Divorce Lawyer Makes Bold Claims About Jon And Kate Gosselin's Decade-Long Messy Split
Jon and Kate Gosselin introduced the world to their family — which includes a pair of twins as well as sextuplets — when they first appeared on their reality show Jon & Kate Plus 8. The pair also gave viewers a glimpse of their marriage, which eventually ended up in divorce. In the years since, things between Jon and Kate haven't seemed to improve. In fact, they've continued to lash out at each other, with Jon accusing Kate of being a bad mother, and Kate blaming Jon for the cancelation of her show ... among other issues.
"Jon and Kate are both high-conflict people, who cannot and will not get along for the rest of their lives," according to Holly Davis, a divorce lawyer and partner at Kirker Davis LLP, who gave Nicki Swift some exclusive insight into the messy situation.
"It is clear to me from the history of legal cases surrounding their 8 children that their hate for the other person, and the hurt feelings left over from the breakup of their romantic and sexual relationship have fueled them to the courtroom over and over again, and their children are caught in the crossfire," Davis said, while making some bold claims about this highly-public divorce. Read on to find out what our expert has to say about Jon and Kate's ongoing problems and how it affects their family.
This kind of behavior from Jon and Kate 'always backfires'
While Jon and Kate Gosselin have ongoing issues as exes, Kirker Davis LLP's Holly Davis explained to Nicki Swift how their tumultuous split likely affects their kids. "At times, children of high conflict people are put directly in the middle of their parents, to pass messages, to get information, and the like," Davis pointed out. Our expert said that "when they do it, they get power in their relationship with their parent — by pleasing that parent by either talking badly about the opposite parent or by getting information from the information-seeking parent."
When this happens, a problem can arise "when children don't get their way in the teenage years," because they may "use the same tools that got them the attention and praise — manipulating information about one parent to seek approval from the other, or worse — to hurt one parent." Davis notes "that is exactly what's happening to the children that are choosing to live with Kate or Jon. They have picked a side, and they get rewarded or attention for picking that side."
However, Davis also explained that "in family law cases, when a child makes all of these outrageous claims about one parent, the Courts typically look to the parent spending the most time with that child as the person in the wrong." Apparently, this kind of behavior is "such a short term play for a parent to influence a child to make an outcry or claim against the other parent — it always backfires."
Jon and Kate should 'diffuse the situation' ... but can they?
"Co-parenting with a high conflict person is hard — it really is, and trust me, I know," Holly Davis told Nicki Swift. However, the lawyer and divorce expert added that "you can always work to diffuse the situation, help the children, and not make matters worse by suing the person every year like clockwork." That may be true, but when it comes to Jon and Kate Gosselin, Davis' opinion is that they "are incapable of putting their disagreements to the side and trying to co-parent their children who need their help."
"I have seen many children of high-conflict people become children of the court and juvenile system so many times, and this is a potential fate for the 8 kids," Davis explained. Apparently, "serious counseling is needed." So will that be the route that Jon and Kate take with their children? We can certainly hope so, but according to Davis, "high conflict people cannot stop blaming the other person for the breakup of their relationship enough to check in with themselves and change what is not working about themselves."
Frankly, Davis says, "I am sad for these children and I blame Jon and Kate 100%."