Did Kate Gosselin really steal money from her children's trust funds? If so, what would drive
her to that? Once worth a fortune, Kate might not be rolling in dough anymore.
Kate Gosselin rose to fame when her family appeared on the TLC
reality television series "Jon & Kate Plus 8."
The show followed the lives of her and her then-husband Jon Gosselin as they navigated life
with twin daughters and fairly newborn sextuplets. Following the Gosselins' divorce in 2009, TLC
altered the name of the reality show to "Kate Plus 8," and continued filming the family through 2017.
"Duh-luh-luhh! Done."
Aside from earning money and royalties from her years on cable with her kids, Kate also
inked deals to appear on various other shows such as "Celebrity Apprentice" and "Dancing With the
Stars," both of which earned her a paycheck. She's also landed a couple of book deals.
Since TLC canceled the most recent rendition of the family's reality show,
things have looked much different for Kate, who moved out of Pennsylvania and
into a home in North Carolina. Kate has sort of melted into the private sphere
in the time since. She's stopped posting on social media and doesn't interact with
fans on Instagram or Twitter. And despite years of reality television under her belt,
Kate doesn't seem to have much of a fortune to her name. So, where did all her money go?
Kate Gosselin has earned millions over the course of her career, but by all appearances,
she has never really lived like a millionaire. Fans who have watched her on television know
that she used to live in a very big house and drive around in a huge van that could
fit her entire brood, but she was always pretty frugal, especially when it came
to shopping sales. During an appearance on Bethenny Frankel's talk show in 2013,
Kate revealed that she had saved most of the money for her children's education.
"The majority of what we made, I personally took and put in a college fund for them."
More reality TV followed the end of "Kate Plus 8." In 2019, she inked a deal with TLC to appear
on a show called "Kate Plus Date." And while some people may have enjoyed Kate's cynical
approach to dating, things didn't work out for her on a romantic level and the show didn't do
so hot either; it was canceled by the network after six episodes. In 2023, she appeared on
"Special Forces: World's Toughest Test" though she self-eliminated in the very first episode.
"Hey, stop all that moaning. Is there a shark down there biting your foot off?"
Gosselin was a nurse before putting her eggs in the reality TV basket, and in 2021,
The U.S. Sun reported that Kate got her nursing license in North Carolina. In January 2022,
InTouch seemed to confirm that Kate is indeed back in the healthcare field. A source told the outlet:
"Returning to nursing isn't easy for Kate because of her fame. It
really went to her head. She hadn't worked as a nurse since she began
filming the show 15 years ago! But she has to do what she has to do."
Reports allege that Kate earned up to $250,000 for every episode at the height of her reality fame,
but now that that golden goose has stopped laying,
the money seems to have disappeared. A source suggested to InTouch that her
move to North Carolina was actually sparked by financial strain, saying:
"Kate had been living a relatively normal life in Pennsylvania for years after her
reality show fame began to fizzle out. The kids were in school and they kept her busy.
Finances were always an issue, though. Kate had been living way above her means for years."
"Oh, this is a problem. This is a problem."
"But that store had the most adorable, amazing things ever."
Raising a brood of eight certainly isn't cheap, and it sounds like a desire to maintain a certain
standard of living eventually caught up to the star. The source continued:
"She had sporadic deals. […] It was not enough income to cover their way of life.
Her bills were high [with] private school tuition, out-of-state college, a huge house and property."
In August 2022, further troubling details emerged when Jon accused Kate of illegally accessing money
from their children's trust funds. The Sun claimed that court documents reportedly showed that Kate
had withdrawn $50,000 on two instances from the trust. In return, Kate accused Jon of defaulting
on his parental obligation, saying that she's entitled to over $100,000 in back child support.
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Kate will ever get that money without a fight. Weeks later,
a source spoke with Us Weekly and took up for Jon,
saying that Pennsylvania's Superior Court has declined the appeal for child support.
The source also claimed:
"Kate stole large sums of money from her kids and Jon revealed the details in
hopes that Kate would have even the slightest conscience and return the money to the kids."