Jon and Kate: Separated?!

It’s running around the rumor mill that power couple, Jon and Kate Gosselin, is separated. According to Star magazine, who was the first to publish the article, Jon Gosselin was found partying out at a bar with college girls, eventually making his way to a co-ed house located near Juniata College. A photo of what appears to be Gosselin, although not proven to be Jon, shows a highly intoxicated Asian man posing for a picture between two college girls at a bar. This photo has surfaced all across the Internet and has fueled the fire of this rumor. Jon was allegedly seen “dirty dancing”, kissing, and drinking with college-aged women. It has also been reported that Jon has moved out of the couple’s new home in Wernersville, PA and is now living with his mother in Huntingdon, PA. Kate still lives at home with the kids, but visits her mother regularly. Another source reported seeing Kate alone at a bar smoking while talking to other men, none of which were Jon. As mentioned before this is only a rumor and nothing has been confirmed from TLC or the Gosselins themselves.

I honestly don’t believe any of this is true because I have been an avid watcher of their television show: Jon and Kate Plus Eight. There is nothing shown on the show that provides any evidence of such an event occurring or even about to occur. The couple even dedicated an episode to their second wedding in Hawaii to show their children that they would never break apart because their family always had to stick together. They have been a loving couple for several years now and have always trekked through the hard times together, especially the birth of their sextuplets. However, I will agree that Kate has become a bit rude and tyrannical toward Jon on the most recently televised episodes of their show, but then again, what kind of person wouldn’t be a bit crabby and on edge having to take care of eight kids and, now, two puppies? I also believe that if this couple were ever to come to a disagreement that could harm their marriage they would first look to marriage counseling or pray in order for their issue to be resolved. They are not the type of people to fight one day and call it quits; they work through their mistakes and come out victorious. And another thing, I know Jon may not like how he is treated every now and then, but do you honestly think he’d want to pay child support for all of those kids? I don’t think he would even want to split the kids up. I think both Jon and Kate would find that highly unacceptable and work together on their problems to keep the kids together.

As far as I’m concerned, I think people need to keep their own perceptions of people to themselves rather than use their judgments to come up with ideas to spice up rumors. For all we know, this story could be just a media ploy to get opinions on the Gosselins and break down their media royalty status on TLC. I just think we should keep the false rumors to ourselves and wait until the couple publicly addresses the issue at hand. It isn’t any of our business to talk about their private lives when they didn’t address it to begin with.

Kristen Karpinski
Wilkes University '11
Communication Studies