TV Couple Seeks to Put God First
Kate Gosselin and her husband, Jon, can’t stop TLC from editing prayers and references to God out of their hit reality TV series, Jon & Kate Plus 8. But the couple still manages to share their faith with viewers.
“There are many times that we pray, and there are many times we make reference to God,” said Gosselin, whose book, Multiple Blessings: Surviving to Thriving With Twins and Sextuplets, released Tuesday. “It is many times edited out, which is [TLC’s] prerogative. We had a really hard time with that at first, and challenged them about it. “But then the e-mails starting coming in where it would say, ‘We knew you were Christians when we went to your Web site, and we were right.’”
Debuting in April 2007, the Gosselins’ show is the most watched program on TLC and chronicles their atypical life in central Pennsylvania, raising sextuplets—Aaden, Joel, Leah, Alexis, Collin and Hannah—plus twin daughters—Cara and Mady—who are now 4 and 7-1/2 years old, respectively.
“We don’t have editing rights one way or another,” said Gosselin, 33, whose family attends an Assemblies of God church. “If you edited all of our faith out of it and just saw a family—who through thick and through thin is sticking together in marriage—we always say that is so much better than what you’re going to see on TV anywhere else nowadays.”
She noted that God has used the show to make a spiritual impact on fans, including a woman who contacted her family earlier this year because her daughter had ovarian cancer and her dying wish was to talk to Gosselin.
“I felt very insecure about calling her,” Gosselin recalled. “She was a young mom, same age as me, and she had two young kids. I fought it for a few days. … I knew that God was telling me, ‘You must call her, you have no choice, you need to.’
“And so one night, I talked to her,” she added. “I was so inspired by her. She was an amazing woman who found humor in everything. … As she laid on her deathbed, I was able to lead her to the Lord that night. I knew I needed to do it and she was very accepting. She went to heaven less than 24 hour later.”
Gosselin stayed in touch with the woman’s mother, who ended up taking care of her daughter’s small children. “A few months later, the grandmother called me, and the 7-year-old found out that he was dying of cancer,” she recounted. “It’s so horribly awful, and he passed away this summer.
“I was able to lead him as well as the grandmother to the Lord. I never would have met them any other way, and that is how God chooses to use us. Three people coming to the Lord through our show is all worth it.”
The Gosselin family are media darlings, appearing on Dr. Phil, the Today show, The Oprah Winfrey Show and Good Morning America. Zondervan released the Gosselins’ book, Multiple Blessings: Surviving to Thriving With Twins and Sextuplets. Meanwhile, the couple speaks in churches—a ministry that has increased with the growing popularity of Jon & Kate. But having a reality show also means the Gosselins seem to live in a fishbowl.
“If you’ve seen our show, anytime that I lose my temper, I just don’t like to see it,” Gosselin said. “It’s hard, but we’re being real, and that was the goal of our show. … It’s an amazing story that we have eight healthy, beautiful children, but it’s not all hearts and flowers and happy, smiley, giggly all the time. I don’t care what family you are. That is not real. If that’s what you’re seeing, it’s not real all the time.
Having up to eight TV crewmembers filming at their house for sometimes 12 hours also presents spiritual challenges for the family. “The greatest challenge is putting God first all the time, our family second and not allowing work or the demands of the show to tear us apart,” said Gosselin, who has been called “the busiest mom in America.”
“I firmly believe that the enemy’s main goal is to rip us apart as a family,” she continued. “We have felt ourselves being pulled that way because critical people—Christians included—will say: ‘[The show] will tear your family apart. Why are you doing this?’
