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Jon Gosselin wants fans to know his son Collin Gosselin is doing okay after abuse allegations.
“He’s doing really well. He’s just moving forward past everything that happened to him,” Jon, 47, told TMZ on Wednesday, September 25. Collin, 20, is currently a freshman at Penn State University, after being made to leave the Marine Corps due to his past institutionalization.
“That was like closure for him, I believe,” Jon said of Collin’s September 9 interview with The Sun, in which he detailed alleged abuse he faced at the hands of his mother, Kate Gosselin. He claimed that his mother, 49, “had a room built” in an unfinished section of their basement where she would lock him for punishment.
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He even alleged that at times, when his mother locked him in the “containment room,” as he called it, she would go as far as to zip-tie his hands and feet together, turn off the lights, and leave him in the room alone, watching him via cameras.
Collin also took to Instagram to address the allegations, writing alongside clips from his interview, “It has taken me a long time to find the strength needed to speak about my mother’s abuse. I have finally found my voice, and I hope to be the voice for children everywhere facing abuse. It is never ok. Your story can be told, just like mine.”
Jon — who was granted custody of his son after Collin had been institutionalized by Kate for 22 months — claimed he was not aware of the abuse prior to getting custody of Collin. However, he did claim that the “containment room” was still in Kate’s old house. “My friends’ in-laws bought our house and one time they asked me, ‘Why is there a room in the basement with a bed and a lock on the outside?'” Jon said.
The former reality star — who also has custody of his and Kate’s daughter Hannah, 20 — seemed to be inspired by his son to open up about his experiences. He told TMZ he would like to start a podcast one day, adding, “I have a lot to say in what I’ve learned. And, plus, I was gagged for so long that there’s missing pieces in my story.”
Though Kate has not herself responded to such allegations, her lawyer did vaguely address them in a September 11 conversation with Fox News. “She has no comment because it’s not going to change the past. And I don’t believe she intentionally harmed any of her children in any way, shape or form,” her lawyer Richard Puelo said.
Jon and his family first rose to fame after appearing in a 2005 Discovery Health special called Surviving Sextuplets and Twins, which was followed by another called Sextuplets and Twins: One Year Later. That led to their famous TLC series, Jon & Kate Plus 8, which featured his then-wife Kate and their children: twins Mady and Cara, 23, and sextuplets Alexis, Aaden, Collin, Hannah, Leah, and Joel, 20.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please don’t hesitate to call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233 or text BEGIN to 88788.