Jon Gosselin shared some words of encouragement for his son Colin Gosselin, who spoke out about his family in a wide-ranging new interview with Entertainment Tonight. Colin, 18, broke his silence about his experience in an institution and his difficult relationship with his mother, Gosselin’s ex-wife Kate Gosselin. Collin also revealed that he survived a car crash and shared a message with the siblings he has not seen in years.
“Proud of you,” the former Jon & Kate Plus 8 star wrote to his son on Instagram Wednesday, adding a heart emoji. The former TLC star added a screenshot from Collin’s interview. Gosselin’s post inspired many other emotional comments from his followers.
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Collin is one of eight children Gosselin and Kate share, but he only lives with his sister Hannah. He has not seen his parents’ four other sextuplets – Alexis, Aaden, Leah, and Joel – and 22-year-old twins Cara Nicole and Madelyn “Mady” Cate in years.
“I have not spoken with my siblings in probably five or six years now,” Collin told ET, adding that it was “tough.” He still holds out hope that they can come together and “just have a relationship and catch up on the things that we lost, the time that we lost” in the future. Collin said he has not reached out to them, but they also have not reached out to him.
Elsewhere in the interview, Collin spoke publicly about being institutionalized involuntarily around 2016 for the first time. He also explained why he eventually reached out to his father. “I was in a dark place mentally,” Collin said of the days he was in mental health facilities. “I think being in a place like that does more damage than it helps you.”
Following Collin’s interview, a source close to Gosselin told Us Weekly that he hopes collin and Hanna can one day “fix” their relationship with Kate. “That’s all he’s ever wanted,” the source said. Gosselin “hopes she will at least try to reach out to [Collin] following his interview,” the insider added.
Gosselin and Kate split in 2009 and Kate was initially awarded custody of all eight children. In 2016, Kate sent Collin to a behavioral health institute. A year later, Collin reached out to Gosselin, who helped him get out of the institution. In December 2018, Gosselin won full custody of Collin when Kate missed a court hearing. Hannah later chose to move in with her father and she is “a big part of my emotional support,” Collin told ET.
After Collin left the institution, he “didn’t have a relationship” with his mother, he said. However, he added that it would be “ideal” for him to rebuild a relationship with Kate. “I want to say that in life we all go through hard things. We all get knocked down, we all experience really, really difficult things,” Collin told ET. “But don’t sit around and mourn and cry about it, address the situation you’re in and fix it and come out on top of it. Because resilience is a really important thing.”
