As soon as Jon finally stood up to Kate and refused to participate in taking money from well-meaning people at church speaking engagements, the marriage was over. The moment he wanted the filming to stop, Kate no longer had a need for him. She came to view him as an enemy who threatened to destroy the rich dream world she had so carefully built.
THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT
Back in late 2007 to mid 2008, Jon went to Kate and said he wouldn’t be going along on any more speaking engagements at churches or conferences because he just couldn’t do it anymore. His conscience was eating at him (believe it or not). That’s when Kate told him that their marriage was over and that she wanted to live separate lives, except for filming the show. Kate gave Jon carte blanche to see other women and do whatever he wanted, as long as he was present and on time for filming. She told Jon that he could date whomever he wanted and do whatever he wanted on non-filming days, as long as he was in front of those cameras when the crew came to town. She used the words “open marriage” to Jon.
Kate’s brother and sister-in-law spoke about this arrangement and a “marriage contract” during interviews, but they were ridiculed and criticized as trying to cash in on Kate’s fame. I have never spoken to either of them, but here is what they said in their interviews.
“All we know is what Jon told us, that Kate came to him with a contract saying he could have girlfriends and that he can do his own thing. In exchange, Jon needs to show up for filming. But otherwise he has the freedom, certain days, to do whatever he wants.”
The actual “marriage contract” is a document that I would obviously love to get my hands on, but as of now, I haven’t seen it, so I can’t say for certain if it even exists at all. Jon told me about it as well, and described it to me, but again, I haven’t seen it. I’ll keep looking.
Kate wanted to continue to deceive the world by pretending that they were still one big happy family. Jon didn’t want that, and he begged Kate to go to marriage counseling, but in true Kate fashion, she told Jon that she didn’t want or need counseling of any kind. Jon told me on countless occasions that every time he suggested counseling to Kate, she told him “no.” She said, “If something is wrong with you, you should go and fix it.” Jon did go to counseling and therapy to try to “fix” himself. He spent a small fortune on it. I can prove this because I have copies of the invoices from the counseling sessions.
The marriage of Jon and Kate was over well before they ever moved into their new $1.3 million dollar house on Heffner Road. The house appealed to them because of the apartment above the garage. Jon’s apartment. Jon never even got to sleep in the master bedroom.
It is impossible to know how long this scheme to deceive the viewers would have continued had it not been for the US Weekly cover of Jon and Deanna Hummel. Kate and Discovery were prepared to ride this wave of lies all the way to the bank for as long as they possibly could.
DISCOVERY BACKED KATE FROM DAY ONE
There were 34 different T-shirt ideas designed to promote Jon & Kate Plus Ei8ht. One pictured Kate’s glowing, smiling face with the tagline “Kate Is My Role Model”.
That slogan sounds about right coming from the company that brought us such heart-warming characters as Lori, who sleeps with her blow dryer; Kesha, who eats toilet paper; Rhonda, the thumb sucker; Crystal, who eats household cleanser; Tempesst, who eats detergent and soap; Haley, who pulls out her own hair and eats the follicles; Lauren, who runs around wearing a fur rabbit suit; Davecat, who has a silicon wife; Rachel, the compulsive scab picker; Nathaniel, who has sex with his car; and my favorite, Adele, who eats couch cushions.
TLC: The Learning Channel. TLC: the network that brought us toddlers wearing Madonna-like cone bras, polygamists, midgets, circus freaks, hoarders, and yes – Kate Gosselin.
So out of 34 T-shirt designs, you would think that, if there were several for Kate alone, there would be at least one shirt devoted solely to Jon. This would not be the case, of course, if Discovery knew from the beginning that Kate was their girl and Jon was just a fringe necessity.
The first sign that Discovery was hooking their wagon to Kate dates back to the very first Discovery contract signed by Jon and Kate for the first season of Jon & Kate Plus Ei8ht. It’s an early “red line” version of the contract; the one where they make changes. Kate has always been in control of the family “business,” and she was the negotiator for the family during this first contract signing.
Clause 3 dealing with “Compensation” on the rough draft says that all compensation payable to the Gosselin family for their services shall be made payable to Jon and Kate Gosselin.
It is very interesting and telling that Jon’s name was scratched out on the compensation part of the contract, leaving Kate to control the family fortune. Was this just a minor detail, or was it something that foretold things to come between Kate Gosselin and Discovery Talent Services, LLC?
Clause 8, Representations and Warranties; Indemnity, of Exhibit A, STANDARD TERMS AND CONDITIONS, of the contract, read “Company hereby agrees to at all times defend and indemnify Family from any and all claims, damages, or other liabilities …” It would have been more accurate if the name “Kate Gosselin” rather than “Family” had been inserted there instead.
In 2009, once Kate and Discovery decided Jon was a “liability,” they went into a full-court press to “defend and indemnify” Kate from Jon’s claims, as well as those from the media and viewing public.
Jon wanted the show to stop to save his children, or for whatever other reason he may have had in his head at the time. It was well within his right as a parent to stop the filming; that had been agreed upon from the very beginning. Even Kate confirmed this many times. She said, “If either parent wants the filming to stop, then the filming would stop. Period.”
Still, Jon went along with Kate’s plan for awhile, as he had done so many times before. He laid low for a few months, but he couldn’t deal with the kids filming anymore. That’s when it hit him. “It’s right there in the contract,” he thought, under the heading “Termination.” Jon would get the show stopped indirectly, by his actions. The Termination clause of the contract included wording that said that Discovery could terminate his contract for making disparaging remarks about the program, insubordination, dishonesty, intoxication or failure to perform services or for failure to conduct himself with due regard to social conventions or public morals or decency, or for actions that bring family into public disrepute, contempt, scandal or ridicule.
Reading that one clause, it would appear that Jon had clearly violated the terms of the Agreement. Jon had made disparaging remarks about the Program, Company and/or Producer. He was insubordinate in that he didn’t show up to film his interviews when he was scheduled to do so. He was at times dishonest and intoxicated. He didn’t always conduct himself with “due regard to social conventions or public morals or decency” (whatever that even means).
It would appear that Jon did everything he could to get this show stopped long before he tweeted the following in October 2010 about the show doing harm to his children:
“Due to the overwhelming amount of questions, statements, false statements in the media, I would like to clarify a few things.
“First and foremost, for people who did not watch Jon & Kate Plus Ei8ht, I stated years ago, and on television, that I no longer wanted to film and wanted my privacy back. This is not a decision I made lightly or without weighing all the factors involved.
“The negative effects on my family was my greatest concern and far outweigh any monetary gain we received. Today, my children are much older than when we first started. They are acutely aware their life is markedly different from their peers.
“They are six, and ten, and have to deal with paparazzi! They can’t visit a public place without a crowd gathering or people snapping pictures with cell phones.
“Whether the children want to film or not is completely irrelevant.
“Children rely on the guidance of the adult
s to ensure their best interest. Left to their own most children would not eat properly, visit the dentist, or complete homework. Do you think a child would choose a day on the beach instead of school?
“Is this the best thing for them? Is it the child’s decision to make? Of course not.
“I am acutely aware of the mistakes I made in 2009 and I am ashamed of the choices I made. I have apologized to Kate, my family, and to my friends. Through counseling I have learned to own my actions. My goal is to move forward in a positive direction.
“Lastly, my children have experienced a lot of life changes in a short period of time; new home, new school, parents divorced, increased media attention, and much more.
“Obviously it would be inaccurate and short-sighted to declare that all of their current struggles are attributed to one factor. These multiple changes are exactly why I feel they need privacy, stability, and security.
“Filming and displaying their private lives at this time is not in their best interest.”
Given that Jon had so clearly violated many of the conditions in the Termination clause, why didn’t Discovery terminate the contract, or at least let Jon and the kids walk away? Knowing what they knew about what was going on behind the scenes with the Gosselin family, why did Discovery continue to keep them under contract and film them like they were a normal, happy, albeit dysfunctional, family? Why did they continue this very public lie and take them to Hawaii, to film, of all things, a renewal of their marriage vows when they knew that Jon and Kate were quietly at war behind the scenes about keeping their marriage and the show going? Why did they continue filming if they knew it was all a big lie?
So many questions. And the answer to each one of them is easy. Money. Discovery and TLC were making millions and millions of dollars off of this family and this show, and there was nothing in the world that was going to stop them from continuing to do so; certainly not Jon Gosselin.
After all, Kate was their girl, and she was ready and willing to allow them to continue to film the kids as much as they wanted. So Discovery formulated a plan to spin and lie and manipulate audience perception through the editing of the show. They gave Kate her scripts of talking points to steer the story through the media in the direction that they (Discovery) wanted, to keep things moving in the direction that they wanted, and to keep the money pouring in. They fed stories to the media to damage Jon and to make Kate look like an innocent victim, all the while knowing that they were lying.
The final episode of Jon & Kate Plus Ei8ht was so blatantly edited to show Jon in a bad light, while making Kate look like the loving, innocent victim of Jon’s bad behavior, that it would have been laughable had it not been so sad and damaging for Jon. When I watched it for the first time – after being involved with this story and having firsthand knowledge of what was really going on – I saw that it was clearly intended to make it look like “Jon is mean to the twins and Kate is soft and gentle.”
TLC has hours and hours of footage of Kate behaving the exact same way as Jon did in that episode; far worse, they have footage of her being cruel to the children. But they chose to bury Jon for his defiant behavior and canonize Kate because they knew that Kate alone wanted the show to go on, and the filming to continue – without Jon, and they wanted to milk that for all it was worth. They needed the public to support Kate and follow her to TLC’s next show, Kate Plus Ei8ht, so that the money would keep flowing.
Discovery wasn’t about to give up on their biggest cash cow, Kate Gosselin, so once it was clear that filming Jon & Kate Plus Ei8ht with Jon was no longer an option, they hunkered down, regrouped and hatched the plan to make Jon the bad guy and to make Kate look like the scared, hurt little victim, wondering how she was going to take care of her children all by herself … all alone, with no money.
In their quest to paint Kate as a sympathetic figure, the biggest lie of all in the divorce proceedings was still to come.
THE SPIN
Discovery controlled EVERY aspect of Jon and Kate Gosselin’s divorce “storyline.” After Jon exposed the lies of their “happy marriage” by being seen out and about with women other than his loving wife, Discovery went into full damage control mode. If they weren’t already completely behind Kate as their bread-winning star, they sure were at this point.
On May 4, 2009, Jennifer E. Williams, Director of Talent Relations Business and Legal Affairs for Discovery, sent Julie May a certified letter regarding their “outrage” at Jon’s behavior. She copied Eileen O’Neill, President and General Manager of TLC; Edward Sabin, COO of TLC; and Laurie Goldberg, Senior Vice President, Communications of TLC.
Discovery decided what Kate was going to say regarding the divorce, and everything else, and when she was going to say it. Their first order of business was to convince the world that Jon was having affairs and stealing money, and that Kate had no choice but to file for divorce from him, “to protect her children.” They did this even though they knew that Jon and Kate were no longer happily married, and hadn’t been for some time.
The next step was for Discovery to exploit this tragic family situation to garner huge ratings and, thus, profit for themselves. Discovery wanted Jon and Kate to sit down in front of a television camera and answer painful questions about their most private troubles, for the entire world to see. Surely, any couple who is hostile to one another and about to go into a huge public divorce would want to do that first, right? Kate was completely on board with the idea, of course, but Jon wanted nothing to do with it.
It didn’t matter what Jon did or did not want. On June 14, 2009, Julie May sent an email listing Discovery’s 20 possible interview questions for Jon. That same evening, Jon informed his attorney that he told Julie he wasn’t going to answer any of the questions. He said, “The network is glorifying my divorce!!!”
These are some of the interview questions Discovery wanted Jon and Kate to answer:
How did you tell the kids?
How are they doing?
How will this change your day to day with the kids?
Where will the kids live?
Will you move from the house that you just bought?
Where are you living?
Have you already been separate? Was it earlier than reported in the press?
You renewed your vows in Hawaii. Was that real?
Did you consider marriage counseling or therapy?
Will your series continue and how?
Will you be stronger and happier apart than together?
What are your arrangements moving forward?
Will you be stronger and happier apart?
What would you have changed looking back?
Do you blame anyone?
Is there anything you would like to discuss or clear the air about?
For any normal person, the idea of sitting down in front of millions of people and answering these very personal questions would be humiliating. Jon wanted nothing to do with it, but that didn’t really matter to Discovery because Jon was under contract to do everything they asked him to do.
Even their manager, Julie May, thought it would be a bad idea to film Jon or Kate answering questions about their divorce so soon, but Discovery was determined that they would do just that. Julie May wrote to Jon that she had made it “VERY” clear that she didn’t think he and Kate were ready to sit down and do an interview together. She added, “but they are indicating that they would still like you to do so.”
If you were a fan of the show, or just an interested observer at that time, you already know that Discovery won that battle. Jon and Kate did, in fact, sit down together to answer questions on camera. And that episode of Jon & Kate Plus Ei8ht became their highest rated ever. Approximately 10 million viewers tuned in to see the Gosselin divorce disaster unfold.
When it came time for the actual filing of the divorce, Discovery really began manipulating the situation behind the scenes, in favor of Kate over Jon. This was war, and the party with the biggest guns (lawyers) was going to win i
n a landslide. Kate had the full muscle of Discovery’s legal department and Public Relations team standing behind her, and Jon, well, he didn’t. He never stood a chance.
As the following series of emails demonstrates, Discovery’s lawyers changed the rules of the game, on the fly, leaving Jon’s lawyer shaking his head and feeling foolish. It’s no wonder he got out.
Jon’s attorney, Charlie Meyer, sent an email to one of Kate’s attorneys, Cheryl Young, to let her know he had drafted a rough statement that would need to be released at the same time as the filing of the divorce complaint. He said if Kate approved of the statement, there might still have to be some minor tweaks. He then told Cheryl that they wanted the statement released by TLC. Charlie actually thought he would be dictating something regarding this divorce process to Discovery. Sorry, Charlie. This is Charlie’s rough draft of the statement:
“Jon and Kate have mutually decided to move forward with their lives.
In Pennsylvania, one of the parties has to be the one to file for divorce and it was decided that Jon would do so.
The allegations in the divorce complaint filed by Jon merely are a formality, and Kate has or shortly will be filing an answer admitting those allegations.
The parties will continue to do everything they can to be good parents to the children, to put the children's well-being above everything else, and to support the other party as the parent to their children.”
Charlie also sent Julie May this same statement he had prepared for the media regarding the divorce, changing the word “allegations” to “statements”, and asked her to let him know what she thought of it. At this point, Jon and Kate had mutually decided that Jon would be the one to actually file for divorce, because it is a requirement in Pennsylvania that one of the parties has to be the one to file.
KATE GOSSELIN: HOW SHE FOOLED THE WORLD - THE RISE AND FALL OF A REALITY TV QUEEN Page 21
