Kate Gosselin's former housekeeper says the reality star '110% abused' her son Collin and that the family dog was better looked after than the children. 'Someone would come and pick the dog up for grooming, but she treated her kids basically worse than animals,' Ashley H. claims.
Ashley worked in the Gosselin home in 2013 as a house cleaner and fill-in nanny, and says she saw Kate grab Collin 'many, many times'. The Kate Gosselin nanny abuse claims follow Collin's memoir, In the Shadow of Eight, and Kate's side disputes the picture it paints, which leaves two opposing versions of one household.
Red Spoons and Strict Rules
Ashley says she could not ignore the contrast. She says the family dog was kept out of the house except for the basement, yet someone came to collect it for grooming. In her telling, the children had very little freedom, and she describes Kate's interactions with her kids as 'robotic' and 'not loving'. She adds that Kate made it known who was a favourite and who was 'annoying'.
The detail that still troubles Ashley is a large red plastic spoon in a kitchen drawer. One of the children told her it was what their mother used when she got angry, she says. She left the job after six months.
Ashley worked as a housekeeper and fill-in nanny, and says Kate ran the house by rigid rules. Toys were never left out, and each child was allowed only one or two school outfits a week to keep the laundry down. Even the cleaning was exacting, with a toothpick used around the refrigerator's edges. She says the house was to look 'unlived-in at all times.'
Collin describes the same kind of watchfulness in his memoir. He recalls a device the size of a baby monitor, worn on a lanyard and passed between his mother, nannies and assistants, so that someone always had eyes on him.
Kate Plus 8 and the Silence Around It
While Ashley worked in the home in 2013 during the years TLC broadcast Kate Plus 8, the broader culture surrounding family reality television often relies on strict confidentiality. In entertainment broadcasting generally, standard non-disclosure agreements can make household staff cautious about speaking out, creating an environment where outside oversight is rare.
Ashley told People she reported her concerns to Berks County Children and Youth Services in Pennsylvania and said she wasn't the only person to do so. The agency had not responded to requests for comment at the time of reporting, so it is unclear what came of those reports.
The Toll on Household Staff
Ashley, now 42, was studying for a master's degree in social work at the time and had watched Kate Plus 8 while struggling with infertility herself. She responded to a job post that didn't name Kate, met her at Starbucks, and took the cleaning role when her class schedule clashed with nanny hours. Inside the home, she says, the reality looked nothing like the television version.
Household staff are often the only outsiders who see a child's daily life up close, yet they rarely have formal protection if they report what they see. Ashley raised her concerns more than a decade before Collin published his own account.
Kate's Defence vs Collin's Memoir
Kate maintains that measures at home were medically advised, while Collin says in his memoir that he was misdiagnosed. In a 2023 statement, she said he had received multiple psychiatric diagnoses and that emergency room doctors admitted him after an outburst involving a weapon. Her attorney, Richard Puleo, said in 2024 that he did not believe she intentionally harmed her son.
Collin alleges he was locked in a basement bedroom and restrained with zip ties after running away, before spending nearly two years at Fairmont Behavioral Health Institute. Neither account has been tested in court, and Kate's attorney had not replied at the time of reporting. With a former staff member now on the record, more of the household's story may still come out.
