Kate Gosselin Speaks Out About ‘Stolen’ Photo That Stirred Controversy: My Asian Impression Was Innocent Family Fun
June 25 2013, Published 11:21 a.m. ET
Kate Gosselin is speaking out about a “stolen” photo that generated a wave of controversy and appeared to show her mocking Asians, as RadarOnline.com first reported.
The photo shows Kate holding her fingers to her eyes and first publicly surfaced Sunday, sent from a newly created Twitter account. It immediately caused bitter clashes between pro- and anti-Kate camps.
Now Kate has revealed the story behind the photo and posted ANOTHER photo showing Jon standing in the same location. RadarOnline.com has learned the photo of Jon was taken during the same day in the couple’s garage. The photos were on Kate's phone, she says.
Kate explained the situation by posting this message:
Clarification on my personal photo that was stored on our “home computer,” that recently surfaced and was released to the public, without my permission:
This was a happy memory of mine. It was a happy time for me and Jon, smiling and “goofing off” together. Jon and I were opening fan mail together one afternoon — which often filled the garage of our Elizabethtown home — and when we opened this plastic Asian dress up wig sent from a caring fan, we smiled, each taking turns posing in it and snapping photos (on my phone) of each other. Naturally, I “slanted” my eyes to show him my best Asian impression, which made him smile.
Evidently, a fan sent it for me to wear so that I too could “be Asian” like the rest of my family. At that time, a common topic of our show was “everybody’s Asian” — except for mommy, so a thoughtful fan figured she’d help me look Asian too! It’s normal to talk about and even “exaggerate” the feature differences between family members of a biracial family as they are noticed by curious growing children within the family. These types of discoveries and at home discussions are a normal part of being a loving accepting biracial family and it does not make any of us prejudice!
I married an Asian. I have eight biracial children therefore I’m quite certain that I’m the last person that could be called a racist. I learned to cook Korean foods from Jon’s mom and grandmother. I couldn’t be more proud of my eight beautiful children and wouldn’t change anything about them or their heritage. They are absolutely perfect just the way they are.
God loves each of us equally. We are each created perfectly in His eyes. In this family, we don’t see color or preference, we see qualities and hearts. Those photos taken on my phone were later uploaded to be saved on the home computer…..the same source of other private information that was taken and has since been made public, without my consent.
The blaring fact that remains is that a personal photo that left a warm and happy memory, was taken and misused without my permission and opportunistically turned into something that it never was intended to be.
Meanwhile, as RadarOnline.com was first to report Kate is preparing to sue her ex husband Jon and e-book author Robert Hoffman.
A photograph of Kate in this pose was referenced in Hoffman’s e-book, Kate Gosselin: How She Fooled The World.
Hoffman wrote: “I’ll bet that Kate wishes that she hadn’t been photographed making a ‘slant-eye’ pose with a big smile on her face though. Kate Gosselin has eight part-Asian children. Her ex-husband Jon is half Korean. Is it ok for Kate to do something like that?
“Ask Miley Cyrus. She did the same thing in February of 2009 and it didn’t go over to well with the public.”
Hoffman wrote an e-book filled with information from Kate’s computer. He claimed the information was in her trash and that’s where he retrieved it from. But others believe Jon helped him get the information.
Hoffman did not respond to an e-mail request from RadarOnline.com on Monday asking if he released the photo of Kate.