KATE GOSSELIN: HOW SHE FOOLED THE WORLD - THE RISE AND FALL OF A REALITY TV QUEEN (100 page)

xxxxx
@Kateplusmy8 if you could decide what your next step in your career would be…what would it be!? Never say never. Remember all is possible!

public speaking/talk show/helping moms get into shape/organize etc..

xxxxx
@Kateplusmy8 are u addicted to fame?

nope. Addicted2my kids, life,&enjoying my job. I lov adventure and challenge!Hate the rif raf that goes w this line of work

xxxxx
@Kateplusmy8 loved her interview in runners mag. I have three kids and can barely find the time to run…how she does it with 8 is amazing!

thx 4 encouragement:)… It takes some fancy schedule dancing 2b a runner/mom of 8! I’m
determined-it can happen!;)

xxxxx
@Kateplusmy8 you seriously need your own daytime tlk show!! Fashion, healthy living, family…you know it all ;) we miss you on TV!!!

and I miss tv… Match made in heaven lol

KATE’S SELF-GLORIFYING RESPONSES AND RETWEETS

Here is a sampling of some of the complimentary tweets Kate receives. She liked some of them so much she felt compelled to retweet them. A “retweet” is marked by the letters RT at the beginning of the line. Kate’s reply to a retweet appears at the end of the line in bold. The tweeter’s name has been removed to protect the naive.

RT @xxxx @Kateplusmy8

You motivate all ages Kate..definitely need ur own exercise show.
WOULD LOVE2 MOTIVATE ON BIGGER SCALE LIKE SHOW!

RT @xxxx @Kateplusmy8

I continue to find it amazing that Kate carries on alone as a strong and loving mother :O)
AWW SWEET. THANKS!

RT @xxxx @Kateplusmy8

Her books are fab! I loved them&couldn’t put them down.Read both in1day.
THX 4 great review!:)

xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 it’s amazing what you have done for your kids some people may judge u but u wouldn’t be able to provide half as much as a nurse

correct! Thx for recognizing that I am doing BEST I can 4 my kids. They have a wonderful life..it’s my greatest accomplishment!:)

RT @xxxx wow! I just re-fell in love w/you!You are amazing,strong and just wow!And looking gorgeous!! Get it!
  AW SWEET!

A RADICAL IDEA

Kate Gosselin is a wealthy woman nearing forty. She has the luxury of being able to stay home and spend some real quality time with her children before they leave home for good. They made her all that
money. She could stop the constant tweeting that always seems to be at its heaviest when the children are at home with her. They would probably appreciate it if she were to give them back what fleeting moments of their childhood they may still have left. There may still be time for her to set things right by putting their needs ahead of her own for a change.

Join us&ignore the lies of haters.Have a ?, get answers from me!;)

–
Kate Gosselin

Kate has been tweeting like a maniac ever since the tabloid industry finally decided she was no longer newsworthy, and the lone paparazzo no longer waited breathlessly outside her front gate to follow her and take her picture on a daily basis. I say paparazzo (singular) because the paparazzi (plural) had long since vanished. They were only there for a few months during the summer of 2009. After that, except on a few occasions, it was just the lone pap – Kate’s very own personal stalker – giving the illusion to Kate’s few remaining fans that she was still being followed and photographed. She did nothing, of course, to dispel the rumors that the paps had gone. She still spoke about how much she was being followed and how much she hated the paparazzi, even when they were no longer interested in her.

Kate dreaded the day when she would leave her property along her quiet country road … alone. No paparazzo. Desperation mode had set in, and Kate realized that the media frenzy was over and she would soon be all alone with her eight children. And how was she going to spread her lies now that the interview circuit had all but closed its doors on her?

Anyone who knows Kate knows that she despises regular people. She mocks and belittles and talks down to and makes fun of everyone, including her children. She has nobody left in her life that isn’t paid to be there or who doesn’t fulfill her narcissistic needs. Go back and re-read “The World According to Kate” if you need a reminder about how Kate feels about people. This includes her fans and those who tweet her incessantly.

So the thought of Kate Gosselin lowering herself to share her inner-most thoughts and feelings with complete strangers via Twitter is absolutely bizarre. But she’s doing it. Why?

One reason is that Kate needs constant attention and adoration. She is a textbook narcissist, and the thought of being alone without anyone telling her how wonderful she is on a daily basis is frightening to her. Kate had gotten so used to having people treat her like a celebrity that she didn’t know how to act when that was taken away from her by TLC canceling her show. So she took to Twitter to tell her followers how wonderful she is and they, in turn, tell her back how wonderful she is. Log on to Kate’s Twitter sometime and listen to the narcissistic love fest.

Another reason Kate put all her energy into tweeting about herself, possibly more than any other “celebrity” in the history of Twitter, is because she read online about celebrities like Kim Kardashian making money by tweeting to their large followings. Kate thought this would be an easy way to make money while sitting at home doing nothing. She also read online that her ex-husband, Jon, was also pocketing some easy money doing the same, but on a much, much smaller scale than Kate.

So not to be outdone, Kate set out to conquer the Twitter universe. She envisioned herself easily collecting several million followers, like Kim Kardashian. You see, in Kate’s mind, she’s a much bigger celebrity than Kim, and if Kim can do it, so can Kate, times 8.

The beauty of Twitter for Kate is that she is free to say anything, whether it is true or not. She expected that since the lone, lazy paparazzo had gone long ago, or stopped by only rarely, nobody would be around to call bullshit on her lying tweets. Well, almost nobody.

I included this chapter about Kate’s addiction to Twitter because it provides some perspective about her thought processes and behavior. Her tweets provide a fascinating look into how she continues to exploit her children and disregard their safety by broadcasting their words, activities and photos to strangers; how she uses her fans to satisfy her craving for attention and adulation; how she tells tales to make herself look special or to gain sympathy; how she successfully gets people and companies to send her free things; and how she uses Twitter as a platform in her never-ending campaign to smear the father of her children.

In this chapter, as in those previous, I have removed the Twitter names of those tweeting with Kate in an effort to protect the “haters,” the ignorant, and those blinded by the pinpoint of light reflecting off a has-been reality “star.” I would also rather not give any of her rabid, hate-filled, or creepy fans who clamor for her time and attention and information about her kids the satisfaction of seeing their names in print. Welcome to Kate’s life on Twitter. Her tweets appear in bold type.

THE BUS STOP LIE

Early on, when Kate first started tweeting, the Kate-hate blogs were abuzz with questions about whether Kate was actually doing the tweeting herself. It was a legitimate question considering that Kate has someone to do everything else for her. Why would she actually do the tweeting herself?

I was a bit curious myself, having followed her on her daily travels for so long, so I checked in on Kate every now and then to see what she was tweeting. I wasn’t buying that someone was doing her tweeting for her, but I was suspicious about whether she was actually doing the things she said she was doing in her tweets.

On a day when Kate was tweeting about going to pick up the kids at the bus stop, I hopped in my car and made the 5-minute trip there myself – on a hunch. I sat in my car, staring at the big blue bus at the school bus stop, reading on my iPhone Kate’s constant tweeting in real time about her being there – at the bus stop – anxiously waiting for the bus to arrive and return her beautiful babies to her. But my mind was blown, because sitting in the big blue bus, at the bus stop, just a few feet away from me was, not Kate Gosselin, but a college-age babysitter. I kept watching, expecting to see Kate jump out of the back of the van to meet her babies and run to them with open arms. Surely Kate wouldn’t lie about a thing like that, would she? And why?

Alas, the young babysitter rounded up the kids, loaded them into the van and drove them home, without Kate Gosselin anywhere near. To be fair, I have seen Kate picking the kids up at the same bus stop many, many times. I’m not sure why she felt the need to lie about it that day. Personally, I don’t believe anything anyone says to me or tweets anyway, and I know that television and the entertainment industry in general is all a fabricated illusion.

It must somehow make Kate happy to spend all day tweeting lies to complete strangers. But a grown woman with eight small children in her house while she’s tweeting non-stop, day in and day out, has a problem. Every second she spends staring at her computer or tweeting on her smart phone while her children are at home is a second she could have spent with them. And she chooses not to.