KATE GOSSELIN: HOW SHE FOOLED THE WORLD - THE RISE AND FALL OF A REALITY TV QUEEN (71 page)

During the “Going West” episode of Season 1 of
Jon & Kate Plus Ei8ht
, Jon and Kate sat down at home with their lawyer to draft their first Will. They were preparing an incredibly important document; one that would legally spell out who would raise their eight children in the event of Kate and Jon’s death. It is probably the most important decision about their children that any parent will ever make.

In the episode, the lawyer asks who will raise the kids, and Kate responds vaguely for the television audience that they chose “a family member and close friends.” Well the “family member” part was for the sake of the viewers. There never was a family member in line to be guardian of the children. In researching further, I discovered that in the event of Jon and Kate’s untimely death, the Gosselin kids wouldn’t go to any member of either side of the family. The kids would be taken in and raised lovingly by … Beth and Bob Carson. Kate wrote about their decision in her journal.

October 2006

Kate said that their kids would be taken care of by Beth and Bob Carson in the number one position because they have kids who are older and the eight Gosselin kids probably wouldn’t be a huge burden on them. Kate also mentioned Beth’s wisdom, which will help to cover all situations and she would never hinder  any other family members from seeing the kids!

When Jon and Kate started making the big money from their show, they set up a Trust fund. They gave Bob and Beth Carson the high honor of naming them as co-Trustees so they would control the family’s money in case Jon and Kate met an untimely demise. Trusting someone to raise your children and putting them in charge of your money is about as close as a person can ever get to you.

In P
aragraph 12 of the Gosselin family Trust document, Jonathan K. Gosselin and Katie I. Gosselin were appointed as the initial Trustees of the Trust. It was stipulated that if both Trustees at some point became “ineligible, unable or unwilling to serve as Trustee for any reason,” then Robert Carson and Beth Carson would serve as co-Trustees.

To help you further understand the relationship between Kate and Beth, I have included the text of a file that Kate kept on her computer called
Beth a true friend.doc
. The file contains a written exchange between Beth and a blogger who wrote a post critical of Kate. Beth’s defense of Kate to the blogger clearly shows Beth had Kate’s back. Kate must have been very grateful to have a friend like Beth Carson. Then again, maybe not. I have found no evidence that Kate has ever expressed sincere gratitude to anyone who has helped her; she has simply always expected it.

Here is
a partial excerpt of
Beth a true friend.doc
file. Beth’s writings are in bold.

Beth, a friend of Kate Gosselin’s, star of
Jon & Kate, Plus 8
, posted a comment on
 a post I wrote, of questionable tone, called
Sextuplets, My Sympathies
.
  (I am working on the tone, as you can see in
Tone Turtle
.) The post got a much more extreme response than I expected. I meant no harm
 to Kate Gosselin, who should win
Time Magazine’s Person of the Year Award
, in my opinion.
 I felt our exchange was worth it’s own post. If only because I feel totally awesome that someone I’ve seen on TV took the time to write to me.

…You may ask, “How does she have the right to inform me of their circumstances?” Well, you see, I am a close friend of the Gosselins’ (if you don’t think this is legitimate, you can watch ‘Jon and Kate Plus 8′ and you will see me periodically). I frequently care for all eight of their beautiful children when they are unable to due to appointments, conflicts, or when they just need a weekend away (which we are all entitled to at some point, of course).

…
Why do you think Jon and Kate decided to keep all six of their sextuplets, rather than using “selective reduction” to limit chances of health complications, budget issues, or just plain insanity? They kept the babies because they knew that those tiny gray spots on the screen would soon grow into Aaden, Alexis, Hannah, Collin, Joel, and Leah.

…
No one, unless in Kate’s shoes, has the right to judge or criticize the life of her family.

…
Obviously, Kate Gosselin made the choice to view her circumstance as a blessing. She had adequate grace and poise to recognize the rewards that would come of this large challenge set before her. Kate is one of the most admirable and amazing women I have ever known.

…
As I’m sure you have seen on the show, it takes an amazing woman for a job like hers. And, like you said, Kate was best equipped for it. Not with money, time, space, or convenience, of course–but with faith, patience, kindness, strength, gratefulness, and devotion. And that’s what makes an incredible mother, right??! :)

I also wanted to thank you for your kind comments regarding my relationship with the Gosselins. Watching eight children for days on end may seem like a burden, but it is truly a blessing, pleasure, and privilege to be involved in the lives of the Gosselin kids…

Blessings,
Beth

So what could possibly have caused a rift between such good friends? The answer, as it so often is, is money, greed and disrespect.

MULTIPLE
MESSES

Beth Carson wrote
Multiple Blessings.
She shared the authoring credit with Kate, of course, because it was Kate’s life and because Kate had written down her thoughts and feelings in a journal, which Beth used for source material. Kate was also present at the writing sessions, no doubt yammering incoherent thoughts from her sometimes barely decipherable notes into Beth’s ear.

The book project was supposed to be a 50/50 split between Beth and Kate. That seems fair enough. But Kate found a way to mess up that agreement thanks to her personal need for greed.

The first problem cropped up when the writing was completed and Kate demanded that Jon’s name be added as an author, thus dividing the profits from the book into thirds instead of halves. It gave the Gosselins two-thirds of the royalties and reduced Beth’s portion of the profits from 50% to 33 1/3%.

So on the initial book advance of $100,000 they received, Beth lost about $17,000 because of Kate’s last-minute change of plan. Having Jon share author credit was never part of the original deal. The book contract, parts of which appear below, clearly spells out that the project was to have been a joint effort between Beth and Kate, not Beth, Kate and Jon. The following
text from the agreement with Zondervan, the publisher, confirms the 50/50 split.

The agreement with Zondervan (Agreement Number 9438-1901) was made on January 10, 2008. It listed Katie Irene Gosselin (including her address) and Beth Ann Carson (including her address) as the “AUTHOR” (collectively), and Zondervan, A HarperCollins Company (including the address), as the “PUBLISHER”. It referenced a work tentatively titled MULTIPLE BLESSINGS (ISBN 0310289025).

The contract stated: “The AUTHOR agrees that all advances, royalties, and payments shall be divided and paid fifty percent (50%) to Katie Irene Gosselin and fifty percent (50%) to Beth Ann Carson.”

The agreement stated
that the PUBLISHER would pay an advance to the AUTHOR in the sum of $80,000 against all royalties and payments due to the AUTHOR for the WORK.

Kate’s attorney, Paul J. Datte, advised that the proposal should indicate that “the royalty advance is non-refundable regardless of the ultimate sales of the book.” He also said, “Kate and Beth will require an advance of $100,000.00.”

If you need proof that Beth Carson did, in fact, write
Multiple Blessings
, here is an interview that Beth gave to the local newspaper, the
Reading Eagle
, after her book had become a
New York Times
Bestseller.

Originally Published: 12/12/2008

Slices of life: Author's first book a best seller

Beth Carson of Leesport co-writes a memoir titled "Mutiple Blessings: Surviving to Thriving with Twins and Sextuplets" about the events surrounding the births of the Gosselin family's sextuplets.

Beth Carson of Leesport wrote her first book, "Multiple Blessings: Surviving to Thriving with Twins and Sextuplets," about sextuplets being born to Jon and Kate Gosselin. The book is a memoir of the events surrounding the births of the Gosselins' sextuplets, combined with inspirational Christian messages, representing the faith present in their daily lives. Published in October, the book quickly landed on the New York Times best sellers list, where it has been for the last five weeks.

Carson's love of children and desire to want to help out a neighbor led her to the Gosselins just a couple of weeks after their sextuplets arrived home from the hospital.

"I didn't know Kate at all, I just knocked on their door," said Carson, who had read in the newspaper that the babies were born.

At the time, Carson and the Gosselins were both residents of Wyomissing.

After hours and hours of feeding babies together over the course of approximately one year, Carson and Kate Gosselin got well acquainted. One day, they discussed the idea of writing a book. The discussion led to Carson having an epiphany later that evening when she mulled their conversation over and contemplated writing the book.

"I thought wait a minute, I have all of the facts - I have the background - I was there and I took a leap of faith," she said.

While Carson, 42, knew writing a book was something she always wanted to do, there was some initial self-doubt.

"I'm just a mom and I didn't even graduate from college - that planted a seed of doubt and I asked, who am I to write a book," Carson said.

Ultimately, Carson decided not to let her lack of formal training as a writer get in the way of one of her goals, and the next day she shared her thoughts with Kate.

"Kate seemed relieved and happy when I offered to write the book since she knew I was so familiar with her story," she said.

After that conversation they forged ahead with their idea and secured a publisher.

The process of writing the book took about a year, and in order to accomplish the task, Beth and Kate checked themselves into a hotel in Lancaster for a few weekends in order to set uninterrupted time aside.

"
Kate and I would literally stay in our room for 72 hours and our husbands would take care of the kids back at home," Carson said.

While Carson is listed as a co-author on the book, she makes each of their contributions clear.

"They lived it and I wrote it," she said.

Their shared Evangelical Christian backgrounds provided the foundation for the religious tone of the book.

"This is a miracle - I felt a responsibility to give God the glory for that,"
said Carson, referring to the Gosselins' having six healthy children in addition to their twins.

Carson said she felt an overwhelming responsibility to share the Gosselins' story, realizing it was a bit of a "calling" for her to write the book, and she had an objective.

"I hope the book is an honest approach to things you don't hear in the show," she said, referring to "Jon and Kate Plus 8" airing on the TLC.

Now that she has accomplished one of her life goals, being an author makes Carson feel good.