KATE GOSSELIN: HOW SHE FOOLED THE WORLD - THE RISE AND FALL OF A REALITY TV QUEEN (85 page)

The following exchange on Twitter pretty much sums up Kate’s ignorant nature. This tweeter is the only black woman I can remember Kate ever responding too. Perhaps Kate feels that black people need to be singled out and spoken to in a different manner.

I am most grateful for my babies Jacob12Austin12Jayden10Kayla10Isaac9Gavin8Hannah8Abraham7Liam2 & my husband Brandon soblessed.

you a supa momma! :) I think we could be friends who reallllly understand each other lol

“you a supa momma?” I’m not usually nitpicky, and I tried to read this several different ways to give Kate the benefit of the doubt, but I can only see this as being very racist. If you look at this woman’s Twitter feed from the same time as Kate’s response to her, you’ll see how articulate she is and how she actually spells out her words and uses complete sentences, unlike Kate. This woman sounds like a very well-spoken, thoughtful, intelligent person. Yet Kate responds to her like she’s talking to some hip-hop or rap person. I don’t recall ever seeing Kate respond to anyone like that.

Kate Gosselin just can’t put a filter on her mouth, or in this case, her fingers. This is what happens when Discovery’s Laurie Goldberg is no longer around to put words into Kate’s mouth for her.

“MR CHOCOLATE”

Besides Steve Neild, the Gosselins had another bodyguard who accompanied them on trips for filming. I met him and spoke to him several times while working for
U
S
Weekly.
(I never talked to him for this book or for my
U
S
Weekly
reporting. He was always completely professional and loyal to the family.) To give you a physical description, this bodyguard is a very large, athletic-looking black man whose muscular build actually makes him look like a bodyguard - unlike Steve.

Thanks to Kate, the Gosselin children referred to him as “Mr. Chocolate.” She must have thought that it would be cute to have her kids calling him that name. It would have been interesting to find out how he felt about it.

“ASIAN BOYS AND GIRLS”

Kate Gosselin has eight part-Asian children. Her ex-husband Jon is half Korean. What would ever possess her to think that her being photographed making a “slant-eye” pose with a big smile on her face could look anything other than disrespectful? This is an excerpt taken from my
U
S
Weekly
reporting. Kate tells the kids that they are Asian boys and girls? Not just boys and girls? There is a big difference between celebrating your child’s cultural and ethnic heritage and making fun of it.

Jon and Kate Gosselin PA Reporting

November 2009

Jon got back home just in time to get the girls loaded up to take them to a movie this afternoon with Judy the nanny. Judy had the girls hair done in pigtails and they looked so cute and were very excited about seeing the movie. The boys had seen it a week earlier they told me. They were seeing Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in 3D.

The paps followed Jon and were waiting at the theater entrance when Jon walked in with Hannah and Alexis. They walked inside and the girls were hamming it up for the paps videotaping them. Jon bought the tickets and gave the girls their 3D glasses and told them not to open them until they got inside the theater. Hannah opened hers right away and put them on and they were imitating Joel from a week ago saying
in a very Asian accent, “Mommy says I’m an Asian boyyyyy. I’m an Aian Girlllll!” over and over.

“MY OWN PERSONAL SWEATSHOP”

Upon giving birth to the sextuplets and raising her total of offspring to eight, Kate joked, “Now I can open my own personal sweatshop some day.”

“CHINA DOLLS”

When discussing her children’s Asian genetics in an FAQ episode of
Jon & Kate Plus Ei8ht
, the interviewer asked Kate about the kids looking more like Jon. Kate went a bit overboard, as is typical for Kate.

Producer’s Question: “Oh, this is a good one. All eight of your children have the Korean characteristics. Is that common?

Kate: “Um, I don’t know cause my kids are my kids, but I do know that when I was pregnant with Cara and Mady, Jon’s mom said to me one time, I hope you don’t expect your kids to look like you and I said, well no, actually I was hoping that they would look like Jon, picturing the little China doll babies, and um, because she said that the Korean, the Asian gene is very dominant, and she was right.

Producer’s Question: “Everyone in the family is Asian except for you. Does that bother you?”

Kate: “Not at all. I love it. The more Asian they can look, the better,
and I actually wish I was Korean. And we all know that.”

“I don’t know.
I think they’re beautiful, and my kids are gorgeous and I don’t care how they look, they’re my kids and, I’ve never once cared that they didn’t look like me.”

Let’s forget for a moment Kate’s crass “little China doll babies” comment, and focus on her answer to the producer’s question of whether it bothers her that everyone in the family is Asian except her. First, Kate says that it doesn’t bother her at all, but in the very next breath she contradicts herself and overcompensates by saying, “I actually wish I was Korean.” Then she flips back to saying that she has “never once cared that they didn’t look like me.” Her flip-flopping shows either a complete lack of genuineness (which is entirely consistent with her past words and actions), or a complete lack of cognitive ability.

Before leaving this topic, we should also examine Kate’s comment that the “more Asian they can look, the better.” Given her track record, it would not be a stretch to think she means that the kids looking more Asian would make them more interesting and marketable for television. As much as Kate likes to engage in verbal gymnastics, the meanings behind her words are usually completely transparent.

THE NANNY & PLANET NAILS

This entry from my
U
S
Weekly
reporting speaks to how Kate stereotypes people based on their race:

Jon and Kate Gosselin PA Reporting

September 2009

A source tells me that Jon hired the main nanny, but Kate likes her a lot because “she’s Asian and she works 24/7 and she knows how to do hair and nails. Kate loves having Asians working for her. That’s why she goes to Planet Nails. It’s owned by Asians and she thinks they don’t get involved in other people’s business and they wouldn’t talk to reporters about her.”

“OUR KOREAN FOOD MAKER”

In the “Sextuplets Turn 3” episode of
Jon & Kate Plus Ei8ht
, Jon proudly introduces his grandmother to the TLC audience.

“This is my grandmother, Gammy,” Jon says.

And, of course, the words that spring from Kate’s mouth when introducing Jon’s sweet little grandma to the TLC viewing audience is this:

“This is our Korean food maker.”

Kate is always so very nice and respectful.