DWTS Alum Accused of Shocking Child Abuse: She ‘Zip-Tied My Hands and Feet’

Season 10 “Dancing With the Stars” alum Kate Gosselin is being accused of shocking child abuse by one of her eight kids.

In a new interview with the U.S. Sun, Collin Gosselin opened up about his childhood, alleging that his mother mistreated him.

“My mother had a room built in our unfinished section of the storage basement,” he told the outlet.

“She had a room put up with cameras in it, a tiny window in the corner and it was bolt-locked from the outside. So this, it was like a containment room, literally, and it had a mattress on the floor and that’s how I lived. And I was there, you know, most of the day because I didn’t go to school after a certain point. So most of the day I was in that room and I was away from my siblings and I never really went outside. I never played with them. I was kept there. It was literally containment,” he added.

Collin’s father, Jon Gosselin, told the U.S. Sun that he was able to verify that the basement room existed when his “friend’s in-laws” purchased the home.

“One time they asked me ‘Why is there a room in the basement with a bed and a lock on the outside?'” he recalled.

A lawyer for the former reality TV star told the U.S. Sun that his client never “intentionally” harmed her son. “If Kate did the things that Collin is accusing Kate of, she would have been investigated by the authorities and prosecuted,” attorney Richard Puleo told the outlet.

Heavy has reached out to Kate Gosselin for comment.

The Gosselin family rose to fame in 2007 when their reality television show, “Jon & Kate Plus 8” premiered on TLC.

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Collin Gosselin Alleged That his Mother ‘Zip Tied’ His Hands & Feet

This isn’t the first time that Collin Gosselin has spoken out about his childhood. He has previously claimed that his mother mistreated him. However, this is the first interview in which he went into detail about his experience.

“My mother at many, many times, and most of the time became physically aggressive, verbally, very abusive with the things she would say,” Collin told the U.S. Sun.

“And obviously that carries over to the emotional side of things where a young child doesn’t know any better, so it was a very, very emotionally abusive relationship. And when my mother would put me in that room multiple times, she had zip-tied my hands and feet together and bolt locked the door, turned the lights off and had cameras there just watching me,” he said.

Following Kate Gosselin’s split from Jon Gosselin, she was granted full custody of their eight children, per Today. As the kids got older, however, there was a clear divide. Collin Gosselin and his sister, Hannah, went to live with their dad. Jon Gosselin was awarded temporary sole custody of his son in 2018, according to People magazine.

Eventually, a judge approved his request for sole custody of both Hannah and Collin, who have lived with him since they were 14 years old.

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Collin Gosselin Was Enrolled in a Facility for Kids With Special Needs

In 2016, Kate Gosselin enrolled her son in a school for kids with special needs.

“Collin has special needs. [There’s] a fairly fluid diagnosis of what those needs are, but he needs to learn certain strategies to help him deal with things. This has been a struggle we’ve had for a very long time, and it’s one I’ve dealt with on my own,” she told People magazine at the time.

While in this boarding program, Collin Gosselin sent a secret letter to his dad. During his 2024 interview with the U.S. Sun, he read the letter in which he asked his dad to “save” him.

“Dear dad. I’m not trying to trick you, but I still love you. I told mom I want to live with you but she said no,” Collin wrote in the letter, which was sent in June 2017. “But right? She can’t choose for me and I’m old enough now. I’m your son, not hers. She was abusive to me after I left her house,” the letter, written in crayon, read.

Elsewhere in the letter, Collin Gosselin wrote, “please help me. I’m counting on you to get me out of here.”

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There Are 2 Sides to the Collin Gosselin Story

Jon Gosselin and two of his kids have vastly different accounts of what’s transpired over the years.

In an interview with Dr. Oz in 2019, Jon Gosselin said that his ex-wife “institutionalized” their son “without a diagnosis and then created a diagnosis” (via Today).

“He did not need to be in an institution. Just because he was a difficult child did not mean he needed to be sent away against my will, against my rights. I did not know where he went. It took me two and a half years to find him. It took me another year to get him out,” Jon Gosselin said.

In his interview with the U.S. Sun, Jon Gosselin said that each time that reports of abuse were filed, they were deemed “unfounded.”

“There was nine separate instances where abuse against Collin had been reported and they were all unfounded. You feel powerless, but you definitely know something’s going on because it’s coming from different sources,” he told the outlet.

In July 2023, Kate Gosselin released a lengthy statement on Instagram, saying that her son had a “distorted perception of reality.”

Also in 2023, one of the Gosselin twins, Mady Gosselin, also released a statement about Collin after receiving “hate messages.”

“I will never allow someone who has exhibited hateful and even violent behavior toward others … in my life, and I refuse to compromise for ANYONE, even my brother Collin,” she said, per Page Six.

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