Chapter Summary: Kate Gosselin: How She Fooled the World ~ Preface
[caption id=attachment_945" align="alignleft" width="232] via Hollywood Gossip[/caption]
Trigger warning: Posts on this topic may trigger survivors of child abuse.
Today begins our chapter by chapter summary of Robert Hoffman's re-release of Kate Gosselin: How She Fooled the World - The Rise and Fall of a Reality TV Queen.  Hopefully, in the future, I will be covering more than 1 chapter at a time. I was short on time today and the Preface was longer than I remembered.
The book is pretty similar to the original release (that was out for 2 days before being pulled by amazon), so for those who read it before, this stuff won't be anything new until the later chapters. It's also a bit strange if you have been an avid follower of the Gosselin Saga because much of the information has been talked about for the intervening years.  For people that are new to the story or not avid followers, I'm sure this information in the Preface is more helpful/interesting.
I am giving pretty much just a straight summary of these chapters with very little comment by myself and no real "snark."   My intent in summarizing the book is for people that don't have the time to read it or don't want to read it, but are still interested in the topic, so I'm playing it "straight" here    I will be providing plenty of opinions and snark on the forum thread though! I'll provide the link at the end of each post.
So let's get started
I really liked this quote by Robert that explains the book, so I wanted to start out with that so people will understand how the book is written.
...book is an unpolished look at the real Kate Gosselin; a collection of my observations, experiences and friendships.  It's a little rough around the edges, and I like it that way. I'd rather you read my exact thoughts and not the thoughts of high priced editors who altered the text according to their own line of thinking.
Robert tells how his involvement in this story started in the Summer of 2009 when his wife, Dana, was contacted by US Weekly because they needed a local to cover the Gosselin fiasco. Dana was the first person to call out and question Kate years before there even was a Jon and Kate Gosselin saga.  Dana could not do the job, so she recommended Robert to them and the rest, as they say, is history.
Robert indicates that he went into this job with an open mind. He had never seen Jon and Kate plus 8 or Kate plus 8 as they do not have cable TV in their own home. He doesn't read tabloids because he has enough of his own problems and doesn't need to read about anyone else's.
Robert was paid to be at the Gosselin house every day and to write down everything he saw or heard, including what Kate was wearing or what groceries she was buying. Nothing was too minor.
The job was supposed to last for just a week or two, but in a twist of luck for Robert, several days before he was hired, Jon had hired a new management team and decided to take control of his own image. That meant that Jon was now talking to the paps hanging out at the fence and within one hour of being on his new job, Robert was face-t0-face in a one-on-on conversation with Jon.
He and Jon clicked instantly and became friends. He has partied with Jon, been to the house and spent time with the kids, been present with Jon was interacting with Kate (sometimes in the car, or heard her on the phone or in person on a few occasions).  Jon is just a regular guy and Robert has never seen him be rude to anyone or act like he was better than anyone (I suppose in contrast to Kate who is pretty much rude to everyone and thinks she is better than everyone).  Jon always treated the media fairly even when they were helping to destroy his life by reporting his every move.  The only thing Jon asked was that Robert tell the truth about what he saw.
The book is about Kate mainly because no matter what she does she has gotten a free pass while
pretending to be the mother-of-the-year, and fooling millions of people while pursuing her Hollywood lifestyle on the backs of her beautiful children.
Robert received "cease and desist" letters from Discovery lawyers and Kate's lawyers (at the time of the original release of the book). Discovery was concerned about trade secrets and other confidential information that was published in the book.  Kate's lawyers, at that time, were "more threatening," however neither accused Robert of writing "untruths or disputed the facts presented."
He has several pages of anecdotes about the kids next in the Preface.  I'm not going to summarize those here because I think the kids deserve some privacy.   I understand why he put them in the book, but I don't think they are particularly important to the summary of the preface and would rather give the kids their privacy in this space as much as possible.  It won't always be possible when summarizing the book, but in this case, they are not really germane to anything other than to show that Robert obviously cares for the Gosselin children.
Robert has had no official conversations regarding the book with any of the Gosselin extremists as he calls the bloggers (both "haters" and sheeple), Aunt Jodi, Uncle Kevin or Jon.
He has spoken to or interviewed hundreds including
Gosselin friends, family members, nannies, babysitters (former & present), "helpers," restaurant owners, wait staff, anonymous TLC/Discovery employees, physicians, nurses, fertility specialists, childhood friends, etc
When possible information was independently verified by separate sources.
He explains the discovery of Kate's journal and other personal items, which for those that haven't followed this whole mess goes like this.  After helping Jon move out of the apartment above the garage one rainy night and hearing Kate tell Jon that everything he didn't take was going to be thrown away, he went back the next day and dug through the trash. He had been regularly taking her trash since Christmas 2009 (from memory the rainy night was April 2010...that date wasn't in the Preface, but I think he covers it later in the book).
He has no regrets about the kids reading the book when they are old because they are living it and what they are living is likely worse than anything he's written about.
His opinion as a Graphic Artist (lol) is that Kate is mentally ill and he hopes that the truths in the book will push her to get help because despite the horrors she has visited on the kids she is still their mother and he guesses they love her.
I'm not even going to try to guess how many chapters I will get through for next time. It will depend on how long they are, I guess. I don't want these posts to be too terribly long.  I hope to get ahead of the posts so I can get better ideas on what's next.
Don't forget you can join the discussion
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