EXCLUSIVE: Jon & Kate Gosselin - Never Before Seen Photos From Before The Split
Jun. 1 2010, Published 1:40 p.m. ET
One year after Jon and Kate Gosselin’s acrimonious split, RadarOnline.com has unearthed their forgotten family photo album.
These candid never-before-seen shots were captured in November, 2008, at the couple’s Pennsylvania home.
EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS: The Forgotten Photo Album, The Gosselins Before The Split
Jon and Kate opened their doors to shoot a magazine cover.
"This was their first cover... in fact this one of their first major photo shoots," the award-winning photographer recounted to RadarOnline.com.
"It was a two-day shoot and with eights kids, as you can imagine, it was chaos... there were stylists, camera crews, nannys plus our photography crew, all crammed into the one space. It was complete pandemonium.”
Royce's behind-the-scenes shots formed the basis for a cover story on the now defunct Jon And Kate Plus Eight.
The cover read, ‘The Gosselins on TV fame — and what keeps them close’.
“America's favorite TV family opens up about life with the kids, the marriage secret that keeps them close...and whether their brood will get even bigger,” the magazine teased.
How things would spectacularly change.
Seven months later -- and after a 10-year marriage -- Jon and Kate announced their split and filed for a "no-fault" divorce.
At the time, Jon said he wanted a less high-profile life, while Kate announced she remained committed to a TV career.
When the fifth season of the Gosselins' show premiered May 25, the couple admitted to having problems and not knowing where their relationship was headed.
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"Parents of multiples have triple the divorce rate," Kate said through tears.
"I was thinking we were going to beat that. I don't know if I can say that anymore."
At the time of the split, Kate's lawyer said she was "thrilled" to have been awarded custody of their eight children and is "relieved it's finally over".
She went on to star in Dancing With The Stars and ink new deals to secure her and the kids’ futures, while Jon was sued by TLC and eventually settled, regaining a paycheck but booted off the air.
Knowing how it all turned out makes the scenes in these forgotten photos all the more heartbreaking.
"We pulled out every trick in the book to make the kids happy, but they weren't used to being in that environment, so it was a challenge,” said Royce.
"When one of the Gosselin kids was happy, another was grumpy, so we ended up having to composite to get one perfect picture.
“That's natural when you have so many subjects in the one image, but in the end, we were able to form a beautiful family portrait."
The portrait would become part of Gosselin history: one of their last.