Collin Gosselin, who starred on reality TV with his family, has opened up about how the show affected his family life.
The 18-year-old was one of the sextuplets on the former Discovery Health and TLC reality show Jon and Kate Plus 8, which aired in 2007.
The show starred his parents, Jon and Kate Gosselin, and his fellow sextuplets: Alexis, Aaden, Joel, and Leah, and older twin sisters: Cara and Mady. However, after the couple divorced in 2009, the series ran under the name Kate Plus 8 until 2017.
Now, in a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, the former child star reflected on his TV experience and said that he believed the series played a role in his family's undoing.
Watch Collin's interview below:"I want to believe it was because of TV and what being in the public eye does to a family. I think it tore us apart," he told the interviewer. "It gave us less time to actually be together as a family [and] more time to be in the public eye."
When Collin was 12, his now-47-year-old mother told People that she had sent him to an institution. She said at the time that her son received "a fairly fluid diagnosis of what those needs are, but he needs to learn certain strategies to help him deal with things".
"This has been a struggle we’ve had for a very long time, and it’s one I’ve dealt with on my own. I've felt very alone in this. By the same token, it’s not something that has only impacted me or him - our entire family has been impacted," she added.
The teenager told the interviewer that he believed he didn’t belong there in the first place. When the publication brought up his mom's quotes, he said that it was "unfortunate that that’s how my mom phrased me as a person".
"I hope that If we met again one day she would understand that that’s not the case," Collin said. "After being there, I didn’t have a relationship with her. Even before [being] there, I don’t think we had much of a relationship and I think that just kept tearing it even more down."
Kate opened up about her son's behavioral problems before she sent him away. According to RadarOnline, Collin and his fellow sextuplet Alexis were reportedly expelled from their school in 2010. The outlet states that the two were allegedly abusive toward students and adults.
In 2018, Collin's 45-year-old father was granted custody of him after the mom and her legal team did not show up to a hearing. So now, he lives with his dad and sister Hannah.
The teen revealed that his relationship with his mother is nonexistent, saying: "It’s unfortunate that we didn’t have a relationship. I think every son wants to have a relationship with their mom. But I’m doing very well."
He also disclosed that he has not spoken with all his other siblings - who still live with their mom - as well as his 22-year-old twin sisters, in five or six years.
"I want to respect their space and their time and respect how they feel about everything," he said. "So I’m kind of just waiting for the day that they reach out."
This past May, Hannah also spoke to Entertainment Tonight and said that her reason for moving in with Jon was because she's "always been closer" to him.
"It's a lot, growing up in a very busy household with lots of kids. And there's not really a one-on-one relationship, for attention, that you have with your parent. I felt like my dad gave me that attention and a feeling like I had a good solid relationship with a parent," she added.
The sextuplet noted at the time that she still speaks with her mother, and said she's "pretty sure" Kate is doing well.