KATE GOSSELIN: HOW SHE FOOLED THE WORLD - THE RISE AND FALL OF A REALITY TV QUEEN (7 page)

Jon says, “Here’s one for the record books. I got an email about a woman who wants to have sextuplets” and Kate says, “I don’t think I remember this one. Is she feeling all right?”

Jon
says, “She asks, did you have In Vitro fertilization or Intrauterine Insemination?” He answers with “Uh, we had, Kate had Intrauterine Insemination” and Kate quickly chimes in with “IUI, and no, we didn’t desire multiples, but this is what God gave us and we love em.”

Why was the last part of that answer from Kate even necessary? The question on the table was “Did you have In Vitro fertilization or Intrauterine Insemination?” It was a very simple and straightforward question, even if Kate hadn’t made it up herself. No one asked if Kate “desired multiples.” And no one asked if she loved them. Why would she not “love em”? She’s their mother.

Here is Kate’s attempt to pretend
this all caught her by surprise. She says, “We get a lot of emails asking us what did we do fertility-wise, and I always say to Jon, why are they asking us? We’re considered a fertility nightmare.”

This exchange is from the very first Gosselin television special,
Surviving Sextuplets and Twins
:

Kate says that this whole thing started of course, when she wanted a third child and Jon was happy with two. That’s the debate they always had according to Kate. “Two or three? Two or three? Then she whispers and looks down and says that she just wanted that third one… “And I bought one, got five free.”

Jon said that life was great, and he missed the family of four and said that Kate wanted “Just one more” and he said no, no, no, no he’s happy with the twins and said that everything is perfect. He said the whole world is designed for four people, and Kate added “Let’s face it, infertility produces multiples. We all know that.”

“We all know that.” Kate said that she truly only wanted
Just one more
, and yet she knew that “infertility produces multiples” and she had made it clear that she was dead set against selective reduction. Period. So it makes no sense to think she really did want “just one more” child.

Jon said that anytime anyone decides to go ahead with infertility treatments that you should expect two or three and Kate responded, “we even agreed that going back, we had to be willing to accept twins or triplets.”

This is from the second Gosselin television special,
Sextuplets And Twins: One Year Later.
Kate is already defending herself, even when nobody asked.

Kate says that she doesn’t know anybody in the world who has walked into the fertility clinic and said “I’ve seen these people on TV and I really wanna know what sextuplets is like.” Kate adds “You’d have to be nuts.”

They really glossed over this part. A voiceover asked, “at this point, you might be wondering how this couple ended up with two sets of multiples and Kate jumped right in and said, “we did infertility and with the girls, uh, we succeeded, the second IUI. We were so happy with them and they were so much fun.”

That’s Kate speak again. She sounds like a robot reading from a script that she’s bored with. Why wouldn’t she be happy with her babies? Oh, that’s right, she was upset and disappointed that they were only twins.

Kate said that when they were one actually, she started thinking about having another baby.

Jon said no because he liked the family of four and everything was easier.

Kate said she silently prayed, but we silently not argued and discussed.

Jon said that he caved and they went in and had her appointment and then we had an ultrasound and that’s when he saw the satellites.

There they go again. They just went from silently discussing trying for “Just one more” to seeing the “satellites.” I’d like Katie to tell the world the truth about what happened in between.

Kate laughed and said …the planets. It was awful.

And Jon said yeah, it was very scary cause you don’t go in expecting that.

Kate said the doctor looked at me and
said; well we can talk about reduction.

And for some
crazy reason, there is a close-up shot, obviously edited in, of Kate being wide-eyed and serious saying; I said we will not talk about reduction!

Jon said we knew we were gonna take it head on, regardless of what it was and Kate said we told them that from the very beginning.

Well there you have it. Kate said it, so it must be true. Even though nobody asked.

Again, it was extremely important for Kate to reinforce to her Christian public that they never even considered reduction.

“We will not talk about reduction! We told them that, from the beginning.”

Kate learned how important that was from doing her research on Bobbi McCaughey. Kate learned a lot more from researching the McCaughey septuplets. The similarities are eerie, if not extremely suspicious.

“How did our quiet little existence in the suburbs of Pennsylvania

somehow blossom (or maybe explode is a better word) into a “story”

that someone wanted to tell on national television?”

– Kate Gosselin

Kate has often said that Figure 8 Films contacted them “out of the blue” about filming a reality show because of their website. Kate has also said that she didn’t want news of her “unique” pregnancy to leak out. I know these things are not true.

One of the first of many lies Kate told the public in her quest to exploit her unique situation wa
s that the media contacted them. The fact is Kate worked very hard to make sure the media was aware of their situation, and she did everything she could to drum up interest in their story. She acted as if the media attention was unwelcome, when it was what she was seeking all along.

In Chapter 6, “Media Mayhem,” of
Multiple Blessings
, Kate writes that it was “everyone’s fear” that once she had been admitted to the hospital, “the news of our unusual adventure would leak to the media.”

She also says that, when she was in the hospital, her doctor
made Jon look him in the eye and promise to do everything in his power to shield her from the press “for the sake of our babies’ well-being.”

Now why would Kate’s doctor have to tell them that
do you suppose?

Kate
said about the media attention that it was decided that when the time came, Jon would be the one to speak to the media for the both of them. She said that she and Jon had agreed to give their hometown newspaper, the
Reading Eagle
, an in-room exclusive interview only out of self-defense because of information that she had received several weeks earlier that someone who had worked with Kate at the Reading Hospital was threatening to talk to the press about them. Kate said it was an attempt to buy them a few more precious weeks that their doctor wanted. She said that they began to get calls for interviews and details about the pregnancy and that she was getting more and more physically uncomfortable and had no patience for the extra annoyance of media attention.

That was a big lie. Kate was the one who contacted the
Reading Eagle
to get as much publicity for herself as possible. In an editorial published on March 27, 2011, about famous citizens of Berks County, Harry Deitz, editor of the
Reading Eagle
, wrote the following:

Harry Deitz: Lots of fame, some fortune in our county

“… Another example is Kate Gosselin, whose delivery of sextuplets on May 10, 2004, (around the same time Taylor moved to Nashville) and twins three years earlier eventually gave rise to the TV show "
Jon & Kate Plus 8.”

Before all that fame,
Kate called our newspaper and offered to allow a reporter to follow the delivery of the sextuplets.
It was a great story then, and it changed quickly. Enter the TLC television network, lots of fame and apparently lots of money.”

(
http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=297419)

Harry Deitz has been at the
Eagle
since 1978. He was there when I started working there in 1986, so I have known him for more than 20 years. He is a straight shooter and has always stated the facts. Kate, not so much. Here is some of Kate’s additional spin from
Multiple Blessings
:

“One day in August of 2005, Jon received an email he thought I should read. It was from a television production company that
had heard of our family
and was interested in doing a one-hour documentary of our story.”

“Whoa,” I said. “Seriously?”

“It was becoming more and more difficult to
duck into the shadows
. How did our quiet little existence in the suburbs of Pennsylvania somehow blossom (or maybe explode is a better word) into a “story” that someone wanted to tell on national television?”

The Gosselin’s story did not reach Discovery Communications, Inc. and its TLC network by chance. The Gosselin’s quiet existence in the suburbs of Pennsylvania blossomed into a story because Kate Gosselin marketed the story. She spent countless hours contacting media outlets and pitching reality shows and doing everything she could to draw attention to herself and her “unique” story. The last thing on Earth that Kate Gosselin wanted was to “duck into the shadows.” This was part of her “masterminded” grand plan from day one, and she succeeded.

Kate was making deals with media outlets before her babies were even born; before she knew if any of her babies would be sick, or disabled, or even survive. The risk factor was huge to bring these six babies into the world, but that didn’t stop Kate
from trying to use them to get the things she cared most about: money and publicity and fame.

“… Family … shall be subject to the instructions and direction
of Company and its designated representatives …”

I’m not an attorney, and I don’t have a lot of experience with reading or signing television contracts, but after giving the Discovery/Gosselin family contracts a few reads, I found it alarming that Jon and Kate Gosselin would be so driven to cash in on their children, that they would turn over TOTAL control of their family, including family photos and videos, to a television network. Jon eventually came to his senses and realized what he had signed away. Unfortunately, his family was making so much money for Discovery and TLC, there was no way they were going to let him get his kids out without a battle.

I’ve read all of the contracts for
Jon & Kate Plus Ei8ht
. These include a copy of the signed contract as well as the rough draft of the original contract on which changes were made and final details were ironed out. The first contract is dated October 4, 2006. It is a 17-page document filled with all manner of legal-speak. Legal considerations prevent me from including the contracts in their entirety here, so I have summarized them instead.

These are some
key provisions from the full contract. Read them and decide for yourself if this “reality” show sounds anywhere near real.

• The “Talent Agreement” defined the “Family” as parents Jonathan and Kate Gosselin and their children, Cara Nicole Gosselin, Madelyn Kate Gosselin, Aaden Jonathan Gosselin, Collin Thomas Gosselin, Hannah Joy Gosselin, Leah Hope Gosselin, Alexis Faith Gosselin, and Joel Kevin Gosselin.
  
• The “Company” was defined as Discovery Talent Services, LLC; and the “Program” was defined as the series of episodes up to one half-hour in length tentatively entitled, “Gosselins The Series.”
  
• The Family agreed to render “Services” as themselves as “featured, On-Camera Personalities”. They
  would be required to provide preproduction, production and postproduction “Services” that would include any necessary
  rehearsals
  ; travel; auditions and pickups; on-camera shoot days; narration; voice overs; vignettes; on-air promos, “special” episodes; and “behind-the-scenes” programs.
  
• The Family was subject to the
  instructions and direction
  of Discovery and its designated representatives.
  
• The Company, Network and/or the Producer had “final and controlling” say in all matters concerning the performance of the Family’s Services (including matters involving a
  rtistic taste, quality and judgment).
  
• The Family’s principal photography would be performed in and around Elizabethtown, PA, and/or at other locations determined at the “sole discretion” of Discovery.
  
• When traveling, Discovery was responsible for providing and/or paying for airfare (coach class), ground transportation, car rental (intermediate size car), and hotel accommodations (2-star, based on the “Mobil Travel Guide”).
  
• Discovery and/or a designee of Discovery had complete creative control over the Program. This included, but was not limited to, approval over the Family’s
  make-up, hairstyle and wardrobe
  .
  
• It was
  stipulated that this was a non-union agreement, and that the Family’s Services were not subject to the terms of any collective bargaining agreement such as SAG or AFTRA.
  
• The Family was allowed to appear as a guest on news programs, and on talk shows on broadcast networks and their local affiliates, as long as the Family coordinated the activities through the Network’s press department.
  
• Kate gave her Parental Consent and signed on behalf of her minor children and she
  fully and unconditionally guaranteed the performance of each of her children’s obligations as set forth in the contract
  .