‘She didn’t expect this to come out’: Kate Gosselin reportedly ‘spiraling’ over estranged son's memoir

Kate Gosselin is reportedly facing renewed scrutiny ahead of the release of her estranged son Collin Gosselin's memoir, which is expected to detail his experiences growing up in the family's reality television spotlight.

According to Page Six, a source claimed the former Jon & Kate Plus 8 star was unaware that Collin had been working on the book, titled In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood, until its recent announcement.

“Kate had no idea this book was in the works,” the insider alleged. “She didn’t expect any of this to ever come out. Now she’s spiraling because she knows it’s about to hit the fan.”

The source further claimed Kate has privately dismissed her son's allegations as being based on “zero facts”, while insisting she cannot prevent the memoir from being published.

“Kate can’t stop this book from coming out but I have no doubt she wishes she could,” the source added.

According to Page Six, Collin maintains that he has “the evidence to back everything up.”

The memoir's publisher says the book will reveal “the shocking facade of his picture-perfect family” and promises a “never-before-told story of how [Collin] escaped and found his way back from the dark.”

The publisher also describes the memoir as “a reckoning with the dark side of fame: the systems, the entourage, and the institutions that allowed one boy to be erased.”

Among the experiences Collin reportedly recounts are “being held down, the basement cell where he was hidden for years and the cocktail of powerful antipsychotics forced on an 11-year-old boy,” as well as “Christmas morning where the gifts were reclaimed as soon as the cameras went down.”

Collin has previously accused his mother of child abuse and exploitation, alleging he was restrained, confined in a basement and later institutionalised against his will. Kate has consistently denied those allegations.

The family rose to fame on TLC's Jon & Kate Plus 8 in 2007 before the series was renamed Kate Plus 8 following Kate and Jon Gosselin's divorce in 2009. Jon was awarded sole custody of Collin in 2018.