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“Walking around for 13 years not knowing has pretty much eaten my soul away,” he laments.
Jon Gosselin knows that he has multiple failings as a father. He’s doing what he can to make up for it with Collin and Hannah.
His other adult children haven’t had him in their lives for years. For the twins, it’s been half their lives.
Jon admits that he wouldn’t know them if he saw them, that he has “nightmares” after how Kate has “alienated” them from him.
‘I was just cut out of their lives’
On the Tuesday, November 3 episode of the Legally Goff Podcast, Jon discussed his estrangement from more than half of his children.
He admitted that he would not recognize 26-year-old twins Madelyn and Cara, his eldest, if he passed them on the street.
Likening them to “strangers,” he shared that he had not seen them “in, like, forever.”
Jon explained Kate has “alienated” him from their lives since they were only 13.
That is a loaded and controversial term. But is it accurate?
Allegations of “parental alienation” are often bogus. Usually, even.
There are instances of genuine triangulation, where one parent really does work to exclude the other. What happened here?
“Alienation [as in] silence,” Jon explained. “I’ve never heard their voice.”
He described: “One day, I was an active every day parent … and I was just cut out of their lives.”
Not hearing from them at all, he says, has been worse than hearing hostility from them.
Jon Gosselin sends a message to his six estranged children as he reacts to son Collin’s recent memoir, ‘In the Shadow of Eight,’ in an exclusive interview with ET. https://t.co/9kTJV7FEFh
— Entertainment Tonight (@etnow) October 23, 2026
‘At least I’ll know’
“I don’t care if they call me an asshole or whatever,” Jon described during the interview.
“I just want some kind of response,” he all but begged. “Just text me or message me. At least I’ll know.”
Jon shared: “Walking around for 13 years not knowing has pretty much eaten my soul away.”
He went on to reveal that he “has nightmares” about what Madelyn and Cara believe about him.
Jon referred to the ongoing estrangement as “upsetting” and “gut-wrenching.” It has lasted for half of their lives.
“I missed graduations. I missed proms,” Jon reflected.
He admitted: “I don’t know anything about my twins — if they have boyfriends or girlfriends, or what favorite color they have now, if they drive a car. I know nothing.”
Jon confessed: “I wouldn’t be able to pick them out in the street. I have pictures of them, but I still wouldn’t be able to pick them out on the street. That’s how much I haven’t seen them.”
Though he has a good relationship with both Collin and Hannah, he is similarly estranged from Leah, Alexis, Aaden, and Joel.
He suspects that they “believe the narrative of TLC, that [he’s] a s–tbag and that [he] doesn’t want to see them.”
👀 Jon Gosselin wants ex-wife Kate to tell the truth about Collin amid abuse claims. https://t.co/l1Xnr63Kep
— TMZ (@TMZ) October 22, 2026
‘They believed her and that was it’
According to Jon, Kate had previously claimed to both him and Collin that they each “didn’t want to see” each other. That was obviously not the case.
“I believe that’s exactly what she said to Madelyn and Cara,” he reasoned.
“That’s their mother, they believed her and that was it,” Jon speculated. “And the same thing with the other four.”
He emphasized that he does not “blame them,” adding that his children “live in fear.”
There’s a lot of literature on the “parental alienation” myth and the real phenomenon of triangulation, which is when a third party sabotages an existing relationship. Most experts will tell you that, when it does happen in families, it’s more likely that a toxic or abusive parent will turn kids against the better parent.
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