'I Had No Other Choice': Defiant Kate Gosselin Defends Decision to Send Son Collin To a Mental Health Institution Aged Just 11... Just Months After He Claimed 'Nightmare Mom' Zip-tied and Locked Him in the Basement'
Kate Gosselin defiantly defended institutionalizing 'out of control' son Collin.
Aug. 5 2025, Published 2:45 p.m. ET
Former reality TV mom from hell Kate Gosselin made a rare but dramatic comment on her decision to send son Collin to a mental health institution when he was 11 years old, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The Jon & Kate Plus 8 star, 50, defiantly defended her choice to put the sextuplet in the special needs facility after he allegedly became uncontrollable while revealing how she now works as a pediatric nurse for medically challenged children.
'I Had No Other Choice'
Kate joined TikTok in July 2025.
Kate revealed in a Monday, August 4, TikTok video that she's a registered nurse who is currently working in pediatric home health care, specifically with one family only.
"It's been a really rewarding and fun job to come in and relieve a family of their medically challenged child so they can spend time with their other kids and do other things," she gushed.
When one fan asked in the comments, "Couldn’t you do the same for your child that needed help? Bring in help rather than sending him away" Kate replied, "No. That’s not how those sort of medical/psych things are safely handled. Sadly, I had no other choice," referring to Collin, 21.
'Making a Positive Difference'
She said dealing with Collin was a 'lonely' experience.
Kate also responded to how "lonely" it was for her dealing with Collin's alleged behavioral problems.
After a user replied, "Unless people have a child with those needs, they just do not understand. Severe mental illness in pediatrics is also not talked about so again, they just don’t get it unless they are in it," Kate responded, "Sounds like you are or were 'in it' too. And everything you said above is SPOT ON. So so so difficult. And lonely."
The former TLC star continued to be chatty in the thread, saying she partly chose her profession due to her difficulties with Collin.
"Although in our family’s situation, what I do is not an option for what we dealt with, helping someone who needs help with their child is very rewarding. I feel like I’m making a positive difference!" Kate spilled about her job.
Kate's 'Struggle'
Kate said she struggled with Collin for a 'very long time' before sending him away to an institution.
Kate opened up about her decision to send Collin to live at the Philadelphia-based psychiatric hospital Fairmount Behavioral Health System in 2016.
“Collin has special needs,” she shared in a rare interview. "[There’s] a fairly fluid diagnosis of what those needs are, but he needs to learn certain strategies to help him deal with things. This has been a struggle we’ve had for a very long time, and it’s one I’ve dealt with on my own. I’ve felt very alone in this. By the same token, it’s not something that has only impacted me or him – our entire family has been impacted."
The Special Forces: World's Toughest Test star was referring to twins Mady and Cara, 24, as well as Collin's fellow sextuplets – Alexis, Aaden, Hannah, Leah, and Joel.
Kate's ex-husband, Jon Gosselin, successfully fought to remove Collin from the institution in 2018, gaining sole custody and bringing his son home to live with him. That same year, daughter Hannah decided to stop living with Kate and moved in with her dad.
'Zip-Tied' in Basement Containment Room
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Collin alleged that his mom verbally and physically abused him.
Collin opened up in 2023 that his time in the facility took a toll on him “mentally."
“It was a really, really dark place. All I had was myself. I didn’t have anybody else. You know, I had no support system. It was scary. I was confused. I was lost," he described on Vice TV’s Dark Side of the 2000s.
Collin fought back against his mom's allegations on the docuseries, claiming she locked him up to cover up her alleged abuse.
“I was starting to tell people what was going on at home and, you know, she caught wind of that and had to put me somewhere where I wouldn’t be able to get the secrets out,” he sadly described.
The former U.S. Marine trainee claimed Kate kept him isolated from his siblings and restrained in a "containment room" at her Pennsylvania home in a 2024 interview.
"When my mother would put me in that room multiple times, she had zip-tied my hands and feet together and bolt locked the door, turned the lights off, and had cameras there just watching me," Collin alleged about the room that had only a mattress on the floor.
"So most of the day I was in that room, and I was away from my siblings, and I never really went outside. I never played with them. I was kept there. It was literally containment," he added.
