“Jon & Kate Plus 8” star Mady Gosselin is responding to comments her estranged brother Collin Gosselin has recently made about childhood trauma.
In VICE TV's “Dark Side of the 2000s," Collin talked about the reality TV show, which documented his and his family's lives. Collin, who is one of divorced couple Kate and Jon Gosselin’s sextuplets, said his mother was allegedly "abusive" to him and he would find himself shutting down on set after he grew tired of the show's filming schedule as a kid.
In response to his comments, Mady took to her Instagram stories to talk about the issue at hand.
"btw I'm not the authority on what trauma others have experienced, but I am the authority on what I have experienced (and I've reluctantly shared that with you today)," she said. "To those of you saying my brother was a child who experienced trauma and so I must swiftly forgive and forget, please remember that I was a child too. I have empathy for him and what he's been through, but that doesn't erase the trauma I've suffered at his hands."
She added, "We are real people living real lives, not just characters on your TV, which means there is SO much you will never know about our lives. There's no need to 'take sides,' Please just be kind ❤️."
TODAY.com has reached out to Collin for comment.
On “Dark Side of the 2000s," Collin also recalled what it was like to live with his mom after she was awarded full custody of the kids.
He said his mother was “going through a lot of things” that affected her day-to-day life.
“I mean, a divorce, and plenty of different things that can’t be easy to go through,” Collin said. “And, you know, I want to think that she needed someone to take out her anger, her frustration on, and it was just kind of me. I was in the way and I was there. So she chose me.”
In the same episode, Collin's sister Hannah also said that she and her siblings didn't see Collin much after their mom allegedly sent him off to an institution.
In 2016, Kate told People that Collin was attending a residential program for kids with special needs that was "helping him learn the skills he needs to be the best him he can be."
But Collin said the "institution really took a toll on me mentally,” and had put him in a "really dark place."
Although Collin doesn't have a relationship with his siblings, except for Hannah, he told "Entertainment Tonight" in November that he still has a lot of love for them.
“I love them very much and I really hope that one day when I have kids, that my kids will know their aunts and uncles,” he shared.