Jon & Kate Plus 8 successfully turned a small-town Pennsylvania family into overnight reality TV sensations. And it would appear that the Gosselin family’s rollercoaster life didn’t end once the cameras stopped rolling!
Jon & Kate Plus 8 followed the lives of parents Jon and Kate, their twins Mady and Cara, and sextuplets Aaden, Alexis, Collin, Hannah, Leah and Joel. Between the heartwarming hectic diaper days, both the show and the family quickly spawned a lot of drama that was watched by millions around the world. The show wrapped up by 2017, but what happened to the Gosselin family over the last seven years?
Kate Gosselin: Life after TV stardom
A huge development during the run of Jon & Kate Plus 8 was Kate and Jon’s divorce, which nearly crippled the show’s fifth season. The divorce occurred not long after rumors of Jon having an affair began to circulate. The two eventually cited “personality differences” as the reason behind their split. Kate would go on to carry the show, renamed Kate Plus 8, in 2015, until its eventual end in 2017.
Kate is estranged from her son Collin, whom she reportedly had institutionalized in 2016, before he was discharged and left to live with ex-husband Jon Gosselin. Another of the sextuplets, Hannah, would also leave to stay with Jon and Colin, although she would remain in contact with Kate.
In 2021, she sold the family’s seven-bedroom in Wernersville, Pennsylvania and moved to Troutman, North Carolina. Kate, who was a nurse before her TV stardom, eventually went back to get her multistate nursing license in 2021. She also appeared in the first season of Fox TV’s Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, before being forced to withdraw after she suffered a neck injury, just 30 minutes into the first episode, after jumping out of a helicopter.
Jon Gosselin: From TV dad to DJ dad
Perhaps the most interesting news about Jon Gosselin was his career change after leaving the show. Jon, who was an IT professional before the show began airing, became a professional DJ after dropping out. While this new lease on life after divorce seems to have been a good thing for Jon, it would also cost him his relationship with his family.
In August 2023, Jon Gosselin revealed he had not been in contact with his ex-wife Kate since 2018. Kate, who also got legal custody of all 8 children after the divorce would sue him for back child support payments in 2023. However, she lost the case.
Jon is also estranged from his twins, Mady and Cara, and four of the sextuplets; Aaden, Alexis, Leah and Joel. Unlike Kate, Jon Gosselin would go on to publicly disclose his romantic relationships after the divorce, and is currently in a relationship with Stephanie Lebo.
The Gosselin children
The twins, Mady and Cara who are now 24, graduated Syracuse and Fordham Universities respectively in 2023, and continue to live in New York. The same year as the twins’ graduation, all of the Gosselin sextuplets graduated High School not long after their 19th birthdays.
As of 2024, Aaden, Alexis, Leah and Joel have been admitted to North Carolina University, with Hannah at the University of Miami. Collin would attempt to join the Marines, but this proved impossible due to his time in institutionalized care. He was discharged in 2023.