Collin Gosselin is speaking publicly about what he alleges was abuse by his mother, former reality TV personality Kate Gosselin.
“She used to pull me and drag me across the room by my ear, which is when I went to school that one day with a swollen ear,” the former Jon & Kate Plus 8 star told Page Six in an exclusive interview. Collin was discussing his new memoir, In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood.
In the book, Collin alleges that grabbing his ear became a recurring form of punishment. He writes that when Kate was angry, “she would grab me by the ear,” adding that “a snappy pull could turn into a smack to the side of my head.”
He further claims that the same side of his face would become “purple, bruised, tender to the touch.”
Collin, now 22, said he felt singled out by Kate, 51, but also claimed he saw his siblings experience what he characterized as mistreatment while they were growing up in the public eye.
“When I was in the home, I’d witness horrible mental, emotional, and verbal abuse against my siblings, not just myself, of what I can imagine was their emotions and reactions to being on TV as well,” he told Page Six.
“I voiced it the most, but I know that does not mean that my other siblings did not feel it as well,” Collin continued. He said he and his siblings had ordinary childhood tantrums, but claimed he believed their reactions were affected by appearing on camera.
Collin alleged that Kate responded by manipulating the children, dismissing their emotions and making them feel responsible for what had happened.
He also writes in the memoir, “She spanked all of us frequently. And she did it hard.”
A representative for Kate did not respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
Kate previously addressed abuse allegations from her son in a statement released in September 2024.
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“My son Collin, whom I love with all my heart, has received multiple psychiatric diagnoses over the years. For the safety of myself, his brothers and sisters and for his own well-being, he was placed in a facility following years of outpatient treatment which proved insufficient for his needs,” she wrote.
Kate was referring to the decision to place Collin in a behavioral health institution at age 11 in 2016, following alleged behavioral problems.
She said emergency room doctors recommended the admission after what she described as one of his repeated attacks or outbursts, including an incident involving a weapon. “Fast forward to the present day, and following Jon’s removal of Collin from treatment, my son’s unpredictable and violent behaviors have sadly continued regularly towards Jon, Hannah and others around him,” Kate wrote.
Kate also claimed that Collin has long struggled with a “distorted perception of reality.” She added that families dealing with mental health challenges know that “complete fabrications occur,” calling the situation another painful part of their ongoing struggle.
She concluded, in part, that Collin remained “a very troubled young man who continues to need a lot of help.” Kate said she and his siblings were no longer directly involved in his life because of what she described as his history of unpredictable and violent behavior toward them.
Collin was one of the sextuplets featured on TLC’s Jon & Kate Plus 8, alongside Aaden, Joel, Alexis, Hannah and Leah. Kate and her former husband, Jon Gosselin, 49, also have older twin daughters, Mady and Cara, 25.
Kate and Jon married in an intimate ceremony in June 1999. Kate filed for divorce a decade later, in June 2009, and the divorce was finalized in December of that year.
Collin has been estranged from Kate since 2016, when she sent him to the behavioral health institution.
Since then, Collin has rejected his mother’s account of events. He claims Kate abused him and had him institutionalized because he did not want to continue taking part in the family’s reality television shows.
Jon ultimately obtained legal and physical custody of Collin in 2018 after getting him out of the facility.
Jon also obtained custody of Hannah after she left Kate’s home, while the remaining sextuplets continued living with their mother along with Mady and Cara.
Collin, who stars in Season 5 of Fox’s reality competition “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test,” details more about his childhood and his estranged family relationships in “In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood,” released Tuesday.