Former reality star Jon Gosselin has dropped a bombshell: In the 12 years that he has been locked in ongoing legal and custody disputes with his ex-wife, Kate Gosselin, he's spent $1.3 million in legal fees.
He explained on the podcast First Class Fatherhood: "I've been going to court for 12 years, so it's not an easy battle. I had shared custody, I lost some kids, I had joint legal, I lost legal, I got legal back. When Hannah was 12 years old she wanted to live with me, so then I had to go get legal again, and then I got shared custody. And then, all of a sudden now, I got primary of her."
Jon also added: "I've been through nine attorneys. I've probably spent $1.3 million in court, back and forth with everything else. And then I got sole custody of Collin."
He also noted that it's possible more of his kids might live with him at some point. He and Kate let the kids decide where they want to live, which is actually pretty cool of them.
Luckily, it sounds like Jon's legal woes are easing up a little bit: "It's a long battle. I just didn't give up and I'm still not gonna give up. … I pretty much go to court every month over some custody dispute or something like that. It's getting better now that the kids are getting older."
"So what my attorneys and hers decided is [that] custody is left up to my children. So, if they decide to go live with mom or they decide to live with dad, it's up to them. Now we do have a guardian ad litem, so it's like having a third parent."
"So if there is a dispute between mom and dad, they can always call the guardian ad litem and she is a representative of the court and the judge, so she can make a better decision … which has changed everything."
Sadly, the siblings aren't as close as they could be. Collin especially has suffered through his estrangement from the rest of the family. Jon said, "There's no contact between Collin and his other siblings. There's contact between Hannah and the other siblings."
The worst part is that Kate doesn't see Collin, either, so the guardian ad litem is trying to help mitigate that. "So, the problem right now is we have parent alienation and we have sibling alienation. So with the guardian ad litem, she's trying to alleviate that."
Even though it's really hard, Jon says he is trying to do the best thing for all the kids and is hoping they can all attend therapy together. "And I'm trying to get family therapy through Collin and Hannah's therapist, so that therapist can talk to the other siblings and try to find some common ground, because I think it's really important."
Since the sextuplets are nearly 16, they'll be adults in just two years, and Jon and Kate will have far less say over how they live their lives and what relationships they have. It sounds like Jon is trying to heal the broken bonds before that happens: "They're going to be 18 in two years, so it's going to be quite difficult."
Jon is also hoping that Hannah and Collin will take advantage of the independence that comes with being 16 and go see their siblings on their own: "As soon as my two kids that live with me drive, they have every right to go drive to their siblings' school, pick the kids up, and Kate can't stop them."
The goal, as he says, is that the siblings will be able to break down the barriers between them and work on mending their relationships on their own: "I'm hoping that will break down a lot of tension between siblings."
Jon has previously said that the kids have all "suffered abuse" from their mother and that Hannah and Collin deal with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result.
The interview shocked many, since a lot of that information had been not widely publicized. In the same interview, Jon also claimed Kate has "poisoned my children's minds against me" and that he had been previously powerless to say anything due to a 2009 gag order imposed by a judge.
"I have watched my children suffer and I have not been able to say a word. It's not about me, I don't give a [expletive], I'm like whatever, I'll just go to work, you know? But my kids have suffered so much. Who's going to defend them?"
