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The most hated reality mom in America? Kate Gosselin on E! True Life Story

By April MacIntyre Jan 20, 2011, 21:27 GMT

08/29/2010 - Kate Gosselin - 2010 Primetime Emmy Awards - Arrivals - Nokia Theatre LA Live - Los Angeles, CA, USA © Tommaso Boddi / PR Photos

E! True Hollywood Story: Kate Gosselin in the crosshairs.

“Obviously, they [the Gosselin kids] are young.  They don’t completely understand what separation or divorce means.  But as time went on, the kids would come to me personally and ask questions.  ‘Why is my mommy and daddy not living together? Why does mommy not have a ring on?  Why does daddy have other girlfriends?'” - Stephanie Santoro, Former Gosselin Nanny, tells E!

Premieres February 2, 2011 @ 10:00 PM, ET/PT on E!

The public image of Kate Gosselin runs from adored mother to vilified tabloid target.  But who is this mother of eight, really? 

The success of the show “Jon and Kate Plus 8” turned bitter as her dirty laundry was aired, and intensified when she and her husband went through a very public divorce.  As E!’s Ken Baker says, Kate is “quite simply the most famous mom in reality TV history.” 

With exclusive insights from a former Gosselin nanny who claims to have had a romance with Jon, which Jon denied, and interviews with family, friends and neighbors, E!’s THS examines the life of Kate Gosselin - from her working class roots to her role as a one-woman TV ratings juggernaut.  The E! True Hollywood Story: Kate Gosselin premieres on February 2, 2011 at 10:00 PM, ET/PT only on E!.

The Gosselin’s marital cracks were obvious to those who watched the TLC series.  “Who is to blame for the fate of the Gosselins?  Is it the Gosselins themselves?  Or is it maybe this appetite of American viewers to watch a slow-motion train wreck?” asks Paul Petersen, president of A Minor Consideration, a child advocacy group.  Jon’s friend, Brian Sep, adds, “If my wife was bossing me around and making fun of me on national TV, I couldn’t deal with it.”

Eventually the couple reached a breaking point as Jon was seen in public with other women. Former Gosselin nanny Stephanie Santoro sits down with E! and explains her connection with Jon and the toll it took,  “I was looked at as the home-wrecker and what didn’t make any sense to me was [that] I wasn’t the first girl for him to have a relationship with.”

With their divorce finalized Kate moved on with her own life and experienced first-hand the challenges of raising a child as a single parent – multiplied by eight.  “Kate has more than her hands full and is not a bad person.  To have kids is the easiest job to get in the world.  To raise kids properly is the hardest,” Eric Roberts, supporter of Natural Child Project tells E!. Polly Kahl, author of “Jon & Kate Plus Eight: Reality TV & The Selling Of The Gosselins" adds, “Kate’s fans admire her for being a working mom, having a lot of kids, managing a household and basically doing it all…when it’s very hard even for the average mom to do it.”