EXCLUSIVE: Kate Gosselin 'Sad & Lonely', Insider Says

When she's not looking after her kids or filming Kate Plus 8, the perfectionist mom-of-eight is regularly photographed going to the nail spa, popping into the tanning salon or even traveling to New York, where she is known to get her hair done.

What's more, she has a dedicated routine routine of going on grueling jogs to relieve stress and keep herself in tip-top condition.

"Even her kids have noticed that their mom is sometimes too tired to play with them when the cameras are not rolling," the source said.

"Her bodyguard Steve Neild is the closest person to her, but he's married with two kids of his own.

"Steve lives in the basement of her home and he accompanies Kate everywhere, but they strongly deny that there is anything going on between them despite the fact that they have taken trips to Alaska and to Mexico together."

The insider told RadarOnline.com the salt-and-pepper haired Neild is Kate's only confidante.

Said the source: "Apart from Steve she does not have many true friends to confide in or just go out and have fun with while she does not have the best relationship with her family either."

Even locals in the neighborhood have become judgmental, the source added.

"They don't think greatly of her and she is not popular at the local stores, post office or car wash, because she cannot win people over and comes across as cold and aloof," the acquaintance said.

"Kate just finds it hard to be friendly towards people and is very domineering - at the moment she is pre-occupied with looking her best and keeping-up appearances."

But it's not all her own doing.

As the source said, "Kate's life revolves around her kids and the reality show... when have you ever seen Kate photographed having fun on a girls' night out?

"The paparazzi are camped outside her home a lot of the time and often she will just not go out which is sad for her kids too.

"Kate has money coming in but nobody to share it with - having her own reality show has come with a price for her but ultimately that was her own choice."

After her bitter divorce from her reality husband Jon, the former nurse forged ahead with her own reality show even battling in the courts with him over her rights to do Kate Plus 8 on the TLC network.

While he enjoyed a string of high profile affairs and has been dating pretty Pennsylvania local Ellen Ross since the Spring, there have been no reported romances for Kate.

Kate - who has polarized millions of American women - always claimed that it was financially necessary for both her and her brood to do the new reality show, despite her husband's claims that it was potentially detrimental to the children.

She recently told Entertainment Tonight: "My kids would fall apart if we didn't."

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