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Kendra Wilkinson: I wanted to run from 'Celebrity Wife Swap'

Reality personality Kendra Wilkinson had no idea what she was getting herself into when she learned via telephone she'd be participating in ABC's "Celebrity Wife Swap." It wasn't until she arrived at the other famous mama's home that she realized who she'd be swapping lives with for a week in the show's season premiere."When I heard I was flying to Pennsylvania to swap with another celebrity mom,
Kendra Wilkinson is swapping lives with Kate Gosselin on the season premiere of \"Celebrity Wife Swap.\"
Kendra Wilkinson is swapping lives with Kate Gosselin on the season premiere of \"Celebrity Wife Swap.\"Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images / Today

Reality personality Kendra Wilkinson had no idea what she was getting herself into when she learned via telephone she'd be participating in ABC's "Celebrity Wife Swap." It wasn't until she arrived at the other famous mama's home that she realized who she'd be swapping lives with for a week in the show's season premiere.

"When I heard I was flying to Pennsylvania to swap with another celebrity mom, I had no idea who it was. I was like, 'Who is out here?!' " Kendra told The Clicker.

Turns out it was mom of eight Kate Gosselin. When the former "Girls Next Door" star figured it out, she said her reaction was "definitely" to run -- but she couldn't. "I'm out in the country, hours away from the closest airport. I mean, there's no way I can just get up and go!" she said. "I'm like, 'What?!' I don't even know how to take care of myself. How am I going to take care of eight kids?!"

Sure, raising eight kids is a gargantuan challenge, but for Kendra -- who has a nanny to help her with 4-year-old son Little Hank -- it wasn't quite as tough as she had expected, thanks to Kate's strict rules and schedule for her big brood.

"Every minute of the day is dedicated to what Kate has gotten them to do. They're on a schedule," Kendra said. "It's like an alarm clock in their heads that's like, 'Oh, it's 5:31. I have to brush my teeth. 5:35, I have to go upstairs.' But they like it! They love it!"

In fact, the Gosselin children like their routine so much, they weren't too pleased when it was Kendra's turn to apply her rules to the big household. 

"When I came in and I did my rules, that's when I saw the most anxiety out of them," Kendra explained. "My rules are actually the opposite -- no rules! It was so, so intense because when you say to the kids, 'Guess what? No rules!' you would expect complete 'Yeah!' No. It was the opposite."

And it sounds like things weren't totally peachy back at her own home either, where Kate was ruling the roost.

"They got into some drama. They got into some fights," Kendra said of her husband, former NFL player Hank Baskett, and Kate. "I think she's very traditional: 'The man does this and the woman does this.' When she came to my home and figured out that man pretty does all the domestic stuff, she got thrown off. She's like, 'WHAT! Wait wait, what?!' " 

"Kate, I don't think, really understood why someone like me deserves this kind of freedom and treatment," Kendra added of the life her doting husband gives her.

But despite their clashing views on how to run a household, the two survived the experience, which included an "emotional" sitdown with each other at the end of the episode.

"Through drama and through ... blood sweat and tears, we came out alive, and we'll never forget this journey, and we'll always be pen pals," she laughed. "My life -- other than the advice she gave me -- my life is pretty much still the same. Everything works. My life works for me, her life works for her."

"Celebrity Wife Swap" kicks off with Kate and Kendra on Tuesday at 8 p.m. on ABC.

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