Production is underway on Netflix’s documentary about the Gosselin family’s life after reality TV, with Jon Gosselin and his 22-year-old children Collin and Hannah set to give interviews. Netflix announced the project on October 21. It’s still untitled, with no release date announced, and Mike Gasparro and Julia Willoughby Nason are producing.
The film will examine the family’s story through the children raised on television, the adults involved in turning their lives into a business and the audience that watched them.
Jon & Kate Plus 8 ran on TLC from 2007 to 2009, following Jon and then-wife Kate as they raised twins Mady and Cara, now 26, and sextuplets Collin, Hannah, Joel, Aaden, Alexis and Leah, now 22. Jon, 49, and Kate, 51, divorced in 2009 after 10 years of marriage. Kate initially received primary custody of all 8 children, and the series became Kate Plus 8.
Jon later obtained custody of Collin and Hannah. Collin has alleged that he was separated from his siblings and placed in an institution over alleged behavioral problems. He’s also accused Kate of childhood abuse, allegations she’s denied.
The documentary announcement comes as Collin discusses those experiences in his memoir, In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood. In an interview earlier this month, he acknowledged that filming provided income and opportunities while questioning his parents’ decision to keep their children on camera.
“My parents should’ve done better to understand that kids should have a choice,” Collin said. He believes they should’ve stopped after the family’s 2006 documentary, Surviving Sextuplets and Twins.
Collin also said some of his siblings were reluctant to film, though he declined to identify them. He described his own way of resisting: “There were interviews where I’d sit off to the side and be withdrawn and upset; that was my silent rebellion.”