LAST EDITED ON 08-21-09 AT 09:50 PM (EST)You always have to wonder about the sources on a story like this.
The source is clearly someone who is sympathetic to Kate. But nowhere does the story say that Kate put some of HER SHARE of the money in the college fund, so I presume that's not true. Here's what the story says: 1) Jon and Kate both got a share out of the total amount of money that was paid by TLC; 2) Jon's share has been spent; 3) Kate put money from the account into a college fund for the kids. Here's what it doesn't say:
1) How the money was divided. My inference is that most of the money from TLC went into the kids' college fund (and I wouldn't be surprised if Kate insisted on more money going into the college fund than Jon wanted -- in fact, we were told that the time of the division of the money from TLC was when Jon and Kate really broke up), and Jon and Kate's "shares" were a division of the remainder after expenses, such as the new house, which would mean that their shares were quite small. But Kate had additional outside income from the book. Jon did not. It follows that he spent his share and needs money.
2) Why TLC sent Jon a letter threatening to terminate his contract. It's very unlikely that TLCs threat was tied to "morals", although that may have been mentioned, but the issue has to be filming. Jon has made no secret of the fact that he doesn't like filming the show when he has the kids; he discussed that in the first episode of this season. Kate is the one that likes filming. The fight the other day with Kate was precipitated because Jon had to do filming and needed a babysitter while filming, and Kate wanted to be the babysitter -- nothing more, nothing less.
But TLC doesn't want to do just "Kate Plus 8", especially because the contract is with both Jon & Kate, and there are a lot of people who want to see how Jon deals with the kids without Kate there. I think that was the real motivation for the filming break: because they already had enough episodes with Kate and the kids for a while and needed some with Jon and the kids. It wouldn't surprise me if they had to do some planning before they could make that happen, and it also wouldn't surprise me if Jon wasn't all that excited about participating, which led to the letter. This type of letter is intended to show the "performer" that the studio isn't bluffing when it requires cooperation.
3) How Kate has the kids 60% of the time. The tentative deal called for the children's custody to be divided evenly, with each parent spending 50% of the time with the kids. If that deal had changed, we'd have read about it. If Jon wasn't there 50% of the time, we'd have read about it. So this is obviously planted to try to increase Kate's chances of gaining sole custody, by saying that she has the children more of the time (unlikely) and that she is the one that cares more about them (possible). <NOTE: Of course, Kate could be trying to act as the children's babysitter when Jon is filming to increase her percentage ... oh, wait, we ALREADY KNOW that she tried to do that.>
This claim right here is the one that should cause everyone to realize that this is all a game of inferences intended as part of the divorce PR campaign. Note that everything here is "we're told" and "sources say" -- that's because TLC knows this information comes from Kate's side, which means it could have intentional malice, and TLC doesn't want to get sued for libel. Thus, it very carefully distances itself from the potential truth of the claims.
If Kate has sole custody, she has the right to control the children's images for product use. In other words, goodbye, Jon line of children's sleepwear; hello, Kate line of children's sleepwear.
It is probably true that Jon is interested in being on an Endemol reality series. It is also probably true that he can't do it without TLC's permission, and TLC isn't granting it unless he gets his filming quota done ... and maybe not even then.
Makes sense; he needs the money for his NYC apartment, and TLC needs publicity, but it also wants to control the exposure of its most important asset (the Gosselin children).
Today I saw an episode of J&K+8 from the first year, where they drive the children to Disney World. The problems that erupted between J&K were apparent even then, but they were mitigated by the fact that they needed each other's help. Kate threw a fit when Jon came home from work early and went to get the U-Haul trailer (per their plan) instead of helping her with the kids, because she was tired, even though she'd been at the beauty parlor for the last couple of hours and Jon had been at work. Jon blamed her for not knowing where the camera was when they started, even though she had had to pack all the bags. A neighbor came over to help while she was packing, and little Leah happily folded laundry so she could stay near Mom. Aunt Jodi took the kids for a few hours (including lunch) so J&K could pack the car and the trailer and the family could get on the road on time. Another neighbor went with them and brought her own daughter. Cara and Mady had their own interview time on the couch.
It was so cute ... but the thing that made J&K forget all their irritations with each other was that they actually NEEDED each other to get through everything. Once they had enough hired help to do their bidding, so that they didn't need the ralatives, neighbors, or each other, it's easy to see how things fell apart.
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