What Happened To Kate Gosselin After Jon And Kate Plus 8?

Few families in reality television history have been an overnight sensation quite like the Gosselins. Jon and Kate Gosselin were catapulted out of obscurity and into the limelight after inviting TLC cameras into their home and showing what life was like for two parents, a set of twins, and a set of sextuplets. Fans couldn't get enough of "Jon & Kate Plus 8," which originally premiered in 2007. Unfortunately, a not-so-shocking announcement that Jon and Kate had decided to separate derailed the series, and the final episode aired near the end of 2009.

But not even a divorce could stop Kate. The reality TV mom was determined to continue providing a great life for herself and her children, and she sought every opportunity that was available. The "Plus 8" cameras may no longer be rolling, but Kate sure hasn't slowed down. Here's what reality star Kate Gosselin's life looked like after "Jon & Kate Plus 8."

The cancellation of "Jon & Kate Plus 8" was the end of a chapter for Kate Gosselin, but she stayed busy writing new ones ... literally. Just months before Kate and Jon Gosselin announced to the world that they were separating, Kate published her second book, "Eight Little Faces," in which the mother of eight shared photos and stories from her life along with lessons she'd learned and meditations on her faith. Shortly after her divorce and the end of her first major series on reality TV, Kate published her third book, "I Just Want You to Know: Letters to My Kids on Love, Faith, and Family," which told stories from a three-year period of her life in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania.

In 2013, Kate had the opportunity to publish yet another book, this time a cookbook called "Kate Gosselin's Love Is in the Mix: Making Meals into Memories with Family-Friendly Recipes, Tips and Traditions." The book featured the family's favorite recipes, and Kate was hopeful that it would do more than just feed the people who bought it. The reality star hoped that it would serve as a vessel to get her back on TV. "I wake up every day dreaming of that second chance. I don't think I appreciated it enough. But I would love to take what I learned and, gosh, knock it out of the park next time," Kate said on an episode of "The Marilyn Denis Show" while promoting the cookbook, as reported by the Toronto Star.

Kate Gosselin was making great money while she was on TLC, but when she was uncertain of her future with the network, she sought other opportunities for high earnings. In 2010, that included a stint on "Dancing with the Stars." "Any work that comes my way — and this job [on 'Dancing'] is most cost effective. If it could all go away because I was financially set and I could stay home and bake and cook from scratch, I'd like to do that. I'd so be there," Gosselin said on "Good Morning America."

Like many contestants on the show, Gosselin didn't have much of a dance background, but she said ahead of the competition that she wasn't afraid of working hard. Unfortunately, hard work only got the reality star so far. The judges were quite critical of her performances, and Gosselin only lasted five weeks on the series. "I knew it would be me ... I was sad that it was me ... but I was happy that it was me and it wasn't anyone else. I wanted to learn more, I wanted to do more. I knew it was my day yesterday," Gosselin said on "Good Morning America" upon her elimination, per ABC News. Gosselin also noted how unique the experience was for her children. Her twins and sextuplets watched her compete, but they apparently didn't like hearing what the judges had to say about Gosselin's dancing. The mother of eight was excited to be able to spend more time with her kids after being eliminated from the show.

After separating from his ex-wife, Jon Gosselin was ready to also part ways with the TLC cameras, as evidenced by his infrequent appearances on the network afterward. But Kate Gosselin wasn't quite so eager to put her reality TV life in the past. After the end of "Jon & Kate Plus 8," Kate and her children returned to TLC for the spin-off series "Kate Plus 8," which essentially followed the original show's blueprint, but without Jon. The series, which showed how Kate was adjusting to life as a single parent, ran off and on for seven years.

Kate only took a brief hiatus from reality TV after "Kate Plus 8" was canceled. A couple years later, she returned for another spin-off series called "Kate Plus Date," on which Kate went on a series of dates in an effort to find a partner. "I don't want to be single for the rest of my life, and I've felt that way for a long time," Kate said in an interview with ABC News ahead of her new series. While audiences understood Kate's desire to find a partner, her decision to date on camera came with some criticism. In response to the critics, Kate said, "It's what I do. You can't just be like, 'So, this is what I'm going to do for a living.' It fell in my lap, and I made the best of an amazing opportunity. And I don't regret it ... [Reality TV] is typical for me."

Solo parenting and dating weren't Kate Gosselin's only trials and tribulations in the late 2010s. Unfortunately, the reality star also had some legal issues to contend with, all in the name of her lengthy custody battle. In 2017, it was reported that Kate and her ex-husband, Jon Gosselin, had gotten into an argument at a dentist office. The two apparently couldn't agree on which parent one of their children would be going home with after an appointment, and the argument escalated to require police intervention. "The call came in at 1:10 this afternoon for a verbal domestic argument ... over the custody of one of their 13-year-old daughters. No one was arrested and the daughter did go home with the father after she expressed that was her desire to do," a police spokesperson said, per Entertainment Tonight.

The incident at the dentist office was by no means the first time the public had heard that Jon and Kate's custody arrangement was causing problems within the family. Months prior, Jon took to Entertainment Tonight to air his grievances, claiming that Kate was not following the terms of their agreement. In response, he filed a police report against his ex-wife. The next month, Kate appeared on "The Dr. Oz Show" to speak her piece, claiming that Jon was not being an uplifting parent.

After her divorce from Jon Gosselin, Kate Gosselin was initially granted physical custody of their eight children. However, the arrangement was not permanent, and the exes battled one another for years in and, according to reports, outside of courts. The kids seemed to have some say in their living arrangements, too, and one of the eight children, Hannah Gosselin, ended up living with Jon, and Kate temporarily lost custody of her daughter. And what was the real reason Kate lost custody of Hannah? According to an unnamed source who spoke to E! News, "Jon is filing for custody because Hannah has expressed she is unhappy and uncomfortable in the house with Kate."

Per reports, Kate and Hannah's relationship remained tenuous for a while. "Kate rarely sees or talks with Hannah, but they do have some contact. Jon allows her to go over anytime she wants, but Kate never asks her to come," a source told Radar Online in 2019. But like their past custody arrangement, it appears that the tension between Kate and Hannah wasn't permanent. In 2025, the mother of eight provided an update on her relationship with her once-estranged daughter. "Hannah just called me and helped me get an Amazon list together of all the things that I have mentioned and people keep asking me for," Kate said in a video posted to TikTok, confirming in the comment section that the two indeed speak. "Thank you, Hannah. I love you," Kate added at the end of the video.

One of the most tragic details about the Gosselin family is how Kate Gosselin's relationship with her son Collin Gosselin deteriorated after her divorce from Jon Gosselin. In 2018, Kate lost custody of Collin. Collin had dealt with some personal struggles and spent time in a residential treatment facility, and Jon petitioned to be granted sole physical custody of Collin upon his release. Jon won his case, and Collin joined Hannah Gosselin in living full time with their father. As the years went on, updates on Collin and Kate's relationship came from both parties, including one from Collin in 2022 in which he shared that he hadn't spoken to his mom nor any of his siblings, aside from Hannah, in over five years.

In 2025, Kate shared more of her perspective in a post to Instagram. The mother of eight said that Collin struggles with his mental health and cited his behavior as the reason why she and most of her children don't have a relationship with him. "All parent child relationships are complex, but when mental illness is involved, it is incredibly complicated and painful, and certainly not easy for others on the outside to understand," Kate said.

Diehard fans of "Jon & Kate Plus 8" will remember when the Gosselin family moved from the house where they started the series into the much bigger house where they ended the series. The latter home, still in Pennsylvania, was over 7,500 square feet and sat on a 23-acre property. When Jon Gosselin and Kate Gosselin divorced, they initially kept the children in the house while they swapped during their time with the kids, but eventually Jon moved out and Kate moved back in permanently.

Kate lived in the sprawling abode with most of her kids until she put it on the market in 2021. "She's not working, so there are no checks coming in. It costs a lot of money to care for the kids and the lifestyle she's been accustomed to. Having a hit TV show had a lot of perks. Things have definitely changed. That's why she's looking to sell her home," a source told InTouch at the time. After the house sold, Kate moved to North Carolina into a home that she had bought back in 2018. Though a bit smaller than her Pennsylvania property, the waterfront North Carolina place seems to be just as lovely with a private pier and boat dock, a pool, and four bedrooms for when her children visit. "The move just made sense, and it's a better way of life for her and the kids now. The younger four will be in college this year. Kate didn't need to keep their gigantic home in [Wernersville, Pennsylvania]," a source told InTouch when Kate Gosselin made her big move.

When the public was first introduced to Kate Gosselin, she was working outside the home as a nurse. Eventually she left the medical field, opting to stay home with her children and embrace reality TV stardom. But after years out of the direct spotlight and with all of her kids in adulthood, Kate returned to her old job. In 2021, Kate received a multi-state nursing license from the North Carolina Board of Nursing, and she began working again as a nurse in her new home state.

According to sources, the change was difficult but it was necessary. For years, rumors swirled that Kate was struggling financially, which prompted her return to work. In 2025, the mother of eight shed some light on her career and financial situation in a video posted to TikTok. Kate stated that she works as a home health nurse, and she responded to comments wondering why she has to work given her previous earnings from TLC. The nurse shared that paying for all eight of her children to go to college and years of legal fees due to Kate and Jon Gosselin's child support battle left her with much less than she started with. "Sickening but I was drug into court constantly and that costs A TON. Sad bc my kids could have a lot more saved and I could have a retirement saved if it weren't for lawyers :(. It's okay. I'm helping other families and I feel needed and I enjoy helping!" Kate said in a comment.

In 2023, Kate Gosselin returned to reality TV, but this time it wasn't with her children, nor was it on TLC. Gosselin was tapped for the very first season of Fox's reality series "Special Forces: World's Toughest Test." The mother of eight was alongside a mixture of athletes, reality stars, and other celebrities like Kenya Moore, Montell Jordan, and Carli Lloyd to see if they could withstand conditions comparable to those that members of the United States Special Forces go up against. Unfortunately for Gosselin, she was only able to film one episode.

Gosselin's departure from the show wasn't because she wasn't tough — the reality star suffered an injury on set and had to exit. Gosselin injured her neck while falling backward out of a helicopter into water. She tried to push through knowing she'd have to leave if producers knew what had happened, but her injury was too severe. "I knew, being a nurse, that I had to go get checked out and make sure there was no lifelong injury there. My neck still bothers me sometimes. It is muscle. I do tend to carry stress in my neck and shoulders. So I do think that that probably was a factor in it, then hitting it smack dab on the water," Gosselin told People in a subsequent interview. "It took me so long to get over that. I still don't think I am. Because I really wanted to challenge myself," she said of having to withdraw from competition.

Kate Gosselin might not ever have her own show on reality TV again, but she's found another way to connect with fans. In 2025, she started a TikTok account. "I just wanted to come on here really quick and let you know that this is actually my account, I'm just waiting for TikTok to verify me," she said in one of her first videos posted to the platform. "It is my account, and there's gonna be a lot of dogs on it, and kids, but mostly dogs, and me. I'm in my German Shepard dog mom era," she added.

Gosselin delivered on that promise. The reality star has posted several videos of her dogs, along with cooking videos, cleaning and organization tutorials, and throwback videos of her kids. Gosselin has also posted current videos with some of her children, and just months before joining TikTok, she took to Instagram to share photos of her and four of her sextuplets celebrating their birthday. The Gosselin sextuplets are older than you might realize: In 2025, the babies of the family rang in their 21st birthday. "And just like that, they turned 21! Happy Birthday to my 6!" she captioned the post.