Jon Gosselin Corroborates Son’s Basement ‘Containment Room’ Allegations
Collin Gosselin, the son of Jon and Kate Gosselin, is publishing a tell-all memoir about his childhood on reality television. Collin was on Jon & Kate Plus Eight with his parents and siblings. He is now alleging that when the cameras weren’t filming, his mother became abusive. He has accused her of locking him in a basement room. His father backed up this claim.
Collin Gosselin alleged that his mother locked him in a basement
Collin alleges that his mother often kept him separated from his seven siblings during his childhood. He also said that she kept him locked in a basement room.
“My mother had a room built in our unfinished section of the storage basement,” he told the U.S. Sun. “She had a room put up with cameras in it, a tiny window in the corner and it was bolt-locked from the outside. So this, it was like a containment room, literally, and it had a mattress on the floor and that’s how I lived.”
Collin alleges that his mother kept him in there for up to multiple days at a time. She allegedly sometimes restrained him with zip ties.
“When my mother would put me in that room multiple times, she had zip-tied my hands and feet together and bolt-locked the door, turned the lights off, and had cameras there just watching me,” he claimed. “In that room that my mother had built, oftentimes she had zip-tied my hands and feet together and kept me locked in there for most, or all of, the day, for multiple days.”
Jon Gosselin backed up his son’s claims
Jon Gosselin, whose marriage to Kate ended in 2009, confirmed that this room existed. He said that it still existed in the home as recently as 2024.
“The room in the basement where she kept Collin is still there,” he said. “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?’”
He acknowledged that being locked in the room must have been difficult for his son.
“It must have been terrifying for him,” he said.
Jon claimed that this began happening after the divorce. He said he didn’t know about it until much later on.
Kate Gosselin broke her silence on her son’s book
Collin is publishing the book In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood. He said that while people could watch his childhood on television, he wants to share the reality of what happened when cameras stopped rolling.
“Now, finally, I’m sharing what was really happening behind the scenes,” he told Us Weekly. “This book is about truth, survival, resilience and finding my voice after years of being silenced. If my story helps even one person feel less alone or gives them the courage to tell their own, then every difficult page was worth writing.”
Kate responded to the book in a statement.
“I have never wanted to have to do this, but I feel I have been backed into a corner and left with no choice. Although it saddens me to do so, I need to speak out now,” she said in a statement to People. “My son Collin, whom I love with all my heart, has received multiple psychiatric diagnoses over the years.”
She believes her son has a “distorted perception of reality”
“Unfortunately, I believe Collin remains a very troubled young man who continues to need a lot of help. His brothers and sisters and I have not been directly involved in his life due to his history of unpredictable behavior and violent tendencies towards us.”
Jon defended his son in a response to his ex-wife’s statement.
“Regarding these brand new false accusations, it seems clear that even today after not seeing her son since the 6th grade, Kate is unable to control her abusive words towards him,” she said. “Do not forget that a judge awarded temporary sole legal and physical custody of Collin to his father in 2018. Kate never even showed up to court and never spoke to Collin ever again.”
