on to say that the show is nothing but a sham: "The show is not reality, and has not been for a long time. This is a train wreck."

Train wreck? How about the Hindenburg? Jon Gosselin's been spotted squiring his alleged mistress, third grade school teacher Deanna Hummell to nightclubs all over Pennsylvania, while Kate fends off accusations that she's canoodling with bodyguard Steve Neild while gallivanting around the country on publicity junkets.

Any long-time fan of the Gosselins' reality show could tell you that this was a couple on the verge of serious marital problems. Kate's controlling ways (and angry-porcupine hair-do) are part of what make "Jon & Kate" so entertaining. Watching her give Jon the business is all part of the fun, right? And Jon? He plays the victim well, but recently seemed less passive when his wife berated him for all of TV Land to see.

Look, it's easy (and fun!) to judge celebrities from afar, and they set themselves up for it. The price of fame, right? But in this case, as "Aunt Jodi" correctly points out, there are eight little kids for whom none of this is a joke. Their parents' marriage is in a very public death spiral, and their little lives are hostage to whatever happens with mom and dad.

Kate told People that she "doesn't know what she can do to stop the insanity" of the tabloid news coverage about her family. Um, hey, here's an idea -- maybe turn off the TV cameras and get to work on repairing your relationship? Kreider agrees, and urges his sister and brother-in-law to give up the trappings of fame and fortune to save their marriage. "Their family is in shambles," he says.

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