KATE GOSSELIN: HOW SHE FOOLED THE WORLD - THE RISE AND FALL OF A REALITY TV QUEEN

by Robert Hoffman

  Kate Gosselin focused on what Bobbi McCaughey received and immediately asked for the same big-ticket items. Kate wanted a larger house, but didn’t initially receive one – she only got the free home makeover, which made her very angry.

  Kate asked over and over and over for college money from the time her babies were born. She was always talking about college, trying to get a university to bite and give them full scholarships. She was angry that it wasn’t donated right away like it was for Bobbi McCaughey.

  Kate mentioned and begged for a 15-seat van on her website as soon as the sextuplets were born, and in every interview she did at the time. Additionally, her last words to the media after the well-orchestrated media event that was her sextuplets’ 1st birthday party was, “And we still need a 15-seat van with lots of storage!”

  Carters donated clothing to Bobbi McCaughey’s septuplets for the first 5 years of their lives.

  Kate tried to solicit the same deal from Carters, but they turned her down. She then approached Gymboree and found success with them.

  Bobbi McCaughey’s church turned out in full force to help.

  Kate Gosselin had her father’s church mobilize and had Jon alert their own church to make sure that an army of volunteers turned out in full force to help.

  The McCaughey’s spoke at pro-life events and continue to oppose selective reduction.

  Kate Gosselin spoke at pro-life events and continues to oppose selective reduction. Kate sent out solicitations to huge numbers of church groups in the United States to hire her to come and speak.

  As written in the Time magazine article in 1997, Bobbi McCaughey, upon seeing the ultrasound with seven babies said, “The words shock and disbelief come to mind. For a good length of time, I couldn’t wrap my mind around this.”

  In Multiple Blessings in 2008, Kate Gosselin, upon seeing the ultrasound with seven babies said, “I was in a state of denial. I simply could not allow my brain to process what my eyes were telling it.”

  Kenny McCaughey said at the first news conference when his septuplets were born, “It just strikes me as a miracle.”

  In a Newsday article in 1997, Bobbi McCaughey said, “The whole notion of the miracle, after all, hinges upon the acknowledgement that the odds were extraordinarily slim for the infants’ survival in the first place.”

  Nobody mentioned a miracle regarding Kate Gosselin’s story, so she mentioned the word “miracle” herself, over and over again in her books and in her church speaking engagements.

  From Time magazine: All the McCaughey girls wear identical outfits, as do the boys.

  All the Gosselin girls wear identical outfits, as do the boys.

  Bobbi McCaughey said, “They’re my children, and I wanted them.”

  Kate Gosselin said she needed them to know how much that they were wanted, loved and know it wasn’t the plan they had (to have them). It was the plan God had for their family.

  Bobbi McCaughey said, “God gave us these kids. He wants us to raise them.”

  Kate Gosselin said, “God gave us these exact kids.”

  Bobbi McCaughey said, “Just to have the daily assurance that nothing’s going to happen today that God hasn’t already planned for me.”

  Kate Gosselin said that as a Christian she believed Psalm 139:16 which says that all of our days are fashioned for us before we’ve even lived one of them. God had already ordained exactly if, when, where and how Kate’s baby would eventually come to be… The doctor Kate believed was simply put in her path to carry out what was already her God-given destiny.

  Bobbi McCaughey’s perinatologist said, “I attribute the success of the pregnancy to God blessing Bobbi McCaughey.”

  Kate Gosselin said she feels too that God brought this our way as part of His continual blessing of and whatever God chose to give us, we would accept as a blessing.

  In fact, nearly every tenth word in Multiple Blessings is blessing.

  Bobbi McCaughey said, “We can’t do anything but trust God. So far, He has come through.”

  Regarding trusting God, Kate said that a lack of trust in God would always prevent them from receiving His best; She would continue to wait and trust God to send them the right house in His right timing; Kate, the complete planner and obsessive controller, finally absorbed the fact that she could trust God to see to all the details; Kate realized that God did not make a mistake when He gave her six instead of just one. This was the beginning of learning to trust God completely.

  In 1997, the media dubbed the McCaughey septuplets, “The Magnificent seven.”

  The media didn’t make up any cool names for Kate Gosselin’s children, so she did it herself. Kate dubbed her own children and family:

  The six

  The Gosselin six

  Sixgosselins.com (Original website)

  Ten Gosselins (Mailing labels)

  Kate Plus Nine (June 2008, when she and Jon were supposedly happily married)

  KatePlusMy8 (Email address and later her website)

  Katemomof8@ (Kate’s early email address)

  Momofeight@ (Another of Kate’s early email addresses)

  Sixymomma@ (Yet another of Kate’s email addresses)

  Kateplusmy8.com (Post-divorce and current as of December 2012 website)

  When discussing the naming of her sextuplets in her book, Kate Gosselin says that they just picked first names randomly. Bobbi McCaughey’s first-born septuplet daughter was named Alexis, and her last-born septuplet son was named Joel.

  Kate Gosselin “randomly” named her first-born sextuplet daughter Alexis and her last-born sextuplet son Joel.

  Read that part again.

  IN HER OWN WORDS

  These paraphrased excerpts from Kate’s journal are examples of how Kate expresses herself when the cameras aren’t rolling and Discovery isn’t there to tell her what to say. The exclamation points are Kate’s.

  July 2006

  Kate wrote that Betty Hayes from New Jersey called her to probe her about their specials with Discovery Health, asking for details about if and how much they were getting paid. Kate was like shocked and instantly irritated! Apparently Billy Hayes of Adv Med Prod called them again and asked them to do a special AGAIN!!! Kate said she is so mad! She then said the Betty asked her if anyone sent them gifts? Kate told her about the stroller and her surgery because she didn’t want to lie. (What????) Kate didn’t tell her about the twenty episodes or the amount they are getting because they were sworn to secrecy on that! Kate wrote that she is just so appalled at the competition that higher order multiples creates! Kate says that she’s merely trying to provide for her family and rely on the Lord to do so! Kate HATES this competition pressure that she is forced to deal with! She called her producer as soon as she hung up with Betty to let her know that she is not going to compete with the Hayes family or anyone else!

  August 2006

  Kate wrote about kindergarten testing for the twins. She quickly got to how unimpressed with the teacher she was after her first conversation with one of the twins. She said that the teacher somewhat blandly tolerated her daughter’s infamous blithering on and on and Kate didn’t like that. She accused the teacher of not being interested in what the child was saying and only being interested in what she had to say next!!!! She made fun of the teacher’s name writing, Mrs Shufflebottom (how’s that for a name?) She also said she wasn’t really reassured with a Mrs. Dolan either.

  August 2006

  Kate was very upset that they missed their connecting flight out of Detroit saying that it was the dumbest thing ever! Because nobody ever paged us!!!! Kate apparently wanted star treatment even back then. Kate was bothered because it made a longer day for her. The only saving grace was that there were shops in the airport and food, neither of which she had to pay for because it was a trip for filming!!!!

  It was a trip to film for Sam’s Club and Kate was promised an exciting gift card. Kate was angry when she found out that the card was only for $750 even though the trip was a paid f
ilming trip which included meals and shopping.

  September 2006

  The crew came to the house for filming and Kate was very annoyed with a really annoying sound guy. He was new and she didn’t like him already. Kate called her kids boring because they didn’t do anything interesting like the trained monkeys they usually behave like apparently. Jen the producer was bummed too.

  Local people are now starting to drive Kate crazy because Kate feels that they are trying to be included in her limelight while filming. Someone came up to the girls when they got off the bus and offered to have the girls wait with her. Kate wrote Oh brother! And how annoying!

  Kate ended by writing that the babies took their nap while she hung out with Jen and Scott while the annoying sound man went to the garage and did who know what!

  September 2006

  Kate and Beth and Bob Carson and all of their kids were having trouble being served at restaurants on a busy Saturday night and it was making Kate very angry. She said the people at her favorite restaurant Austins were not nice to them even though Kate begged and begged. According to Kate they threw them the Wyomissing attitude so they left. Then they went to another restaurant and had to wait a long time…like an hour! Kate and Bob and the rest of the adults were on their last nerve when they were finally seated. The kids were surprisingly good she said, despite the 7 pm dinner!!!!!!

  Apparently even back then, Kate felt that her party of about twenty people deserved to move past all of the other customers who were waiting patiently in line to eat.

  January 2007

  Kate was upset about getting another Discovery Health check in the mail today because it was left on the porch with another package flapping in the breeze! Lovely! No mention of how happy she was with the money she was being paid. Only the negative as usual.

  January 2007

  Kate says how happy she is for Jon because he’s going to spend the weekend with her brother and five other guys in a cabin. She says he didn’t ask. She gave him permission to go! She goes on to say that she hopes she and the kids are all alive and well when he gets back!

  February 2007

  Kate and Jon took the kids to the King of Prussia mall to a casting agent. Kate was instantly horrified because the office smelled of smoke and nobody acknowledged them and the woman snapped at Kate when Kate tried to talk to her daughter. Kate said they should have walked out of there and that it was a complete waste of time!

  Next they moved on to a photographer who was a pompous jerk himself. He was extremely annoying but took good pictures according to Kate.

  March 2007

  Kate talks about her visit with Doctor Phil. The first guest was shockingly an exorcist or however you spell it…Kate said he was awful and she prayed that Satan would get out. He was sitting in the exact chair that Kate would have to sit in.

  Next came a jealous girlfriend! Ugh she was so immature!, Kate wrote. It was actually pathetic!

  Kate said that the Gosselins were the breath of fresh air to the show. Everyone was clapping!

  Bla, bla, bla Doctor Phil gave them a bunch of free stuff, there were more nuts on after us Kate wrote and Kate badgered everyone who worked there and told them that Doctor Phil said she could meet Robin so they got paraded around with all the nuts who were on with them.

  April 2007

  Kate writes about Poor little Joel and how he is so in love with his daddy and wants to be loved by her. She says she does love him but hates to say that his father like cluelessness makes her crazy!

  June 2007

  According to Kate, Jon had the nerve to lie to her about buying lunch in Philadelphia that day. Kate said she knew he was lying because his eyes were as big as saucers!!! He made the mistake of putting his lunch on the credit card!!!! That was apparently the absolute end to the most horrible day in history!!!! Kate wonders why she is so unloved that Jon has to continually lie to her. She wonders if she is that stupid? Is Jon that characterless? She decides that Jon must care more about his OWN fear or whatever that lying is okay! She asks if Jon really thought that she would never EVER find out, then says just be honest weak boy!!!!! Jon is not teaching his children any life lessons this day my friends. Now because of Jon buying himself lunch (while he’s working to earn the family money while Kate stays home) they’re going to have a house full of lying kids. This makes Kate completely sick!!!!!!!

  Wow, so Kate just had the absolute most horrible day in history because Jon bought his own lunch and was so afraid to tell her about it that he lied?

  She’s not finished with this one. She now wishes that because of this, that Jon would crack the bible daily and really seek the Lord in this matter! She asks God to help Jon to become a man of integrity!!!!! Lord Please!!!!! Jon could be the perfect man if he could get these things under control and let God take control!!!!!

  These journal entries show Kate keeping a very close eye on any potential competition to her reality show future. She is reveling in the misfortunes of another:

  June 2007

  Kate mentions a Stacy Bailey from Arizona being pregnant after her frozen transfer and says they are waiting to hear how many. She says she is nervous that Bailey is trying to come up with another TV show for herself.

  July 2007

  Kate checks in to celebrate the fact that Stacy Bailey is NOT pregnant saying she has two more embryos that she needs to use but they are of bad quality supposedly. She seems very happy about this sad news for the Bailey family.

  RING MY BELL

  Here is an example of Kate’s grateful side. This was a sign posted on Kate’s front door when she was being overwhelmed with support from the community that was helping to take care of her new babies. Help that she had begged for. There’s nothing wrong with a family wanting their privacy, but there was no justification for her rudeness. A “Please” would have been in order. Kate named the actual computer file she used to make the sign “GO AWAY.doc”. And while the lowly helpers were forbidden to ring the doorbell, any delivery services bringing packages were welcome to ring away.

  Thanks for watching!

  If you are here to offer your services of any kind,

  Do Not Ring the door bell

  (this excludes package delivery services. Ex: FedEx, UPS, etc.)

  BOMBINGS OR WHATEVER

  Like the rest of the world, you would think that Kate must have been shattered, heartbroken and distraught over the events of September 11, 2001. Indeed. She displayed her caring, sensitive and empathetic nature when she entered her private thoughts about the 5th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedies into her daily journal.

  On September 11, 2006, Kate Gosselin wrote that “today is the five year remembrance of the September 11th bombings or whatever.”

  You read that correctly. Kate Gosselin callously and inexcusably (and inaccurately, I might add) described the events of our September 11, 2001, national and world tragedy in her journal as “bombings or whatever.” Aside from her stunning ignorance about the cause of the events that unfolded on that tragic day, she reveals herself to be completely devoid of any emotion about the loved ones and sense of security our nation lost.

  Some will excuse her words as nothing more than a lapse in judgment, either because they do not understand, or simply refuse to believe, that it is completely in character for Kate to not care about anyone or anything if it doesn’t benefit her personally.

  As the years passed, there were some positive signs that Kate was becoming more aware and sensitive to the despair of others. On the 10-year anniversary of 9/11, Kate’s tweeted this:

  Wish I could say GM 2day butthere’sstill so much hurt in the air-it’s palpable! We will nvr 4get! Thx esp 2day2all who hav fought fear..&won!

  I’m watching CNN- Time tribute to 9/11 &I still can’t bear the accounts. We will NEVER forget! Survivors/ victims families u r in r hearts!

  Maybe there was a ray of hope after all that Kate had actually learned something in the 6 years since the 5th anniversary of 9/11, when
she wrote of “bombings or whatever.” Maybe she wasn’t now being phony in expressing concern for others. Maybe she was showing compassion. Then again, maybe not. At this point, Kate had been abandoned by the entertainment industry and was desperate for attention and even more desperate to change her negative image. Twitter was her only outlet.

  In October of 2012, Kate reverted to form. Her inability to feel or express empathy for the plight of others was on full display when she took to Twitter to immortalize her thoughts about Hurricane Sandy. That devastating “superstorm” was responsible for more than 120 deaths in the US alone, thousands of people losing their homes and/or livelihoods, millions losing power for extended periods of time, and billions of dollars in damage. Despite all that, Kate stayed sheltered in her little cocoon of ignorance and tweeted these happy things:

  Is it bad 2say that so far,we r having nothing but FUN w Sandy(or the lack of her)? HurricaneSandy

  Winding down now with some uber exciting Disney channel.. #SuperfunSandy

  Tragically, Superstorm Sandy wasn’t “Superfun” at all.

  THE GREAT COMMUNICATOR

  Kate’s communications with others tell a lot about her personality and reveal a distinct superiority complex. She is condescending and dismissive towards anyone who has nothing of value to offer her. Numerous examples of her disdain for others litter her email communications.

  Since there might be possible legal issues with reprinting actual email texts in their entirety here, I have, instead, only provided the dates of the emails, and summarized and paraphrased the email text. Where necessary, I have included parts of actual quotes. I have in no way changed the meaning or intent of the email communications.