Who is Kate Gosselin? Everything You Need to Know

Quick Facts

Also Known As: Katie Irene Gosselin, Katie Irene Kreider[1]

Family:

Spouse/Ex-: Jon Gosselin

father: Kenton Kreider

mother: Charlene Kreider

siblings: Kevin Kreider

children: Aaden Jonathan Gosselin, Alexis Faith Gosselin, Cara Nicole Gosselin, Collin Thomas Gosselin, Hannah Joy Gosselin, Joel Kevin Gosselin, Leah Hope Gosselin, Madelyn Kate Gosselin

Reality TV Personalities American Women

U.S. State: Pennsylvania

Ancestry: German American, British American

City: Philadelphia

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Childhood & Early Life

Kate Gosselin was born on March 28, 1975 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Kenton Eugene Kreider and Charlene Ruth Kreider. She has four siblings: sisters Kendra, Christen, and Clairissa, and a brother named Kevin.

She completed a certificate course in nursing from ‘Reading Hospital and Medical Center’ in Reading, Pennsylvania. Thereafter, she took up employment as a maternity nurse in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania.

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Marriage & Children

It was while working in the hospital that Kate became acquainted with Jon Gosselin during a picnic on 5th October 1997. Following an extensive romance that went on for almost two years, Kate married Jon on 12th June 1999.

Kate, after undergoing a pelvic speculum, came to know that she was suffering from PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) which would come in the way of her getting pregnant naturally. Consequently, she decided to go for artificial insemination in order to get impregnated.

After undergoing the fertility treatment procedure, Kate conceived and gave birth to Cara and Madelyn, who were twins. She opted for additional fertility treatments as she and her husband were desirous of having more children.

In May 2004, Kate and Jon were blessed with sextuplets—daughters Alexis, Leah, and Hannah, and sons Joel, Collin, and Aaden—thanks to fertility treatments.

The sextuplets had to be placed in medical ventilators as they were born premature. Kate later revealed in her book, ‘Love Is in the Mix’ that there were a total of seven fetuses initially out of which one did not survive to see the light of the day.

Career as a Small Screen Actress

Kate and Jon, along with their eight children, all of whom were conceived via artificial insemination, generated a lot of publicity. The sextuplets, in particular, attracted the attention of the electronic media. The Gosselin family was invited by NBC TV Network to feature in ‘Home Delivery’, a reality show, in 2004.

The offer from NBC came at a time when the couple was renovating their home in Wyomissing to house themselves and their eight offspring in 2004. NBC TV Network funded the couple’s home refurbishment project.

In 2005 September, the family starred in ‘Surviving Sextuplets and Twins’—a special program endorsed by ‘Discovery Communications’ TV channel Discovery Health. The program, which was lapped up by the audiences, garnered so much publicity that Discovery Health was enthused to produce a sequel named ‘Sextuplets and Twins: One Year Later’ in 2006.

The reality TV shows, ‘Surviving Sextuplets and Twins’ and ‘Sextuplets and Twins: One Year Later’ catapulted the Gosselins into national limelight. In 2007, Kate and Jon entered into an agreement with Discovery Health to appear in ‘Jon & Kate Plus 8’ a reality TV series that chronicled their lives.

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'Jon & Kate Plus 8' which started telecasting from April 2007, revolved around the lives of the couple and the hardships they had to go through for raising the sextuplets and twins. The couple received a handsome remuneration for their appearances on the reality show that ran into several seasons.

‘Philadelphia Magazine,’ in one of its e-newsletters, reported that over 500 people turned up one chilly Saturday morning to be ushered into the First Assembly of God Church in Marcy, NY, where one of the ‘Jon & Kate Plus 8’ episodes was being staged in February 2009.

‘Philadelphia Magazine’ further narrated that many in the audience had travelled a long distance and paid $10 to witness US’s most talked about reality TV couple in the flesh.

Despite the show’s success, all was not well in the couple’s personal lives. After Kate revealed in an episode of ‘Jon & Kate Plus 8’ in 2009 that she and Jon were splitting up, TLC declared that henceforth, the reality program would be aired as ‘Kate Plus 8’. The couple appeared together for the last time in an episode aired in November 2009.

Kate Gosselin contested in the TV program, ‘Dancing with the Stars’ in its 10th season in 2010. Her duet with Tony Dovolani, her dancing partner, faced scathing criticism from the judges and audience resulting in her elimination from the show.

TLC, after proclaiming that Kate would star in a new reality show, ‘Twist of Kate,’ did not eventually telecast the program. The series was supposed to film her trips through the country, interviewing mothers who wrote to her about their personal experiences.

There was a buzz in the air that Kate Gosselin would be featuring in a forthcoming episode of ‘The Bachelorette’—a highly admired TV program—but TLC executives and Mike Fleiss, the show’s maker, quelled all rumors.

The ultimate episode of the 2nd season of ‘Kate plus 8’ was televised in 2011 on September 12. It was declared by TLC in 2014 that Kate would come back for a brand new season of ‘Kate plus 8’. The reality show was screened on TLC channel in its new avatar in November 2016.

Career as an Author

Apart from starring in multiple reality television shows, Kate Gosselin has also experimented with her authoring skills, achieving a remarkable degree of success. Till date, she has penned four books, ‘Multiple Blessings’, ‘Eight Little Faces’, ‘I Just Want You to Know’, and ‘Love Is in the Mix’.

Her first three books, ‘Multiple Blessings’, ‘Eight Little Faces’, and ‘I Just Want You to Know’ have featured on the New York Times’ Best Sellers listing.

Divorce

Kate’s announcement of her parting ways with her husband in one of the episodes of ‘Jon & Kate Plus 8’ received widespread attention. Following the couple’s official divorce on 16 December 2009, Kate gained custody of the eight children as well as ownership of the Wernersville home.

Kate Gosselin Biography