Jon Gosselin is “excited” to welcome son Collin Gosselin into his home after Collin spent over two years in a program for kids with special needs.
At WE tv’s Real Love: Relationship Reality TV’s Past, Present & Future panel on Tuesday, the former reality star dished to E! News about the court’s decision to award him temporary custody of the 14-year-old. “He’s not home exactly yet. So we’ve had numerous home visits,” Jon explained. “But we’re excited.”
He continued, “We won in court. That’s like a big win. It’s nice when you win in court, especially when you go so many times like I do.”
More importantly, Collin’s sister Hannah is happy to spend the holidays with her brother. “Hannah is excited that her brother is coming home,” Jon revealed.
Although, Jon isn’t quite sure he’s ready to have two teenagers in the home yet. “I’m glad I went through it with a girl first. It’s so much harder,” he joked.
During the actual panel, Jon revealed that Collin’s custody arrangement was made for the sake of making it “easier for the transition.”
“It’d be easier for one parent to just transition him home, and he wanted to live with me, so it was easier to do it that way,” the father-of-eight shared.
Moreover, the last time he saw the other kids, he said it was “volatile and a lot going on.”
In the past year, Collin and his sister Hannah have increasingly spent time with their father, while their brothers and sisters choose to distance themselves from the 41-year-old. He said, “The other four aren’t talking to me, but they’re talking to Hannah. It’s what the kids want to do. If they don’t want to talk to me, that’s fine, as long as they keep up with their sibling connections.”
Hannah now lives “full time” with her father.
Jon was only recently awarded custody of Collin after a dramatic past few years.
Collin was first admitted to the educational program in 2016 in what Kate Gosselin said was an effort to teach him “life skills” that will help him overcome his “educational and social challenges.” Much controversy surrounded her decision to enroll him in the program after Jon revealed that he didn’t “really know where” Collin was taken and that he was only told his son was “in a special school for special needs kids with behavioral problems.”
Kate defended her decision to send Collin away on Good Morning America, where she said, “It was not even really a choice. It was on the advice of his doctors and it had to happen.”
However, Jon, who only has partial custody of their eight children, questioned why sending Collin away was necessary. “I could see my kids getting annoyed with that because he’s the smartest and he does this, and he does that, and he always wants it his way. He’s very particular, which could be bothersome, but he’s very loving, too,” Jon revealed in 2016.
The GMA interview with Kate also brought to light a child abuse investigation that was prompted after “Colin told staffers at his treatment facility that he was abused by [Kate].” She neither confirmed nor denied the rumored investigation.
Let’s hope that Collin’s homecoming puts an end to this chapter in the Gosselin family’s life.
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