EXCLUSIVE: Jon Gosselin Talks Kate, Blasts TLC and Tabloid Lies

How are you doing given all of the drama and media attention over the last month or two?

Well I'm in Philadelphia because it's not my custody day, so I'm just chilling out here with my friends. I've got 65 paparazzi waiting for me back in Reading. I just got back from L.A. where I had 125 paparazzi chasing me. So I'm just taking it easy.

How have you been coping with all of the attention?

I don't really care about the paparazzi. I make friends with them, I don't run from them. They have a job to do and I have a job to do. They call me the paparazzi's friend because I talk to them and ask them about their lives. They're good people, they have families to feed. The thing is, if you run, they're just going to chase you more. They'll think you have something to hide, and I have nothing to hide.

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Were you able to actually enjoy the twins' birthday this week?

Yeah, it was fine. It was weird being in the same house as Kate, though. She stuck around late, and she was supposed to leave but didn't. I put the six [children] to bed, hugged Mady and Cara and then left because it wasn't my custody day. I have custody Saturday, so I left, went to dinner and went back to my hotel in Reading and slept. Now I'm going back tomorrow to see the family.

Are the kids in good spirits for the most part?

Yeah, they're fine. They're not oblivious to what's going on, but we're keeping them sheltered the best we can. It's getting kind of dirty right now, which I don't like. That's why I went on TV and said 'Let's settle this.' She [Kate] doesn't talk to me. She doesn't want to talk, but I don't want to embarrass her. I want the best for my family, kids and myself. She makes these claims about me and taking all that money. I have the proof ... Bank statements, I have all that. I didn't take all that money she said I took. It just makes her look bad, really.

Kate has been on 'The View' and 'Today' to state her case. Would you be open to going onto those shows as well?

I got invited to 'The View.' I might do it in the future. Right now I think it might be better to see what happens. It's supposed to go to court on Tuesday but they're supposed to kibosh it and put back into arbitration, which would make it not public.

What's been the most misconstrued notion about you?

There's two things. There's the tabloids and their depiction of me. It's hard with the tabloids, because if you don't talk to them, everyone else is a source. So if someone doesn't like you, you're toast. The other thing, TLC hates me, so they have it out against me ... I hate that TLC gets involved because they're making it worse. We'd be done already if it wasn't for them getting involved.


Is going on shows your way of doing damage control from all of Kate's appearances?

Going on the shows, at least I can speak my voice. 'Larry King Live,' I can get my voice out there. Live shows are easy, but going on other TV, they edit it to make you out to be whatever way they want. I went on television to say hey, you're hurting our kids. Every time I do something nice or say 'Hey, let's settle this in arbitration,' she hires another legal team which is starting to get annoying because I wonder who's paying for that. Probably TLC. Who knows. She says she doesn't have any money, so who's paying for it?

Did you feel ambushed by Nancy Grace during the Insider interview?

I was really afraid going into the Nancy Grace interview. She's a retired DA, so I was like 'Oh, crap.' I don't know much about her ... They told me about Nancy Grace, so I had my attorney there in case she asked me any legal questions I wouldn't be able to answer, or I didn't want to incriminate myself in any way. I think I held my own with her. She combated me, but I had some good points that they edited out. She yelled – and she did yell, by the way -- saying, 'Why are you here now when your kids are at home?" I said I didn't have custody, so I couldn't be home. She said 'Well you could be in Pennsylvania.' I said 'Well I'm here now, and hey, Nancy, I know you live in New York and Georgia and I know you have twins... who's with your twins? She shut up real quick. But by the end of the interview, she could really see my side of the story because she was going straight out of the tabloids and what people have told me. She had to do her job to interrogate me, I answered all of her questions and I have nothing to hide. She yelled at me because basically she's married and wouldn't want to see her ex-husband out there with other girls. Really, the only girl I've ever been with was Hailey. She's stood by me and supported me and stayed out of the divorce and all she wants to do is stand by my side. We just want to get through this as fast as we can.

Has Hailey felt the pressure of all of this as well?

Definitely. It's like taking a private citizen and throwing them onto television. Nobody wants their college pictures drudged up, especially if college is only four years ago for you. That's why it's so embattled, because it's so current. You have President Obama who smoked pot like 20 or 30 years ago, or you have someone young with a celebrity who's smoke pot four years ago, so it's pretty current. If you smoked pot you smoked pot, it shouldn't matter how old. She's never wanted anything, taken anything from me, never said anything about anything. She loves me and wants to be by my side. I respect her for that and I love her for it. Everyone else that's come into my life has basically taken money from me, burned me in the media, said lies about me and tried to drive wedges into my relationship with my family.

It gets old after a while. It gets to be ridiculous, like who are these people to say things about me when they don't know me, such as Kate Major and Stephanie [Santoro] -- all of those people who are profiteering off of lies and my life. Kate Major makes about $110,000 off of her lies, Stephanie makes about $75,000-$100,000 off of her lies. They say anything and people buy it, but my word's not worth anything because I'm so overexposed. I can't defend myself, I can just prove that they're liars which I basically already have. I can't really do anything else except in the court of public opinion. I always think of this whole thing like high school. It's very cliquey and really gossipy. One girl says something to another, then it winds up here ... one says something about a relationship or breakup, then it's everywhere. It's totally like high school just on a global scale.

It's funny, because in high school you're taught to intermix with everyone and everyone should get along, but then we grow up and just separate again into our own groups. We're teaching our kids to accept everyone, but as adults were living a life that's just like that. Now that I have time on my hands I think about that stuff like this.


Would you advise couples to not do a reality show, or do you not blame the shows in part?

I blame it on the network. I was basically in a storybook for four years and didn't realize it because I was busy raising babies. Now that I look back on it, I was a voyeur and I was very passive and let things happen, and now I'm taking initiative with things. All the interviews I'm doing now, you look back and it's like 'Who was this person?'

I really messed up in my communication with Kate. I don't know if the marriage could have been salvaged or not, but TLC had a major role in that. I said a lot and they edited it out. It's always good cop, bad cop. Good cop good cop never sells. First, Kate was bad cop and I was the good guy, then it switched in the tabloids and then on TV.

You have to think of timeline too. We took a month off in September and a lot happened that month. They show an episode of me and her sitting close on the couch, and then in the tabloids they have me running around with everyone in the world. I wasn't even running around with people, I was just hanging out with my friends' cousins and everyone else. So on TV, I'm having a great time with Kate, but then in the tabloids, they read 'Oh, he's cheating on Kate.' That's the hard thing about reality.

You're filming three days straight, and then it airs and it's 22 minutes of story. What you see was always conflict and there was never any resolve, so Kate looks like this mean person that never resolved anything. Same with me. It was all part of TLC's game and plan. I think this whole thing was played out in storybook form regardless of what TLC said. I think they had a master plan behind it. It's like those books in school where you can choose the ending. Exactly. They can edit it any way they want. They could do another five seasons with totally different storylines just based on the footage they have.

Do you regret doing the show?

I don't know if I'd be better off or worse had I not done the show. I don't know. I really have ill will towards TLC, but I signed up for it and I had no legal counsel. Sometimes I regret it. I don't know if I'd be better off or worse if I hadn't done the show.

The cool thing was me and Kate never relied on money, we relied on each other, and now it's like money money money. I don't even care about the money. If I was going to steal $230,000, I would have just stolen $2 million. It's all so stupid.

What's coming up for you, professionally or personally?

Right now my gameplan is to get my kids off of the TV. I don't know how well it's going to work, but I'm going to try my hardest. I've fought and everyone's agreed with me, so we'll leave it in the network's hands and Kate's hands and let the public decide how they feel. I stand my ground and will stand my ground about that.

I'm going to take care of my family the best I can and get through this divorce as quickly as possible or as slow as possible. It's really up to Kate. I gave my points on TV, I said I'm going to settle this thing out of court. So that's really what's dictating everything.

Professionally, I have some good designs and I'm manufacturing things, fashion design, branding. Also, television. Hosting something or doing something like that. Reality TV, I'm not so sure. I just don't want to be involved in reality TV. I could see myself doing maybe reality documentary, where there's eight episodes or something like that, but I'm never signing up for 40-50 episodes ever again. I'm definitely never doing anything with TLC ever again, and they probably feel the same way. It's really affected a lot of things, but here I am now ... I still can't believe it.

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