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

by Robert Hoffman

  “You’re like a prisoner,” Kate says of her newfound fame, annoyed.

  Kate says they have hounded her “every single single single single single single single day of my life. I hate it. I hate it so much.”

  I say you can almost feel sympathy for the celebrities who lose their tempers around photographers.

  “Who says I didn’t lose it—or may not?” Kate asks archly.

  “I’m waiting for the call,” Goldberg says, laughing.

  “I’m actually there to keep the paparazzi safe,” Neild jokes.

  “Shut up,” Kate tells them sharply, frowning. “Now that’s where I draw the line.”

  ... A personal shopper, an older lady in a floral-print dress, is summoned to help Kate select toys for her brood. Kate sails along beside her, ignoring all the gawkers. The personal shopper shows her some hacky sacks: “Boys like these.” “I’ll take your word for it,” Kate sniffs, moving past them. The personal shopper shows her some action figures: “This is the hottest stuff for boys.” “I’d rather die,” says Kate. “Moving right along!”

  That article not only shined a light on Kate’s obnoxious, entitled, rude self, it revealed a very interesting, but little-known fact. The author mentioned that Laurie Goldberg expressed concerned about Kate wanting to dine at Nobu after she had wailed about being emotionally spent on the Today show. Goldberg didn’t think it would look good for Kate to be seen enjoying herself at a hot spot.

  So why was Laurie Goldberg, Executive VP of Public Relations for Discovery and TLC, even present for that interview? The fact is, while under contract with Discovery, whenever Kate went anywhere in public, to speak or to make a television appearance, she was not alone. Yes, we already know that her shadow and bodyguard, Steve Neild, was always at her side, but someone else was in the room with Kate and Steve. That someone was Laurie Goldberg, Kate’s personal public relations expert.

  We never got to see her, but Laurie Goldberg or someone like her was always there, and her influence was powerful. She was the person who told Kate what to say and how to answer questions and how to spin things. She pretty much controlled the message coming out of Kate’s mouth, and she performed that duty for years.

  KATE LOVES HER FANS

  At Thanksgiving of 2010, I was camped outside of Kate’s front gate, working, when a lovely Mennonite woman drove up with a beautifully adorned gift bag for Kate. As a reporter, I needed to know what was inside, so I asked. The nice woman reluctantly showed me the contents. I could see she was disgusted by my presence, being the “paparazzi” and all, as she called me, but she was still gracious enough to remove the gift to show me what she had brought for Kate. The woman had hand-carved and painted three beautiful rectangular blocks of wood for Kate to put on a mantel, table or shelf. Each block had a single word. “Faith”. “Family”. “Friends”.

  The woman was from Hebron, KY, but she was visiting family members in nearby Ephrata, PA, so she drove out of her way to bring the gift to Kate. She rang the buzzer on the intercom for a few minutes, but got no response. Kate was at home, and there’s a camera on the intercom box, so it’s very possible that Kate saw the woman dressed in conservative Mennonite clothing, but chose not to respond, as was her right. The woman left the bag inside the front gate for Kate to pick up the next time she came down the driveway.

  The next day, I was back at the house working, when I noticed in the trash can out front, the very same gift bag that the lady left for Kate. I picked it out of the trash and wasn’t surprised to see that the beautiful hand-carved blocks were still in the bag, along with a letter from the lady. The envelope was opened, and the letter was torn in half. This is what the letter that Kate tore in half and threw away said:

  Dear Kate –

  I made this gift not knowing who to give it to.

  Then it came to me – You!

  We all need these 3 in our life.

  Friends – during times of trouble in one’s life, this is a test of who your real/true friends are.

  Family – is next. Unfortunately, some have betrayed you. We can’t choose our family. We are born into one.

  Faith – is at the top. Our friends will leave us, our family will disappoint us but one thing for sure, God will never leave us or forsake us.

  Kate, Happy Thanksgiving. May the Lord be with you.

  Take care & God Bless!

  S.

  Kate has gladly accepted many gifts of monetary value from fans and well wishers. Some wooden blocks were obviously not worthy of her. So fans, in the future, please send Kate only things that she can really use. Cash, checks or gift cards are preferred, even if they’re only to Starbucks.

  As a postscript, I liked the blocks and the words on them, and the nice woman who had created them as a labor of love, so I brought them home and gave them to my mother. She doesn’t know the backstory, and she keeps them proudly displayed on her piano for everyone to see.

  MEDIOCRE

  In September of 2011, Kate opened her mouth once again without thinking and set off yet another firestorm of controversy. While being interviewed on the Today show, Matt Lauer asked Kate about Jon’s comments to Radar Online, in which he said that he was “very relieved” that his little ones would finally be out of the limelight since Kate Plus Ei8ht was canceled. Kate said that she holds herself to higher expectations as a provider than her ex-husband, and stated:

  “It’s a situation where Jon may be accepting of mediocre for his kids and working a regular job…I want the best for my kids and the best opportunities, not unlike every parent. I think that to be a good parent is to work as hard as you can and give them the best opportunities in life, and this has provided that.”

  So to Kate, regular people who don’t have jobs on television are simply mediocre. Yes, Kate pretty much told us all that we’re simply mediocre for going to our pathetic 9-to-5 jobs every day to give our children a good life. Apparently, in Kate’s world, you have to be on television making millions of dollars to provide a good life for your children.

  In one brief moment, without her longtime publicist, Laurie Goldberg, putting words in her mouth on a daily basis, Kate managed to upset and alienate her core audience – the working moms. As usual, she had to immediately backpedal on her ignorant comment because of the negative backlash, so she took to Twitter to “set the record straight.” The first tweet below was Kate’s response to a fan who asked her about her “mediocre” comment. She followed that first tweet with a clarification tweet moments later. It would appear that Kate was given a talking point to address her unfortunate remark, because she basically copied and pasted her response … except for changing the “and” in her first tweet to “&” in her second tweet.

  not what I meant.. – I meant this job is not a career acc 2 jon but tv is 4 me and is hard but will prov best opps 4 my kids vs nursing!

  2clarify re ‘mediocre’ – I meant this job is not a career acc 2 jon but tv is 4 me & is hard but will prov best opps 4 my kids vs nursing!

  I wonder where periodic blogging for a little-known coupon website would fall on Kate’s list of mediocre jobs.

  PAY NO ATTENTION TO THAT PREDATOR BEHIND THE COMPUTER

  In October of 2011, there was more trouble in Gosselin/TLC paradise when it was revealed that an editor named Bill Blankinship, who worked for a company called Serious Robots, which does editing work for Figure 8 Films, was arrested and charged with ten counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor (distribution of child pornography). Blankinship worked as an editor for Jon & Kate Plus 8,

  17 Kids and Counting, and Table for 12, among other projects.

  As usual, Kate was in her own little world and had no idea that anything was even going on until one of her tweeties alerted her. When informed about Blankinship, this was Kate’s response on Twitter:

  NEVER HEARD OF HIM!

  Instead of expressing shock and outrage that someone who had access to film footage of her children was charged with this terrible crime,
she acted oblivious to the gravity of the situation. But after a few days of ignoring the matter, and after hearing Jon’s statement to Star magazine expressing his concern and outrage, Kate finally thought of a response. It was a lie, of course, but it was, nonetheless, a response. It was her way of trumping Jon’s concern over the issue … that Kate knew absolutely nothing about.

  Re news issue at hand, I’m dealing w it properly. Serves 0 purpose2run2 tabs esp w/o all facts.not helpful 2 any1…other than 2 make quick $.

  Kate then followed that up with this tweet in response to the hundreds of tweets she was receiving on the subject:

  Just because you don’t see and hear what I’m doing about it, doesn’t mean I’m ignoring the issue… I’m not!

  IT’S ALL THE KIDS’ FAULT

  In January of 2012, on the Dr. Drew television show, Kate pretty much blamed her children for being the reason she can’t find another man.

  Dr. Drew: How about you, do you have a love life?

  Kate: “No, too busy, I think a lot of my friends who are being constructive, or trying, say gosh, who are you gonna meet that’s um, gonna be able to deal with eight kids and my answer is always, if they can deal with eight kids in our situation, they probably will be the person. It’ll sort of prove it.”

  Yes, Kate. Your eight wonderful children are the reason no man wants anything to do with you. It couldn’t possibly be due to the fact that you are mean and nasty and that you very publicly humiliated, emasculated, disparaged and denigrated your first husband.

  On the topic of finding a man, one of her followers sent this tweet:

  xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 My Mama always said it’s nice to have a man, but also know how to stand…on your own.. :)

  agreed! I won’t know how to act if/when I ever don’t have to stand totally on my own anymore….;)

  It’s rather amusing that Katie Irene Gosselin wrote the words, “if/when I ever don’t have to stand totally on my own anymore.” Kate Gosselin went from being taken care of by her parents…

  To being taken care of by her boyfriends and their parents…

  To being taken care of by Jon and his wealthy father…

  To being taken care of by TLC/Discovery Communications…

  To being taken care of by her manager...

  To being taken care of by her children.

  Even today, she’s still being directed and shuttled around by her road manager/bodyguard, Steve Neild, and she still has nannies and babysitters at home to take care of the kids for her, as well as people to clean her house and cook her family’s meals. She does NOTHING on her own for her kids. And she never did.

  EVERYBODY LOVES KATE

  One of Kate’s rabid, lunatic Twitter buddies tweeted that she needed some new haters because the “old ones are starting to like me. :)” Kate tweeted back:

  lol. My same challenge. Meet me in person then try to hate me... Doesn't work! Real is real. Made up/hear say doesn't match ME!

  Well, I have met Kate in person, and I have read her personal thoughts, and I have seen what only a handful of people have ever seen. So I think I can say with some authority that Kate has made it very easy for people to find her unlikeable.

  Since 2009, I have met and interviewed literally hundreds of people who have met or worked with Kate, or have known her in some capacity – not fans who only see her on television or read her tweets. I have yet to find one person to say one single nice thing about her. Not one single thing.

  Everyone who was EVER a part of Kate Gosselin’s life, except for her children who can’t leave and the few people like Steve Neild who are still getting paid to be around her, ran far away because they absolutely, positively, couldn’t stand being around her. How long will it be before her eight kids follow?

  KATE AND THE FLOTUS

  This will give you a bit of insight into just how delusional Kate Gosselin really is. Carrie Ann Inaba, one of the judges from Dancing With The Stars, nailed it perfectly when she commented that Kate has no self-awareness. It is hard to imagine anyone having less self-awareness than Kate Gosselin does.

  On June 8, 2012, someone tweeted Kate the ridiculous idea that she should team up with First Lady Michelle Obama. Kate took it a step further, of course, and implied that the idea had already been put out there and was “circulating around.”

  xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 I wish there was a way you could team up with Michelle Obama with the exercize for kids and healthy eating viewpoints

  it's circulating around... I'd love to help M Obama in her quest... It's SO my passion :) for kids, moms& families as a whole!

  Michelle Obama is a hard-working, uber-educated, classy woman who, by the way, also happens to be the First Lady of the United States of America (FLOTUS). She graduated from arguably two of the most prestigious educational institutions in the country in Princeton University and Harvard Law School. Above all else, she is an involved mother who fiercely protects her daughters’ privacy and puts their needs first.

  Kate Gosselin is a scheming narcissist who exploits her children for wealth and fame; takes advantage of kind, unsuspecting people; flits from one project to the next trying to get on TV; shows no appreciation for anything or anyone; is intolerant of those she deems unworthy; has shown herself to be ignorant of anything regarding health and nutrition; and who tells mostly lies and says “um” a lot.

  Yeah, it makes perfect sense that the idea of Kate Gosselin teaming up with Michelle Obama was being kicked around the White House. It sounds like a match made in Heaven.

  THE HOUSE SALE

  Kate sent an email to her attorney, Cheryl Young; Jon; and Jon’s attorney, Charlie Meyer, to follow up on some information about the sale of Jon and Kate’s old house that “we all received falsely from Charlie this morning.” (I’m guessing what Kate meant to say was that it was false information.) Charlie must have written something about the deal on the house falling through, so Kate wanted to set the record straight.

  Kate explained that the deal on their old house had “NOT” fallen through, and that the “perspective” buyers were still very interested, but had placed a contingency on the contract because they had to sell their house. Kate stated that after having conversations with Jon and their realtor, it was decided that they would not share any more information with their divorce attorneys about the sale or sales price of their property. In a rare instance of unity, Kate said that she and Jon were handling it together, and they both agreed that it needed to stay that way.

  Kate also said that their goal was to move forward and “solve each issue peacefully” as it came up, and that they were both confident they could do this for their kids. She wrote that this was one situation where they both agreed (sale price and current sale agreement), and they didn’t need any intervention.

  RANDOM SITUATIONS

  These are just a few extra, random examples of how Kate’s mind works.

  In the “Potty Training the Boys” episode of Season 3 of Jon & Kate Plus Ei8ht, Kate takes two of the little kids to an eye doctor she had never met before, and says to him, “I’m always in a hurry, didn’t you learn that?” The man is a doctor, but somehow, Kate thought she was so famous he should have known everything about her and her petty issues.

  During the “Dutch Wonderland” episode, after taking all of the kids to the bathroom at the park, Jon also needed to use the facilities. Instead of just waiting patiently for Jon for a few minutes, Kate disrespected him by saying, “Do you really have to go!? I just want to get going!”

  Kate Gosselin was so passionate about filming her children, and she would have done ANYTHING to keep it going, that she was prepared to pack up her family and leave her home in Pennsylvania, her friends, her extended family and everything else behind, to move to North Carolina to be closer to Figure 8 Films, the production company that did the filming of Jon & Kate Plus Ei8ht.

  Kate and Discovery put a refundable deposit of $10,000 on a nine and one-quarter acre property – through Standout Properties in Raleig
h, NC – in a development oddly enough called “Windfall” Phase VI, in Chatham County, North Carolina, which was a mere 30-minute drive from Figure 8 headquarters.

  US Weekly Reporting

  The following excerpts from my reporting for US Weekly are examples of Kate’s interactions with helpers, neighbors, and others whose duty it was to make her life easier.

  Jon and Kate Gosselin PA Reporting

  November 2009

  (Source – Robert/former helper)

  I spoke to a woman who helped Kate with the kids when the sextuplets were first born. She told me Kate was a horrible person to be around. She thought she was a celebrity even back then. She was always demanding things get done fast and would fire people for nothing – people that worked for free because they wanted to help. This woman was from the church where Kate used to go. She told me that Kate was fanatical about helpers not using the family refrigerator. One time this woman put a yogurt in there to keep it cold for her lunch and Kate found it and started screaming at her. She yelled “how dare you put your food in our refrigerator!” and she took out the yogurt and threw it in the trash in front of her. She threatened to fire her if she ever did anything like that again. The woman quit after about a month. She couldn’t take it anymore. She couldn’t understand how a person getting everything for free, including help with her kids, could be so mean-spirited.