At one point, Shoka was even eating the plastic eggs directly out of the garbage bag being used to carry them by a stranger who was placing them around the yard for the kids. Shoka’s entire head was in the plastic bag eating the plastic Easter eggs, and Kate never once set foot outside to check on him. It’s a miracle poor Shoka is still alive.
On July 8, 2012, in her never-ending need to tweet everything, Kate gave us a hint as to her relationship with Shoka. A young fan tweeted Kate about Shoka and said, “have fun when he comes to give you his big ole good night kiss!!” Kate proudly announced this in reply:
he knows he’s not allowed to give me any kisses ever so no worries there! Lol
Sadly, Shoka is never allowed to give Kate a kiss, and yet she would have us believe that he’s the most loved dog ever and a huge part of her family. What’s even sadder is that I have never seen Kate kiss any of her children either, not in person and not in any of the thousands of family photos I found.
THE PAPARAZZI
“They’re all sort of bald and fattish, aren’t they?
They have a look.”
– Kate Gosselin
I had my first up-close and personal meeting with the Gosselin kids in the summer of 2009, on their turf, in their driveway up by the garage as they were playing outside. Here are my US Weekly notes about that first meeting:
5 pm - Jon had seen a dirt bike along the highway for sale and he asked me yesterday if I could stop by on my way home and check it out. I did and after a visit and a few phone calls, I successfully purchased it for Jon and had the guy bring it to the house. I didn’t mention Jon’s name until we got to the property and he seemed pretty happy to meet Jon and he watches the show all the time. They had a mutual friend or two in common and Jon invited him to ride sometime at the property.
Jon brought the bike over behind the white minivan that’s always sitting in front of the garage so the paparazzi couldn’t see it but he let one guy (me) photograph the purchase.
The kids were all over me up there asking excitedly “are you a paparazzi?” I told them I was a good guy, and they were just so friendly and talking to me and asking me questions. They loved the dirt bike and one of the little girls said, “Daddy always gets cool things!”
This is what I observed about the kids interacting with the paps:
Jon & Kate Gosselin PA Reporting
April 2010
Despite what Kate says to the contrary, and despite her efforts to make the kids afraid of the paparazzi, the kids love them. It’s pretty much the same people every day and Jon says that since they grew up with cameras in their faces, it’s a natural part of their lives. I play with the kids all the time and they love it. They know us as their daddy’s friends and they feel at ease around us. It’s sad that Kate scares them and yells at them to the point that when she’s with them and they see us nearby, they’re afraid to even look in our direction. Collin is such a sweet little boy and he smiled and waved to one of the paps in the parking lot at the bus stop a few weeks back and that turned into the infamous photo of Kate slapping him and covering his mouth. She’s a horrible mother.
These are some more of my notes. Reading all this now, years later, I feel like a total idiot. But at the time, I was desperately trying to be the best reporter I could be, so I could keep my job and feed my own children. Some of the stories are hilarious, though, even to me. We did manage to have some fun while working.
Jon and Kate Gosselin PA Reporting
November 2009
Got to the Gosselin house this morning at 8 am. There was a gold car sitting in the driveway (Kate’s chef preparing her meals) along with Kate’s Land Cruiser and the Sprinter van.
Kate went out at 10:05 in the Land Cruiser followed by me and the paps. She took a different route today and ended up at Performance Toyota. She pulled all the way around the back out of sight. The paps stayed away because they said they’d been thrown off the lot before. I drove to the back and as I was going around behind the building, I almost drove into Kate sitting in the car and two employees who were standing in front of her door talking to her. She quickly pointed me out and they told me to get off the lot. I went off the lot and next door to a gas station and parked in the back and climbed a hill and could watch her from the tree line. I called a pap over to take pictures as well. She was allowed to wait in a new car in the back of the lot while her car was taken inside for work/service. She unloaded a box and some other personal belongings out of the Land Cruiser and into the car. She sat in the passenger seat of a silver Toyota making calls on her cell for an hour. When her car was finished, they pulled it out and drove it over right behind the car she was in and she got out and jumped in after talking to an employee for a few minutes.
After the Toyota dealership, she drove to a different Dunkin Donuts and went through the drive thru, getting a large coffee of some kind. I couldn’t hear the order. The pap was behind her taking pictures.
From there she headed to the UPS store and like she usually does, she parked on the wrong side facing the wrong direction right underneath a sign that reads ‘No Parking Fire Lane’. Must be nice being Kate Gosselin. After five minutes inside she came out with her mail and was greeted by the pap right in her face videotaping her and asking her questions. Today’s questions were about Jon’s televised apology last night, her speeding ticket, how she spent Halloween and who she liked in the World Series. Her responses were blank stare, blank stare, blank stare and blank stare. Her usual. She has never uttered a syllable to the paps with video cameras.
After UPS she drove to her bank branch in Shillington, PA. She was inside for forty-five minutes. We waited by her car in the lot out front. While I was standing there I couldn’t help but notice some of the things she had on her front seat. She was leaving town today and I guess she doesn’t like leaving them at home. She had a box with files in it and four big binders. The labels on the binders were: LHOTP, LLC, JKIG, Inc., K8,INC., BC/BS. This is all of her personal and financial information. After coming out of the bank and getting in her car, she sat for a few minutes and got out and went inside again for another twenty minutes. I had already jumped in my car getting ready for the next phase of the chase so I didn’t see if she was going through papers etc. She stayed inside the bank for an additional twenty minutes.
After the bank she got on the highway at high speed and got off in West Reading where she stopped by the dry cleaners. She went to the drive-thru and picked up several shirt bags.
The FedEx/Kinkos store was next. She parked in a parking space this time and went inside. She took in four or five large envelopes from her box on the front seat. She got there at 1:11 pm and literally stayed inside for over an hour, coming out at 2:27 pm. We can’t go in or see what’s happening inside because she hides behind large signs that the employees move into place to block our view. I could see her making a lot of copies and filling out FedEx mailing labels.
Four high school girls were at Starbucks next door and saw her go inside and were waiting for forty-five minutes for her to come out but they finally gave up. I asked what they would say to her and they just wanted to take a photo with her on their cell phones. (Wyomissing school district had a half day today.)
I was parked right next to her while she was inside and when she came out, the paps were right in her face again and she looked very annoyed but kept her composure as usual. She’s unflappable. When she got back in her car she leaned over towards the passenger side to put things back in the box and looked at me through the window. I smiled and waved and she rolled her eyes and looked away. That’s as much of a reaction as you’ll get from Kate.
She left the FedEx lot and sped back up State Hill Road toward home. The speed limit is 40 mph and she was going 55 mph approaching the blind hill at the State Hill boat launch parking lot. A pickup pulling a boat pulled out in front of her crossing her lane and she barely avoided hitting him. She swerved to the right and just got around him and kept going. I was following – not chasing. She drive
s erratically all the time. It’s going to end badly one of these days. I hope I’m not there when it happens.
On the winding country road leading to her house, she drives into the other lane going around S turns. Very dangerous.
Kate got back to the house at 2:45 pm. The gold car was gone by now. Just the Sprinter van was there. I was the only one at the house and it was dead quiet and I could hear Kate yelling when she got inside the house. From the street to the house is a football field away and I could hear her all the way down at my car. I originally thought she was just venting from spending the past four and a half hours being followed and grilled by the paps, but I later learned that she was yelling at Jon when he told her that he would be late getting home. She would now have to go pick up the kids at the bus instead of him.
I waited in my car out in front of the house. No police came by to chase me this time. Kate went out again in the Land Cruiser instead of the big blue Sprinter van at 3:30 pm. This was odd because there were no nannies there and Jon wasn’t home and the bus drop off is at 4 pm, fifteen minutes from her house. I followed her and she went back to the FedEx store of all places. I called the paps who were waiting at the bus stop and they came and took even more shots of her coming out. She was inside from 3:40 to 3:55 making more copies and she came out with something that looked like a large calendar folded over. It was on heavy paper and looked glossy but I couldn’t see what it was. Kate could be heard saying “Goodbye, thank you!” coming out of FedEx.
At this point we were all wondering who if anyone was picking up the kids because eight kids can’t fit in the Land Cruiser safely and no nannies were there.
As it turns out, Kate had to call Judy to come to the bus stop to help her with the kids. I’m not sure why she didn’t just bring the Sprinter down and do it herself but Judy was at the bus stop in her white car when we pulled in. Kate pulled in front of her and they were having a nice conversation, and then Judy went in the back of her car and pulled out a tiny little baby and brought it over to Kate who jumped out of her car and took the baby from Judy and was making goofy faces etc. at it. It was cute. I’d never seen Kate appear happy when not in front of the TLC cameras. She looked genuinely happy now. I never saw any kind of friendly interaction between Kate and Judy. I’m guessing it’s because Kate called Judy at the last minute to help her out with the kids. She only worked from 3:30 to 4:30 and then went home.
When the bus arrived, Kate went over and escorted all the kids off and they went over and waited with Judy in between the two cars. Judy put the baby in the back of her car and loaded the twins in the back of her car while Kate rounded up the sextuplets and she and Judy got them all jammed into the Land Cruiser – somehow. Kate had them all gathered up and had to scold them a bit because they weren’t standing still like she told them too. She told them that five-year-olds should be able to listen better than they were doing. Kate told the kids that “Daddy will be at home when we get there!” She talked about Jon to them with a smile on her face. That was nice to see.
Judy was on one side and Kate on the other side of the Land Cruiser and they took fifteen minutes getting them all strapped in. I’m not sure how many seats Kate’s car has back there and it didn’t seem safe to have them all back in there no matter how short the drive is.
Jon and Kate Gosselin PA Reporting
November 2009
The Gosselin family chef was at the house today preparing the meals for the week. She was there from 8 to 11:30. A few minutes after she left, Kate went to the garage and got her Land Cruiser and came flying out of the front gate trying to lose the paparazzi from the start. She went way over the speed limit along the winding country roads around her house and ran two stop signs along the way.
She bypassed her usual first stop at Dunkin Donuts and got on the highway and sped to the UPS store. She parked beneath the sign that reads No Parking Fire Lane, facing the wrong direction. I parked right behind her. It seemed like the thing to do at the time.
She came back outside to her car three separate times to get things. She even mumbled out loud “I left my brain at home today.”
While we waited outside for her to come out, various store owners and customers took the time to call us losers and told us to get lives.
When she finally came out, she sat in the car for about ten minutes reading some of her mail and talking on the phone.
Next stop was her bank branch in Shillington. Again, she sat in the car for fifteen minutes reading her mail while a pap stood right outside her window waiting to video her. She got out and the first question was “Kate, are you sad that the TLC show is almost over?” Kate had no response.
After the bank, Kate led us on a high speed chase on the highway and through town and we ended up at the Old Navy store in Wyomissing. She went inside for about fifteen minutes and bought some shirts for the girls and shirts and pants for the boys. She brought her bags out and put them in the car and then went next door to Toys R Us. I fed today’s question to Kate to the pap who was filming her. “Kate, do you think all of this could have been avoided if you’d just put a dog collar on Jon in the very beginning?” No reaction. I was hoping for a chuckle, after all, it was her comment from the TLC show tonight.
I went inside Toys R Us behind her and told the paps where she was so they could run in quickly and shoot her. She was in the boys department going up and down the isles looking for presents for the boys I overheard her say to an employee. I put myself in the next isle on her route and I was holding a GI Joe doll and browsing when she came around the corner and nearly ran into me. She rolled her eyes and turned right around and went to the next isle where the pap was waiting to take her picture. At this point I headed to the front to checkout because I could see she was about to lose it. I could hear her yelling about the pap and several employees yelled at him to get out saying “that’s not necessary.” Kate told them about me too but I was already gone. Kate was now at the register next to mine and she was watching me angrily as I pretended to be a customer. I got some early Christmas shopping done. She didn’t want us to see what she bought. She put the store circular overtop of her cart to hide her gifts. Perhaps the boys read the tabloids at school and might find out what she bought them for Christmas. She got some cars and trucks and a monster that roared and growled. It activated while she was at the register and everyone laughed, including Kate. As Kate was pushing her cart to her car, being filmed and shot by the paps, a woman who saw her said “I love you Kate” and Kate turned to her and smiled. It should be noted that at all the stores she visited today, she made it a point to walk her shopping cart back to the store rather than just leave it in the lot like a lot of people do, even if it meant another round of questions and pictures.
Next we went to the Target shopping center but went next door to Bed Bath & Beyond instead. I had a 20% off coupon that I offered to her but she must not have seen or heard me and kept walking inside. I have a terrible invisibility complex after spending hours with Kate everyday. I went inside and watched her browsing the dinnerware section. Either she’s gearing up for a fancy party or she’s buying gifts. She spent $200 on a fancy china table setting and cloth napkins and tablecloth. She saw me watching her but didn’t seem to mind as I wasn’t taking her picture and I had a comforter in my hand holding my store coupon. She knew she didn’t have a chance of having me removed. As it turned out, Kate had her own BB&B 20% off coupon that she used on her purchase. She’s a thrifty shopper.
It was now almost 3 pm and she had to get back to the house to get the van to pickup the kids. We raced out of the shopping center and headed toward her house, when she made a very dangerous U Turn across four lanes and headed in the opposite direction. Three miles of aggressive driving later and we were at the Dunkin Donuts drive thru getting coffee. I waited for her at the exit and followed her the rest of the way back to the house. She unloaded all of the bags and took everything inside, then got the Sprinter van and headed to the bus stop to pick up the kids.
I had tipped off a pap to something she did last Monday when I followed her back from the bus stop. She thought she was alone as I came circling back by the house and she was stopped at the gate with the back doors to the big van open and she was struggling to lift these two giant trash cans into the back of the van while the kids were inside, saving her a long walk down and back up the driveway.
Today a pap was hiding across the street in the bushes, out of sight, when she got to the house. I stayed well behind to let him get his shots. Kate did the same thing and stopped to load up the cans. He told me that he scared her when he started shooting. He did video as well. I haven’t seen the shots online yet but if it’s what I saw last week, it will be great for your ‘Stars, they’re just like us’ page.
Jon and Kate Gosselin PA Reporting
November 2009
After FedEx, it was on the highway for a chase to pick up her mail at the UPS store. Kate is so predictable that I can drive ahead of her and meet her at her destination. She really is a creature of habit as Jon once told me. She was parked illegally again, right under the sign that read ‘No Parking Fire Lane.’ Pap firing away with the questions as she walked to the car.
Some of the favorite questions of the day:
“Kate, did you ever consider trying yoga like Jon to smooth yourself out a little bit?”
Kate’s response – Vacant stare.
“Kate, can you comment on why you never make a comment on my videos?”
Kate’s response – Vacant stare.
Jon and Kate Gosselin PA Reporting
April 2010
All the pap agencies got word somehow that both Jon and Kate would be together at the house today because there were as many here as during the summer at the height of the story. They didn’t get the shot they were hoping for though because Kate left the house early, at 8:45 am to go run errands, leaving Jon alone with the kids. No nannies. In fairness to Kate, it is Jon’s custody day so she didn’t need to be there.
KATE GOSSELIN: HOW SHE FOOLED THE WORLD - THE RISE AND FALL OF A REALITY TV QUEEN Page 49
