KATE GOSSELIN: HOW SHE FOOLED THE WORLD - THE RISE AND FALL OF A REALITY TV QUEEN (35 page)

“Obviously it would be inaccurate and short-sighted to declare that all of their current struggles are attributed to one factor. These multiple changes are exactly why I feel they need privacy, stability, and security.

“Filming and displaying their private lives at this time is not in their best interest.”

Given that Jon had so clearly violated many of the conditions in the Termination clause, why didn’t Discovery terminate the contract, or at least let Jon and the kids walk away?  Knowing what they knew about what was going on behind the scenes with the Gosselin family, why did Discovery continue to keep them under contract and film them like they were a normal, happy, albeit dysfunctional, family? Why did they continue this very public lie and take them to Hawaii, to film, of all things, a renewal of their marriage vows when they knew that Jon and Kate were quietly at war behind the scenes about keeping their marriage and the show going? Why did they continue filming if they knew it was all a big lie?

So many questions. And the answer to each one of them is easy. Money. Discovery and TLC were making millions and millions of dollars off of this family and this show, and there was nothing in the world that was going to stop them from continuing to do so; certainly not Jon Gosselin.

After all, Kate was their girl, and she was ready and willing to allow them to continue to film the kids as much as they wanted. So Discovery formulated a plan to spin and lie and manipulate audience perception through the editing of the show. They gave Kate her scripts of talking points to steer the story through the media in the direction that they (Discovery) wanted, to keep things moving in the direction that they wanted, and to keep the money pouring in. They fed stories to the media to damage Jon and to make Kate look like an innocent victim, all the while knowing that they were lying.

The final episode of
Jon & Kate Plus Ei8ht
was so blatantly edited to show Jon in a bad light, while making Kate look like the loving, innocent victim of Jon’s bad behavior, that it would have been laughable had it not been so sad and damaging for Jon. When I watched it for the first time – after being involved with this story and having firsthand knowledge of what was really going on – I saw that it was clearly intended to make it look like “Jon is mean to the twins and Kate is soft and gentle.”

TLC has hours and hours of footage of Kate behaving the exact same way as Jon did in that episode; far worse, they have footage of her being cruel to the children. But they chose to bury Jon for his defiant behavior and canonize Kate because they knew that Kate alone wanted the show to go on, and the filming to continue – without Jon, and they wanted to milk that for all it was worth. They needed the public to support Kate and follow her to TLC’s next show,
Kate Plus Ei8ht
, so that the money would keep flowing.

Discovery wasn’t about to give up on their biggest cash cow, Kate Gosselin, so once it was clear that filming
Jon & Kate Plus Ei8ht
with Jon was no longer an option, they hunkered down, regrouped and hatched the plan to make Jon the bad guy and to make Kate look like the scared, hurt little victim, wondering how she was going to take care of her children all by herself … all alone, with no money.

In their quest to paint Kate as a sympathetic figure, the biggest lie of all in the divorce proceedings was still to come.

THE SPIN

Discovery controlled EVERY aspect of Jon and Kate Gosselin’s divorce “storyline.” After Jon exposed the lies of their “happy marriage” by being seen out and about with women other than his loving wife, Discovery went into full damage control mode. If they weren’t already completely behind Kate as their bread-winning star, they sure were at this point.

On May 4, 2009,
Jennifer E. Williams, Director of Talent Relations Business and Legal Affairs for Discovery, sent Julie May a certified letter regarding their “outrage” at Jon’s behavior. She copied Eileen O’Neill, President and General Manager of TLC; Edward Sabin, COO of TLC; and Laurie Goldberg, Senior Vice President, Communications of TLC.

Discovery decided what Kate was going to say regarding the divorce, and everything else, and when she was going to say it. Their first order of business was to convince the world that Jon was having affairs and stealing money, and that Kate had no choice but to file for divorce from him, “to protect her children.” They did this even though they knew that Jon and Kate were no longer happily married, and hadn’t been for some time.

The next step was for Discovery to exploit this tragic family situation to garner huge ratings and, thus, profit for themselves. Discovery wanted Jon and Kate to sit down in front of a television camera and answer painful questions about their most private troubles, for
the entire world to see. Surely, any couple who is hostile to one another and about to go into a huge public divorce would want to do that first, right? Kate was completely on board with the idea, of course, but Jon wanted nothing to do with it.

It didn’t matter what Jon did or did not want. On June 14, 2009, Julie May sent an email listing Discovery’s
20 possible interview questions for Jon. That same evening, Jon informed his attorney that he told Julie he wasn’t going to answer any of the questions. He said, “The network is glorifying my divorce!!!”

These are some of the
interview questions Discovery wanted Jon and Kate to answer:

How did you tell the kids?

How are they doing?

How will this change your day to day with the kids?

Where will the kids live?

Will you move from the house that you just bought?

Where are you living?

Have you already been separate? Was it earlier than reported in the press?

You renewed your vows in Hawaii. Was that real?

Did you consider marriage counseling or therapy?

Will your
series continue and how?

Will you be stronger and happier apart than together?

What are your arrangements moving forward?

Will you be stronger and happier apart?

What would you have changed looking back?

Do you blame anyone?

Is there anything you would like to discuss or clear the air about?

For any normal person, the idea of sitting down in front of millions of people and answering these very personal questions would be humiliating. Jon wanted nothing to do with it, but that didn’t really matter to Discovery because Jon was under contract to do everything they asked him to do.

Even their manager, Julie May, thought it would be a bad idea to film Jon or Kate answering questions about their divorce so soon, but Discovery was determined that they would do just that. Julie May
wrote to Jon that she had made it “VERY” clear that she didn’t think he and Kate were ready to sit down and do an interview together. She added, “but they are indicating that they would still like you to do so.”

If you were a fan of the show, or just an interested observer at that time, you already know that Discovery won that battle. Jon and Kate did, in fact, sit down together to answer questions on camera. And that episode of
Jon & Kate Plus Ei8ht
became their highest rated ever. Approximately 10 million viewers tuned in to see the Gosselin divorce disaster unfold.

When it came time for the actual filing of the divorce, Discovery really began manipulating the situation behind the scenes, in favor of Kate over Jon. This was war, and the party with the biggest guns (lawyers) was going to win in a landslide. Kate had the full muscle of Discovery’s legal department and Public Relations team standing behind her, and Jon, well, he didn’t. He never stood a chance.

As the following series of emails demonstrates, Discovery’s lawyers changed the rules of the game, on the fly, leaving Jon’s lawyer shaking his head and feeling foolish. It’s no wonder he got out.

Jon’s attorney, Charlie Meyer,
sent an email to one of Kate’s attorneys, Cheryl Young, to let her know he had drafted a rough statement that would need to be released at the same time as the filing of the divorce complaint. He said if Kate approved of the statement, there might still have to be some minor tweaks. He then told Cheryl that they wanted the statement released by TLC. Charlie actually thought he would be dictating something regarding this divorce process to Discovery. Sorry, Charlie. This is Charlie’s rough draft of the statement:

“
Jon and Kate have mutually decided
to move forward with their lives.

In Pennsylvania, one of the parties has to be the one to file for divorce and it was decided that Jon would do so.

The allegations in the divorce complaint filed by Jon merely are a formality, and Kate has or shortly will be filing an answer admitting those allegations.

The parties will continue to do everything they can to be good parents to the children, to put the children's well-being above everything else, and to support the other party as the parent to their children.”

Charlie also sent Julie May this same statement he had prepared for the media regarding the divorce, changing the word “allegations” to “statements”, and asked her to let him know what she thought of it. At this point,
Jon and Kate had mutually decided that Jon would be the one to actually file for divorce
, because it is a requirement in Pennsylvania that one of the parties has to be the one to file.

On Thursday, June 18, 2009, Julie May sent
an email to the attorneys for both sides to pass along the news that the network was concerned that the timing of the divorce filing was messing up their already-finished episodes of
Jon & Kate Plus Ei8ht
. Julie said the network was worried that the announcement on the show wouldn’t match the press reports about the filing and the show would be outdated when the news broke. She said the network suggested that if the plan was to file on Monday, they wanted Jon and Kate to do a brief “pick up” interview or maybe some voiceover lines they could add to cover the new information. They even suggested delaying the filing of the divorce papers so they could incorporate it into future episodes.

That same day
, Cheryl Young replied to Julie May and Charlie, telling them that Kate wanted the filing to occur on Monday. She told them she would double-check that with her based on concerns from the network.

You can imagine Charlie’s surprise,
then, when he received a network-approved statement that had been prepared for Jon. As you can see, it is a bit different from Charlie’s original draft. This is what Discovery wanted, and this is what Discovery got.

"This
afternoon,
Kate filed for divorce.
Our kids are still my number one priority. I love them and want to make sure they stay happy, healthy and safe. My job is being the best, most supportive and loving father that I can be to my kids, and not being married to Kate doesn't change that. This will be a difficult transition for all of us, but Kate and I will work out a schedule that enables our kids to have plenty of quality time with both of us at home in Pennsylvania. In terms of my marriage, it's no secret that the past six months or so have been very difficult for Kate and me. We are no different than other couples and parents who are facing a crossroads in their marriage. I am of course deeply saddened that we are divorcing."

Charlie was then caught off guard by Kate and Discovery, who had gone to their favorite media outlet,
People
magazine
,
and released their own story. It was a Discovery-generated spinfest. Remember, Jon and Kate both originally agreed that, as a formality, Jon would be the one to actually file for divorce. But Discovery stepped in and created a complete fabrication to further their own agenda.

On
Monday, June 22, 2009, at 10:22 PM, Charlie sent the link to the
People
article to his associates and Jon (
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20286839,00.html
)
.

Charlie
said “I didn’t think she was going to make a statement.”