When Jon and Kate Gosselin split up, everyone believed that their marriage ended because Jon had been unfaithful. But now, it looks like it was actually Kate who had been the cheater in the relationship.
After their breakup in 2009, Jon and Kate went their separate ways. Jon went on to date a string of different women, including Michael Lohan’s ex Kate Major. Kate made it clear that she was not interested in pursuing a relationship and was focused on raising her kids.
However, around the time of her split from her husband, there was another man in her life. This fuelled all kinds of rumors about Kate. That person was her bodyguard, Steve Neild.
Steve even made an appearance on a TLC special to explain why exactly Kate needed a bodyguard. Kate had apparently been the victim of a lot of hate mail and threats since becoming a reality star.
To keep herself and her children safe, she hired Steve. However, the decision also led to more unexpected drama.
After their divorce, Jon repeatedly made suggestions that there was something more than a professional relationship between Kate and Steve. He told InTouch Weekly that they would even share hotel rooms during trips, with the kids in one room and Steve and Kate in another. Jon said that he had always thought that Steve and Kate were actually together.
Jon Wasn’t the Only One to be Suspicious of Steve and Kate
A few years later, this story seemed to be backed up in the craziest circumstances.
In 2015, Kate appeared on The Celebrity Apprentice. Among her co-stars in that series was The Real Housewives of Atlanta star Kenya Moore.
After the season ended, Kenya made similar comments about Steve and Kate’s relationship. She stated that Steve and Kate really did share a room, which she found very interesting.
However, Kate denied the accusations her husband made against her and even turned them around on him. She claimed he was using her to clear his own name. She said that it suited him to take the spotlight off his own bad behavior.
A couple of weeks before rumors about her and Steve hit the headlines, there were similar stories surfacing about Jon. He came under fire for allegedly having an affair with Deanna Hummell, a then 23-year-old school teacher.
Kate told People in an exclusive interview that Jon insisted that he and Deanna were just friends. However, she added that he would often apologize to Kate for what she called his “late-night interactions” and would say that they showed “poor judgment.”
ABC News reported that Jon and Deanna allegedly met after buying each other shots at a bar in Reading, Pennsylvania. Deanna eventually spoke out herself about the accusations, repeating Jon’s line that they were just friends.
She also said that it was absurd for anyone to think otherwise, as Jon was married with 8 kids, while she was single. However, plenty of people still believed that Jon had been cheating on Kate. That made it all the more shocking when rumors suggested it was the other way around.
Steve Was Married When the Affair Rumors Spread
One of the big differences between the two cheating stories was that Kate’s alleged lover, Steve, was also a married man himself. He has a wife named Gina as well as two sons, according to Nicki Swift.
Gina’s social media is still full of pictures of the happy family, and she has never publicly commented on the rumors about her husband and Kate. However, Kate herself told People that Gina had assured her that they were “fine” when Kate called to apologize for the effect the stories had on their lives.
RELATED: Why Kate Gosselin Did This to Her Kids
Following the allegations, paparazzi arrived outside Gina and Steve’s house. Although Gina was apparently fine, Kate was horrified by the rumors. She described them as disgusting and unthinkable and said that the people who put the story out there were animals.
Kate went on to say that Steve’s family absolutely loved her and her kids, and they had even spent holidays together. However, after a few years, Steve decided to put more distance between himself and Kate. He quit working for her in 2014, never publicly explaining why.
However, an unknown source who spoke to RadarOnline said that the real reason was down to Gina. The source claimed that she had given her husband an ultimatum.
He had to decide if he was going to keep working for Kate, even though Gina allegedly told him it was making his family miserable. Steve apparently chose his family.
Steve and Kate Were Spotted Together Again
However, the story did not end there. In 2016, RadarOnline reported that Kate and Steve had been spotted together at a Chicago block party.
They were reportedly seen together in a selfie a fan took with Kate that was then tweeted. Steve was supposedly standing in the background of the photo. Since then, there have been no further sightings of Kate and Steve together.
However, that hasn’t stopped Kate’s ex-husband from keeping the allegations in the conversation. In 2022, Jon did an interview with Entertainment Tonight in which he doubled down on his conviction that Kate cheated on him.
He said that the reason for their divorce was “because a certain person left me for a certain somebody.” Although he didn’t mention Steve by name, fans following the story of Jon and Kate’s split were pretty sure they knew who Jon was talking about.
It was clear from Jon’s interview that in all the years since their breakup, the former couple have not managed to heal old wounds. In fact, things have really only gotten worse.
Jon has claimed that he would absolutely be open to a TV reunion of sorts with Kate and the kids. However, according to him, Kate quickly shut down the whole idea.
Jon told ET that Kate had alienated him from most of his kids, which he called a poor decision. He had allegedly tried several times to contact his kids by text, only to receive no response.
Hannah and Collin Live with Jon
However, since 2018, he has had a relationship with two of his kids, since they decided to leave Kate’s care. Hannah and Collin chose to live with their dad full time, while the other four sextuplet siblings stay with Kate, and the two oldest kids are away at college.
At first, Kate had custody of all of their kids, but in 2018, their son Collin moved in with Jon. He was followed by Hannah the following year.
RELATED: Hannah Gosselin Speaks Out On Kate
Hannah explained that she had always had a good relationship with Jon, whom she’d always been closer with. She went on to say that in a house full of kids, it was difficult to get a lot of one-on-one attention from a parent.
Although it was apparently a difficult decision to leave her siblings behind, Hannah claimed that she experienced unfair treatment in Kate’s home. An inside source later told Us Weekly that Kate had “definitely spent a lot of time making sure the kids don’t spend time together.”
They went on to add that Kate was “really upset Hannah chose to live with Jon.” However, Hannah stated that she still maintains regular contact with Kate.
Now that all the kids are over 18, Jon seems willing to tell them more about what really drove their parents apart. He told ET that they were going to learn all of that and how that all transpired and figure out who their parents are.
But with both of them still denying that they had ever been unfaithful to the other, this will probably be a tricky conversation. It doesn’t look like it will help Kate and Jon bury the hatchet anytime soon.
