Jon & Kate Premiere Deals with Marriage, Paparazzi, Anger
Jon and Kate Gosselin
The "interview chair" told the story on Jon & Kate Plus 8's fifth season premiere.
For four seasons, Jon and Kate Gosselin shared the chair — which is more of a loveseat, actually — as they talked about their lives each episode. But on Monday night's premiere, they sat in the seat separately.
"Very swiftly we turned into two different people," Kate said. "It's just hard.... I have a lot of anger, because this is not where we were supposed to be. This is not what I envisioned for us."
The first seven minutes of the show were dedicated to the state of the marriage and the recent tabloid fixation on the super-sized family. Even the couple's six children took note of ever-present paparazzi, who Kate insisted her children call "P-people."
"Did I ever think I'd see myself on the front of the tabloids? Or see those words that are there? No. It kills me!" Kate said.
Jon, whose photographs with a 23-year-old woman after a night out at a bar sparked tabloid claims of infidelity, was similarly disgusted. "I never read a tabloid magazine until I was in one," he said. "And the first one I bought was the last one I bought."
When the episode turned to the sextuplets' fifth birthday party, Jon and Kate's marital strife was still front and center. Kate complained about having to plan the party alone. Jon arrived separately from his wife, though the couple did pose for a photo with their children at the end of the party.
"This could be our last family picture," Kate later said from the interview chair. She wiped her eyes with a tissue as she considered the high divorce rate among parents of multiples.
Finally, the producers put Jon and Kate in the chair together. "Do you guys know what the future holds?" a voice off-camera asked. Jon, who was flippant through much of the episode, looked puzzled. Kate was silent.
Did you watch the premiere? What did you think?
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