"Jon & Kate" plus hacking equals a lawsuit apparently.
Kate Gosselin is suing Jon Gosselin, accusing her ex-husband of stealing a hard drive from her house and using the information contained therein to hack into her personal computer and cell phone in order to give dirt to an author who was writing a tell-all.
According to the complaint filed in a U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania, the registered nurse and mother of eight alleged that Gosselin illegally gained access to her bank accounts and other confidential information in order to give secrets to his friend, tabloid reporter Robert Hoffman, who wrote the 2012 tome "Kate Gosselin: How She Fooled the World."
The onetime couple, of course, starred in TLC's hit "Jon & Kate Plus 8" with their sextuplets and twins before splitting in June 2009 and, per court docs obtained by E! News, the alleged theft of her hard drive occurred after they had already separated.
"Jon then gave the contents of Kate's email account and the hard drive, all of which were acquired illegally, to his friend and business partner, tabloid reporter Robert Hoffman," states the suit. "Hoffman used the illegally acquired data to publish a defamatory book about Kate ... (which) was removed from large distributors like Amazon.com because the information was obtained illegally."
According to Kate's lawyer, Jordan Rushie, Jon's actions not only damaged her reputation and invaded her privacy but also violated federal computer hacking statutes. She's seeking unspecified damages.
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"The book with Robert Hoffman had certain confidential info that he shouldn't have and she believes it came from John," Rushie tells E! News.
A lawyer for Jon Gosselin was unavailable for comment.