What If Your Ex Wrote a Tell-All? the Saga Between Jon and Kate Refuses to Die
Kate Gosselin and Jon Gosselin may be back in the courtroom soon. This time, it won't be for visitation issues or child support. This lawsuit, filed by Kate Gosselin, is over allegations that her private property and information were stolen by her ex-husband for the tell-all book, Kate Gosselin: How She Fooled the World, according to TMZ.
The tell-all e-book, which a source says exposes "explosive material" about Kate, was written and released last year by Jon's business partner Rob Hoffman. Jon Gosselin isn't cited as an author, but the claim is that he provided a bulk of the information to Hoffman. The book has since been pulled from Amazon and other major distributors.
The 18-page lawsuit claims invasion of property, identity theft, and other allegations that Jon illegally obtained "private and confidential material" from Kate's email account, bank and phone records and computer hard drive while they were separated.
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"Jon the gave them the contents of Kate's email account and the hard drive, all of which were acquired illegality, to his friend and business partner, tabloid reporter Robert Hoffman," the lawsuit alleges."Hoffman used the illegally acquired data to publish a defamatory book about Kate."
It goes on to claim that Hoffman has bragged publicly about being in possession of thousands of family photos, tax records, contracts and other private documents that he was aware Jon acquired illegally.
Sound like one more bout of reality-TV melodrama? Not to me.
While many people might shake their head at the litigiousness of this divorced couple, I have to admit that once again, I relate to Jon and Kate. At least a little bit. Minus the Botox and security guard fling rumors, that is. Without the e-book and phone-record pilfering, at least that I am aware of at this point. Oh, and subtracting seven of those adorable kids from the formula.
I've spent most of the last six years in court, just out of court, or about to file a motion against my ex-husband. While I wish I had a reality star's per-episode salary to pay off the thousands and thousands of dollars in attorney fees I've accumulated, I've pushed forward in the legal system repeatedly because I felt it was the safest, best way to handle a situation. It's not ideal, never simple, always costly (emotionally as well as to the wallet), and drags on for much longer than than anyone on either side of the bench hopes.
Of course, there are divorced people who can have a civilized conversation and work out matters of summer camp for the kids and who will get to take the dog on vacation and, oh, maybe even alleged email hacking. But many have to to turn to the courts to communicate, and for some of us, that's the best it gets. Sad, true.
And of course for Jon and Kate, the legal wranglings will go on and on, even if the issues are not directly over the Plus Eight. It's too bad that vengeance and money have led the former couple back to the courts which will surely ignite more accusations and cost lots more money.
A lot of stuff has been written about both Kate and Jon Gosselin, most of it centering on what a demanding and awful mother, media lady, and ex-wife Kate is. There has also been a lot of coverage of how her family has healed, the kids have grown and she has moved on (see this People novella covering all of these). But to even consider that all the dirt came from your kids' dad, which came from digging around in your personal and confidential accounts? Wow.
Not to say Jon is guilty (that's up to the court to decide, clearly) but isn't he an IT guy? And isn't it funny-strange (not funny-haha) that his business partner is also a tabloid journalist and this story is covered in sort of an eye-rolling way by a tabloid gossip site? Why are a tabloid journalist and a former-reality TV star/IT guy in business together anyway? What do you think it means that it was an e-book - did publishers steer clear of the pitch from the get-go or was this some attempt at new-media savvy? Why didn't Jon just write the damn thing himself? And somebody please reassure me that Kate has changed all of her passwords to include at least two numbers, one capital and one lower-case letter, and possibly an asterisk.
All interesting stuff to consider, at least in that way we spend too much time thinking on which Real Housewife is more looky-loo than the others. The webs we weave, my single-parent and divorced friends, the webs we weave.
-By Jessica Hailey
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