KATE GOSSELIN: HOW SHE FOOLED THE WORLD - THE RISE AND FALL OF A REALITY TV QUEEN (77 page)

2 days of Steve

Part of flights

Part of stay

So it was a six-day trip, and TLC only saw fit to cover Steve for two of those days. The rest was vacation time together for Kate and Steve.

Here is more from my
U
S
Weekly
reporting on Kate and Steve. The nature of their relationship was a hot topic back then.

WHAT DO THE KIDS THINK OF STEVE?

The kids love Steve. I think they love him as much or more than they love Kate. Several times when Steve was at the house getting ready to leave on a trip with Kate, when they’re saying goodbye in the driveway, I’ve heard them yelling “bye Steve, by Steve” but no “bye mommy.”

When Steve is at the house visiting, the little kids are all over him, wanting him to play with them constantly. He really seems to love them too. He always has time to play with them but Kate usually cuts it short and demands his attention for her own selfish needs, usually asking him to carry something for her or move something for her.

HOW ARE THE KIDS DOING?

Mady and Cara still throw the occasional tantrum or hissy fit, but not nearly as often or as bad as in the past. I think now that Jon has some stability in his life as far as a place to live, they’ve adjusted to the divorce. They seemed very confused at first by Jon and Kate fighting and living apart but they’ve adapted and are doing fine. It’s obvious that they like spending time with Jon more than Kate because Kate is like a drill sergeant and Jon gives them more space and allows them to act their age. He still disciplines them but they know what they did wrong to get yelled at. A lot of times Kate yells at the kids for no reason and they don’t understand why she’s so angry at them.

GINA NEILD

I’ve never spoken to Gina in person or been close enough to her to get a true read on her feelings but I’ve watched her several times from the fenceline at the property and she strikes me as someone playing the role of the ‘good wife,’ or the ‘obedient wife.’  Like most things Gosselin, she started making ‘photo op’ appearances at the house when the media started focusing on a possible affair between Steve and Kate. She was also photographed having lunch with Kate in Rockville, MD where the Neild’s live, right about the time when the affair rumors were going strong. Gina usually stands quietly in the driveway while Kate and Steve are getting ready to leave for a trip and I’ve never seen any emotion between she and Steve. I’ve seen Steve hand Kate’s bags to Gina to help load into the limo but never any hugs or kisses goodbye. It must really bother her to see the Gosselin kids giving Steve big hugs and kisses and waving goodbye to him and watching him drive off in a stretch limo with Kate while she’s left at home to babysit.

DETAILS ON THE JANUARY 2009 CHARLESTON, SC TRIP.

This is what is written on the calendar by Kate:

Charleston, SC to write book #3 (smiley face and four !!!!)

They left at 4:30 am on January 12
th
for an 8:30 am flight out of Philadelphia and got home sometime after 5 pm. on January 17
th
.

DETAILS ON THE HOLIDAYS IN 2008

Thanksgiving 2008 was the first time the Neild’s came to the Gosselin house for a holiday. Jon thought it was very awkward because by this time, Kate had already decided that their marriage was over and Jon suspected it was because of her having an affair with Steve. Jon said he never confronted Steve about it, but after Kevin and Jodi wrote on their blog that Kate and Steve were having an affair, Steve came and confronted Jon, accusing Jon of telling Kevin and Jodi lies. (Jon wouldn’t give any details.)

It was Kate’s way of shoving it down Jon’s throat that she could do anything she wanted and he was weak. Kate knew that Jon didn’t want Steve at the house and especially not at the holidays but Kate went out of her way to plan extended stays with the Neild’s and it drove Jon crazy. Jon was in the house but he stayed as far away from Steve and Kate as he could.

After Thanksgiving it became a regular routine. The Neild’s would be invited over for Christmas, New Year’s, Easter, and every major holiday and Jon hated it and hated the fact that Steve was getting so close to his children. He felt like he was being replaced in his own home.

Kate and Steve took just Mady on a trip to San Diego in March 2009. They left Mady with a babysitter every night while they went out alone. It was just a vacation trip and not a book signing. Mady was very confused, trying to understand why Steve was with Kate and not Jon.

This part was printed by Star Magazine at the time:

“They were riding a four-wheeled cycle. Mady was on one side of her mother, while Kate was nuzzled in close to Steve on the other side – and he had his arm around her! If you didn’t know any better, you’d think Kate and Steve were a married couple on a romantic holiday. The way she leaned into him was highly inappropriate for a married woman!”

Kate was later seen “sitting extremely close to Steve on the beach. She had stripped down to her bikini, and Steve had taken his shirt off. They seemed to be ignoring Mady, 8 – but not each other! Kate was laughing and playfully patted his leg. She even put her head on his shoulder at one point.”

“On Friday night, we saw Steve leading Kate and Mady into the suite next to ours! It looked to me as if all three of them were spending the weekend together in the same room! I actually felt bad for Mady.”

Jon & Kate Gosselin PA Reporting

• Kate went to a reading of Multiple Blessings and Steve went along. That’s when Jon first “suspected something was going on and got pissed that they had a nice little vacation date together.”
  

Jon couldn’t understand why Steve accompanied Kate alone on a reading of her book, Multiple Blessings. Steve was assigned to the family by TLC to keep the kids safe but Kate decided she needed Steve by her side. Kate wouldn’t even explain it to Jon, telling him “you wouldn’t understand.”

• Jon felt the end of their relationship came when he stopped doing church speaking dates with Kate. In October 2008 Kate said to Jon, “you can live your life. I’m going to live mine.”
  

Kate was totally focused on getting as much money out of people as she possibly could, any way she could. One of her main ways early on was to speak at churches and collect “Love Offerings.” Jon never liked doing this and felt bad about it and finally told Kate that he wasn’t going to do it anymore. He thought it was hypocritical. It was then that Kate announced the end of their relationship to Jon.

• Kate refused to go to counseling or get couples therapy with Jon. She just decided it was over.
  

When Kate broke that news to Jon, he was totally caught off
guard. He said he never saw it coming and wanted to discuss it and work things out with Kate but she wanted nothing to do with it. She already had her mind made up and had moved on. Jon suggested couple’s therapy and marriage counseling for the sake of the kids, but she said no. In Jon’s mind, the only explanation for this is that she already had another man in her life and the only person it could have been was Steve Neild. “Kate is smart enough to keep things hidden from the public and will reveal their relationship when it works best for her career.

• Kate was traveling with Steve everywhere in the country and Jon was left at home with the kids. That made him angry and he became suspicious.
  

The fact that Kate was away with Steve more than she was home and Jon was left at home with all eight kids really started to anger him and get him thinking about them being together and he started asking her more and more questions about it, which made her more and more angry with Jon. Whether or not they’re having an affair, the topic of Kate and Steve together was what really drove Jon and Kate apart.

• Kate started inviting Steve to the family’s personal holiday celebrations in 2008.
  

Then, for reasons unknown to Jon, Kate started inviting Steve and his family to their house for holiday celebrations, which really infuriated Jon. Jon thinks she did it to shove it in Jon’s face. He also thinks Kate and Steve wanted to show Gina that it was just business and they were just good friends and if Kate and Gina became friends, the rumors wouldn’t be as bad in the media.

Kate and Steve were chummy and she drank a lot around him and acted silly, even in front of Gina and he could see Gina’s reaction to it and she didn’t look happy but Kate didn’t seem to care. In Kate’s mind, she was the big star and everyone else would just have to fall in line behind her.

• In January 2009, Kate and Steve went to Charleston, SC to write book number three. “Who takes a bodyguard with them to write a book?? They were
  cooped up the whole time.”
  

Kate didn’t even try to explain to Jon why Steve was traveling with her to meet with her publisher and editor and Jon can’t understand why she would need a bodyguard to sit in a room working on a book. The only reason he could think of is that it gave them even more time to be together.

• TLC hired Steve and assigned him to the Gosselin family.
  
• In 2007 Steve became the family’s bodyguard. In 2008 Steve became Kate’s personal bodyguard.
  
• TLC protected Kate when she asked for a divorce and threw Jon “under the bus.” Jon never wanted a divorce.
  
• Steve is an executive at his company, yet he spends most of his time out on the road guarding Kate. Why?
  
• Steve Neild is the trustee of the family money in the event that Jon and Kate should both die.
  
• On Jon’s suspicions, he said ‘it’s just the way a man looks at a woman.”
  

I pressed Jon further today, telling him that I don’t see any real evidence of an affair and I asked him how he
could be so sure. He said “it’s just the way a man looks at a woman and I’ve seen they way they look at each other when they’re together.” He’s seen them giving each other playful looks when they thought nobody was looking.

• Xxxxxx the nanny completely agrees that Kate and Steve are having an affair. She “can just tell by how they act around each other. They’re like they’ve been married for ten years but still on their honeymoon.”
  

Xxxxxx doesn’t have any concrete proof either except her woman’s intuition. She says it’s so obvious to her by the way they look at each other and the way they act around each other. They’re always very playful with one another, like they’re in the early stages of a marriage but also like they’ve been married for ten years. They bicker back and forth and Steve speaks his mind sometimes like a husband would talk to a wife. Certainly not the way an employee would speak to his employer.

• Jon believes that they’ve been having an affair since mid 2008 and that it continues to this day. He wouldn’t be surprised if they came out with their relationship sometime on one of her new shows.
  
• Jon never had a conversation with Gina about whether or not she thought Kate and Steve were having an affair but thinks she’d have to be an idiot not to suspect it.
  

Jon & Kate Gosselin PA Reporting

September 2009

They ended up at ABC Dance Supplies on Kutztown Road in Reading. All the cars and van pulled into their small lot, followed by the paps. It was only then that I realized that Steve Neild was riding in the passenger seat of the van with Kate driving. The crew went ahead to the store and filmed Kate unloading all the kids and the group walking across the parking lot and into the store. It was closed to
customers for the shoot and people were being turned away. It’s a very small, one-room store filled only with racks of ballet and dance outfits as well as dance shoes. Everyone went inside except for Steve. His job for this day was to stand outside and make sure that the paps didn’t interfere and there were no other disturbances.

He spent forty minutes standing next to me. I introduced myself and we had small talk but he wouldn’t answer any questions for the magazine. He told me he was from
Auckland, New Zealand and he speaks with a heavy NZ accent. He was holding an umbrella as the skies were pretty dark and while he was standing there, he was swinging the umbrella like a golf club. We talked a little about golf and local courses and that he doesn’t have any time anymore to play as he’s always working or with his family. He’s very soft-spoken but he looks very confident in his abilities. He’s not a bodyguard that comes at you head on like a tough guy but rather just lets you know he’s there and looks for mutual respect. He made no demands of us and we respected the boundaries of the shoot and kept at a distance.

As far as Steve not being seen with Kate in awhile he said that he get’s a call from TLC when they’re doing a shoot and he goes to work. They rotate different people on and off of the job as well.

Kate had no interaction with Steve at all outside of the van until she came out of the store and saw him talking to me. She looked mortified that he was standing there talking to the paps. Her eyes almost bugged out of her head and she did the ‘cut’ motion with her hand going across her throat at him while making a very scary face with her teeth clinched. She said ‘What are you doing??? Don’t talk to them – they’re the paparazzi!!!” He quickly left us and went back closer to the family.