Background and career
Katie Irene "Kate" Gosselin (née Kreider; born March 28, 1975) is a former television personality. She appeared on the American reality TV show Jon & Kate Plus 8, in which she and Jon Gosselin were profiled as they raised their atypical family of sextuplets and twins.
Katie Irene Kreider was born at Penn State Hershey Medical Center in 1975 to Charlene (née Kolak) and Kenton Kreider, a pastor. She is of German, Scottish, and English descent. The third of five children, she has three sisters, Kendra, Christen and Clairissa, and one brother, Kevin. Kreider completed nursing school at The Reading Hospital and Medical Center.
Kreider began her career as a labor and delivery nurse in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. She met Jon Gosselin at a company picnic on October 5, 1997. They were married on June 12, 1999. Gosselin became pregnant through fertility treatment because polycystic ovary syndrome left her unable to conceive otherwise. On October 8, 2000, she gave birth to twin girls, Cara Nicole and Madelyn "Mady" Kate, who were premature at 35 weeks gestation. After further treatments, Gosselin became pregnant again and, on May 10, 2004, in Hershey, Pennsylvania, at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center, she gave birth to sextuplets: sons Aaden Jonathan, Collin Thomas, and Joel Kevin; and daughters Alexis Faith, Hannah Joy, and Leah Hope. Born at just shy of 30 weeks gestation, the sextuplets were 10 weeks premature, which is common in the multiple births resulting from fertility treatments. The early birth required the six infants to be placed on ventilators.
Following the birth of the sextuplets, the Gosselins were featured in the NBC reality TV show Home Delivery when their home in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania was renovated to accommodate the large family. The family was then featured in a special on Discovery Health in September 2005 entitled Surviving Sextuplets and Twins. A year later they were featured in another special entitled Sextuplets and Twins: One Year Later. With high ratings from the specials, Discovery Health signed the couple to a reality series which began airing in April 2007, called Jon & Kate Plus 8, documenting their lives. To produce the show, the family was filmed three or four days per week and the show's first two seasons aired on Discovery Health Channel before moving to The Learning Channel (TLC). The family received payment for appearing on the show. On September 29, 2009, TLC announced the change in title of Jon & Kate Plus 8 to Kate Plus 8, continuing to follow Gosselin as a divorced mother, with Jon appearing infrequently on the show going forwards. The show was canceled during season five following Jon's decision to withdraw from the series, with the last episode—the finale of that season—airing on November 23 of that year. Season 2 of Kate Plus 8 premiered on November 28, 2010, and reruns of the show still air on TLC. Gosselin filmed a talk show pilot with Paula Deen in September 2009. By late December 2009, it was announced that Gosselin was no longer being considered for the role, having been deemed too controversial by executives, and the show had not been picked up by a network by the end of the year. Gosselin was a contestant in the tenth season of Dancing with the Stars, and was partnered with professional dancer Tony Dovolani. She was eliminated from the competition in its fifth week in April 2010. Shortly after being eliminated, it was rumored that Gosselin was scheduled to appear in the upcoming season of the popular TV show The Bachelorette; this was denied by both TLC and the show's creator, Mike Fleiss. On June 24, 2010, it was announced that Gosselin would be returning as a co-host on The View, having previously co-hosted it twice. In August 2011, it was announced that Kate Plus 8 had not been renewed for a new season. The final episode of the show aired on September 12, 2011. Gosselin and her children appeared in an episode of Celebrity Wife Swap in February 2013. Gosselin switched places with Kendra Wilkinson. Gosselin competed on the seventh season of The Celebrity Apprentice, being fired on the 9th task. On March 19, 2014, it was announced that Gosselin and her eight children would return for a reunion special of Kate Plus 8, scheduled to air in June of the same year. In August of the same year, it was announced that Kate Plus 8 would return for a new season on January 13, 2015, again on TLC. Season 5 premiered on November 22, 2016. Whilst season 6 was filming, Gosselin went through a custody battle with her ex-husband over two of their children, Collin and Hannah; following Jon's decision to withdraw from filming, the majority of season 6 was canceled, airing in 2017 with just three episodes. Gosselin's new show, Kate Plus Date, premiered on TLC in June 2019. In 2023, Gosselin appeared on the reality TV series Special Forces: World's Toughest Test. She was eliminated in the first episode due to a physical injury.
Gosselin has written three non-fiction books. Her first book, written with Jon Gosselin and Beth Carson, was published in November 2008, titled: Multiple Blessings. It debuted at number five on The New York Times Best Sellers list and sold over 500,000 copies by the end of 2009. Her second book, Eight Little Faces, was released in April 2009 and also debuted at number five on The New York Times Best Sellers list. Her third book, titled I Just Want You to Know, was released on April 13, 2010, selling approximately 10,000 copies in its first week and debuting at number 11 on The New York Times Best Sellers list.
Kate Gosselin worked as a nurse when Jon and Kate Plus 8 first aired in 2007, practicing as a labor and delivery nurse at the Reading Hospital and Medical Center in Pennsylvania. In 2021, she obtained her multi-state, registered nurse license in North Carolina.
