"Jon & Kate Plus 8" star Hannah Gosselin has decided to take a step back from the media storm that has engulfed her sextuplet sibling Collin Gosselin's life, following the release of his memoir "In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood." But the siblings appear to have conflicting accounts of their relationship.
In the memoir, Collin Gosselin resurfaced allegations of abuse and neglect at the hands of his mother, Kate Gosselin. Although he would like to protect his sister's privacy, he refuted claims that Hannah Gosselin has kept her distance from him during an Oct. 22 taping of"The View."
"All families are complicated," Collin Gosselin, 22, said during the daytime television show. "I’ve seen Hannah many times in the past
year. Me, myself, my father, at our house. I have pictures if you want to see them.”
Hannah Gosselin, who has kept silent since the memoir's release, explained her stance in an Oct. 21 social media post.
"I've decided to take a step back from the situation going on considering I haven't lived with my dad in over a year and haven't spoke to Collin in close to a year," the TikTok statement read. "Having said that, I have had a relationship with my mom and other siblings for quite a few years now. And that's the only thing I'm clearing up."
Furthermore, Hannah Gosselin, 22, decided not to comment on her brother's childhood behaviors and her experiences growing up with him. She previously participated in Vice TV's "Dark Side of the 2000s," where she detailed how her brother would eat meals separately and would not get to play outside with them.
“That statement sounded like a lot of the words of my mother, especially the last part," Collin Gosselin continued. "What I do believe has happened is that Hannah’s caught in the middle and nobody deserves that. I know what it feels like to have to fight to have a relationship with your siblings. I don’t have one with my siblings, and I know how much that hurts. Not only is she caught in the middle, but I do believe my mom is either leveraging finances or Hannah’s relationship with our siblings over Hannah.”
In Collin Gosselin's memoir, "In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood," out now, he recounts an attempt to run away, living in a basement bedroom that allegedly locked from the outside and an incident in which he claims Kate restrained his arms and ankles with zip ties. He also details his time at Fairmount Behavioral Health System, a psychiatric treatment facility.
In an interview with USA TODAY, he alleged he hasn't seen his mother since a visit at the behavioral institution where she told him, "I broke our family."
“And it’s not Hannah’s fault," Collin Gosselin said. "She should be able to have a relationship with her father, with her mother, with all of her siblings. Everybody should have that. It’s not her fault. I do put the blame on my mother because she’s leveraging that over Hannah.”
The news follows the Gosselin family's upcoming Netflix documentary, announced Oct. 21. Although most of the details are unknown, it plans to explain what's next for the Gosselin family following the TLC franchise "Jon & Kate Plus 8" and "Kate Plus 8" and features interviews with Jon, Collin and Hannah. In "The View" episode, Collin Gosselin added that they've filmed a substantial chunk of the documentary.
"Hannah opened up about a lot of truths, not only to things that my mom did to me, and corroborated those things, but she opened up about things she experienced at the hands of my mother," Collin Gosselin said. "So, now I believe that she’s trying to do pre-damage control, unfortunately, because my mom has placed that guilt on her.”
Although Kate Gosselin has not directly addressed her son's allegations in his memoir, she responded to comments on an Oct. 10 TikTok post. When commenters expressed sympathy for the mother of eight and suggested Collin Gosselin would regret his actions, she replied, "Exactly! I had nothing to do with it, except for consent because it was medically necessary.”
Representatives for Kate Gosselin did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment.
Despite his estranged relationship with his mom, he maintains a close relationship with his father Jon Gosselin, who obtained legal and physical custody of him and sister Hannah Gosselin. Twins Madelyn and Cara Gosselin, and sextuplets Alexis, Aaden, Joel and Leah Gosselin have not outwardly supported him, he told USA TODAY, and he doesn't "blame" their decision to live private lives.
"My mom fed them so much stuff about me and they didn't see a lot of what happened," Collin told USA TODAY. "They would go off to school every day. I would be at home. I would bear the wrath of my mom."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Collin Gosselin says sister Hannah is 'caught in the middle' of family feud
