“It was the most scared I’ve ever been in my life.” Collin Gosselin is speaking out eight years after his mom, Kate Gosselin institutionalized him in 2016.
Collin was 11 or 12 when his mom made the decision to send him away, he shared in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. “I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t know where I was going,” he recalled of that time in his life.
“I didn’t even say goodbye to my siblings,” Collin said. “I didn’t know it was goodbye.”
Back in 2016, in an interview with People, Kate told the magazine that “Collin has special needs.” At the time, Kate said that there was a “fairly fluid diagnosis of what those needs are, but he needs to learn certain strategies to help him deal with things.”
“This has been a struggle we’ve had for a very long time,” she continued, “and it’s one I’ve dealt with on my own. I’ve felt very alone in this. By the same token, it’s not something that has only impacted me or him – our entire family has been impacted.”
Kate told People that Collin was “enrolled in a program that is helping him learn the skills he needs to be the best him he can be. We miss him so much, so it’s been hard because there is a huge hole in our family without him here. But it comforts us to know he’s where he needs to be right now, and I can feel good about that.”
Now, Collin is telling Entertainment Tonight that while he was institutionalized his mom only visited him once. “It was about for 30 minutes and the entire time all she did was lecture me and told me that I destroyed our family.”
Collin added that he “believes strongly” the reason Kate decided to send him away was so that “my mother could protect her reputation” as a single mother raising eight children.
In 2018, Collin was removed from the facility by his father, Jon Gosselin. From that moment on, Collin lived with his father and his sister Hannah, while the remaining six children stayed with Kate.
In a statement released by Kate in 2023, she told People that she “never wanted to have to do this, but I feel I have been backed into a corner and left with no choice. Although it saddens me to do so, I need to speak out now.”
“My son Collin, whom I love with all my heart, has received multiple psychiatric diagnoses over the years. For the safety of myself, his brothers and sisters and for his own well-being, he was placed in a facility following years of outpatient treatment which proved insufficient for his needs.”
Kate continued, saying, “The decision to admit him was made by emergency room doctors following one of his many attacks/outbursts — this one involving his use of a weapon.”
The mom of eight went on to say that after Collin was removed from treatment by Jon, his “unpredictable and violent behavior has sadly continued regularly towards Jon, Hannah and others around him. Collin’s distorted perception of reality is one of the many issues that he has always struggled with.”
Kate concluded by saying she believes “Collin remains a very troubled young man who continues to need a lot of help. His brothers and sisters and I have not been directly involved in his life due to his history of unpredictable behavior and violent tendencies towards us.”
Around the same time Kate shared her statement, one of her oldest daughters Mady shared a statement on Instagram as well. In the statement Mady said she “never wanted to have to speak up about this in order to allow my brother the ability to live privately after the conclusion of our family’s TV show, but I’ve been overwhelmed by hate messages in the last few days and I feel I must set the record straight.”
”I do not owe my allegiance to any person(s) who has physically threatened me and every member of my immediate family (some incidents as recent as last year). Further, I will never allow someone who has exhibited hateful and even violent behavior toward others based on their racial identity, gender identity, or religious beliefs to be in my life.”
Kate applauded Mady for her honesty and bravery.
Collin denied Mady’s statement in his interview with Entertainment Tonight. “I love my siblings very very much. I would never hurt them,” he said.
“I would never trash their names in the media. But what I do believe is that my mother is behind things that they say in the media.”
Collin said if he could tell his mom one thing, it’s to “pursue the truth. I just want it to stop. I don’t want this battle anymore.”
Now Collin says what has been said about him in the media in the past is affecting his future. Collin had revealed dreams of serving his country after joining the Marines.
However, Collin says he has since been discharged towards the end of training just before he was supposed to graduate. “Paperwork was looked into and they had found out that I was in fact institutionalized at one point in my life.”
“It was the fact that I was in an institution, that’s it,” he said as for the reason he was discharged. Now, he’s appealing the decision, saying being a United States Marine is his one and only dream.
In the meantime, Collin has plans of attending Penn State University and majoring in finance. The 20-year-old is also in a serious relationship, saying they “are happy.”
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