Jon And Kate "So Sad," Expert Says
Jon and Kate Gosselin arrived separately for their sextuplets' fifth birthday party. During the party, the spouses barely spoke to each other.
Clearly, the Gosselin marriage was under a strain as the fifth season started for the TLC series, "Jon & Kate Plus 8" with a two-hour show.
No wonder. The daily challenges of a super-size family with eight kids in the house have recently been overshadowed by recurring reports that Jon and Kate have cheated on each other and that their marriage is dysfunctional. Both deny the cheating allegations.
But on Monday's premiere (along with scenes from the party), Kate and Jon addressed the media firestorm that has engulfed them from beyond the carefully-tended boundaries of their own reality show.
"Did I ever think I'd see myself on the front of the tabloids?" said Kate indignantly. "Or see those words that are there? No. It kills me!"
And Jon, who insisted he was "being innocent and hanging out" despite reports of an affair with a 23-year-old schoolteacher, said, "I never read a tabloid magazine until I was in one. And the first one I bought was the last one I bought."
"I never cheated on Kate, and that's the way it is," he said bluntly. " ... I take full blame. I just didn't think it would escalate into what it's become."
"They had very little interaction between them" on the show Monday night, Dr. Lillian Glass, a psychologist and body language expert, told Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen Tuesday. "It was very sad to see. So sad. When you looked at Jon, he was very depressed looking, and he was leaning toward -- away from where the camera was. He was just so sad. And Kate was a bit defensive. When he was around her, she didn't acknowledge him. It was just so sad to see this couple."
Glass says Jon strikes her as a "broken man." "He's so sad," she observes.
Yet, she adds, she hopes Jon and Kate go for therapy, because Glass believes their marraige can be saved.
The Gosselins, Glass says, "were a loving couple initially. They had a lot of fun. They laughed a lot. But then, with the pressure, a lot happened. And as a result, it was just so sad to see it last night, because you really see a different Jon and Kate than you've ever seen before."
"(Kate) needs the money and this is a great income," Glass notes. "So she's between a rock and a hard place. But it would be ideal if they could live a normal life. (Kate) even talked about that on the show, that she'd really like to see some normalcy away from the paparazzi. And I just hope they get some counseling, because it could work out."
As Jon and Kate reflected during the show on the scandals that have made their lives so difficult and put their marriage in peril, the Gosselins were filmed individually, each seated alone on a sofa -- in itself, a revealing touch.
"Very swiftly, we turned into two different people," Kate said at one point, as she described how she has grown apart from her husband of 10 years, "and it's just hard."
While Kate has spent a lot of time on the road, making personal appearances for the show, Jon has mostly stayed home.
"So he's angry with me that he's home and I'm not," Kate said. "Yet he doesn't really feel great about me, so he wants me to travel.
"It is so involved I almost can't put it into words," she added wearily.
Kate expressed her own share of anger.
"I think the thing that makes me the maddest is: Jon made some mistakes and he was out and whatever, and that made people question him," she said. "I'm doing what I'm SUPPOSED to be doing. I'm working and traveling" - which led to reports that she was having an affair with her bodyguard.
Declaring that she was only doing her job by traveling, she said, "I'll be darned if they're going to take me down with that. I mean, just the allegations make me furious. And I need to change the subject because I makes me very mad."
"I have a lot of anger," she summed up, "because this is not where we were supposed to be, this is not what I envisioned for us."
"You see the anger," Glass says, "when she's yelling. When she's lashing out at the kids. She used to do it a lot with Jon. And that's what maybe caused this rift between them."
Crying, Kate pointed out that, "Parents of multiples have like triple the divorce rate. And (I thought) we were gonna beat that, but I don't know if I can say that anymore."
"We always love our kids," Jon said, "and we will come together for our kids, regardless of our relationship."
Premiering two years ago, "Jon & Kate" is TLC's most-watched show, and has made the Gosselins famous. The arrival of its new season was highly anticipated and highly promoted.
"Jon and Kate face each other for the first time," an announcer teased on an ad that aired repeatedly beforehand.
And so they did, sort of, as they sat side-by-side on the sofa in the episode's final seconds.
An off-camera voice asked, "Do you guys know what the future holds?"
Both of them looked puzzled. Neither replied. Then the episode was over. The season had started with lots of suspense.
CBS/ AP Clearly, the Gosselin marriage was under a strain as the fifth season started for the TLC series, "Jon & Kate Plus 8" with a two-hour show.
No wonder. The daily challenges of a super-size family with eight kids in the house have recently been overshadowed by recurring reports that Jon and Kate have cheated on each other and that their marriage is dysfunctional. Both deny the cheating allegations.
But on Monday's premiere (along with scenes from the party), Kate and Jon addressed the media firestorm that has engulfed them from beyond the carefully-tended boundaries of their own reality show.
"Did I ever think I'd see myself on the front of the tabloids?" said Kate indignantly. "Or see those words that are there? No. It kills me!"
And Jon, who insisted he was "being innocent and hanging out" despite reports of an affair with a 23-year-old schoolteacher, said, "I never read a tabloid magazine until I was in one. And the first one I bought was the last one I bought."
"I never cheated on Kate, and that's the way it is," he said bluntly. " ... I take full blame. I just didn't think it would escalate into what it's become."
"They had very little interaction between them" on the show Monday night, Dr. Lillian Glass, a psychologist and body language expert, told Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen Tuesday. "It was very sad to see. So sad. When you looked at Jon, he was very depressed looking, and he was leaning toward -- away from where the camera was. He was just so sad. And Kate was a bit defensive. When he was around her, she didn't acknowledge him. It was just so sad to see this couple."
Glass says Jon strikes her as a "broken man." "He's so sad," she observes.
Yet, she adds, she hopes Jon and Kate go for therapy, because Glass believes their marraige can be saved.
The Gosselins, Glass says, "were a loving couple initially. They had a lot of fun. They laughed a lot. But then, with the pressure, a lot happened. And as a result, it was just so sad to see it last night, because you really see a different Jon and Kate than you've ever seen before."
"(Kate) needs the money and this is a great income," Glass notes. "So she's between a rock and a hard place. But it would be ideal if they could live a normal life. (Kate) even talked about that on the show, that she'd really like to see some normalcy away from the paparazzi. And I just hope they get some counseling, because it could work out."
As Jon and Kate reflected during the show on the scandals that have made their lives so difficult and put their marriage in peril, the Gosselins were filmed individually, each seated alone on a sofa -- in itself, a revealing touch.
"Very swiftly, we turned into two different people," Kate said at one point, as she described how she has grown apart from her husband of 10 years, "and it's just hard."
While Kate has spent a lot of time on the road, making personal appearances for the show, Jon has mostly stayed home.
"So he's angry with me that he's home and I'm not," Kate said. "Yet he doesn't really feel great about me, so he wants me to travel.
"It is so involved I almost can't put it into words," she added wearily.
Kate expressed her own share of anger.
"I think the thing that makes me the maddest is: Jon made some mistakes and he was out and whatever, and that made people question him," she said. "I'm doing what I'm SUPPOSED to be doing. I'm working and traveling" - which led to reports that she was having an affair with her bodyguard.
Declaring that she was only doing her job by traveling, she said, "I'll be darned if they're going to take me down with that. I mean, just the allegations make me furious. And I need to change the subject because I makes me very mad."
"I have a lot of anger," she summed up, "because this is not where we were supposed to be, this is not what I envisioned for us."
"You see the anger," Glass says, "when she's yelling. When she's lashing out at the kids. She used to do it a lot with Jon. And that's what maybe caused this rift between them."
Crying, Kate pointed out that, "Parents of multiples have like triple the divorce rate. And (I thought) we were gonna beat that, but I don't know if I can say that anymore."
"We always love our kids," Jon said, "and we will come together for our kids, regardless of our relationship."
Premiering two years ago, "Jon & Kate" is TLC's most-watched show, and has made the Gosselins famous. The arrival of its new season was highly anticipated and highly promoted.
"Jon and Kate face each other for the first time," an announcer teased on an ad that aired repeatedly beforehand.
And so they did, sort of, as they sat side-by-side on the sofa in the episode's final seconds.
An off-camera voice asked, "Do you guys know what the future holds?"
Both of them looked puzzled. Neither replied. Then the episode was over. The season had started with lots of suspense.
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Now I can;t say that it is all her fault that this is happenening, but I have seen from watching the show her controlling ways and unrelenting disrespect of her husband.
Maybe Jon needed to stand up to her a bit more than just staying silent. He has all the signs of a battered husband.
I would call on Dr. Phil to step in and help this family for the children's sake. If there ever is a person to fix this train wreck of a marriage, it is Dr. Phil. If Kate and Jon love their family enough they should seek professional help for the marriage.
Their beautiful children are worth much more than the money they get from this show. I admit having the money can make life so much easier, but material things can only go so far.
Those children need both their unconditional love and care than anything else in the world.
I hope for their family to come back together and make everything like it was when they first started this family.
Good luck and God bless....
I have never commented on a post of any sort before in my life, but a comment left by someone in regards to this topic really set me off today and I feel compelled to respond.
You condem Kate for being a horrible mother, saying she is "not fit to raise a dog, let alone children." Do you not watch the news? Do you not read the newspaper? If you are so concerned about people not being good parents, then go work in a homeless shelter, go volunteer with the local mental health clinic, be a Big Brother or Big Sister, don't sit on your hump whining about how a family on TV isn't raising their children the way you would.
While I do not agree with everything Jon or Kate to do eachother or to their children, I make a choice whether or not to watch the show. If you don't like what's happening on the show, don't watch. Kate is not a horrible mother, she is doing what she feels is best for her kids, just like the majority of all the other parents in this world. The only difference is we don't have TV cameras following us to document all of our mistakes.
From your post you are obviously a religious person, yet you have made it very clear that you have judged Kate and found her to be inadequate as a parent to her 8 children. Shall I bow down to you? Worship you on Sunday when I go to church? And if you are such a believer, then wouldn't you believe that God has enabled our brilliant scientists to discover ways to help people, like The Gosselin's, have children when they might not otherwise be able? Isn't that in itself a miracle? Yet you say she "violated God's plan" and that her 8 children are paying the price for her selfishness. Perhaps you know what God has planned for me and could clue me in so I don't have to sit and wonder and pray that I figure it all out. How happy you must be knowing you have all the answers.
I do not think that Book tours and speaking engagements are necessary keep life simple remember when the 6 were born neither one of you had jobs now you have one great job with the show, the book tours and speaking engagements are the enemy's way of attacking your marriage.
Jon I can see your point and your desire to turn the cameras off clearly it is not worth a dime if for the sake of the show your family continues suffering emotionally and changes into "two differen"t people. It is really sad that Kate now refers to the kids as "my" kids they should be always referred as our kids remember Jon is and will always be their father,
In spite of all of this Children learn by example and Kate should re-evaluate how she favors Maddie making Maddie her Maid of Honor not fair - Maddie & Cara are twins what kind of normal parent would pick one daughter instead of another or name one daughter after her and not the other it just is not fair.
Jon and Kate - the love dare can be the changing point in your lives - it is a short term test but may be just what is needed.
I used to love the show ... but now find it a cheap ploy for ratings. I feel sorry for the poor kids who are being used as pawns for Kate's desire to be famous and need for cash.