Ex-Gosselin Housekeeper Backs Collin’s Claims Against Kate, Says She Reported Her to Child Services

She claims a strict "house manual" and a red plastic spoon in a kitchen drawer hinted at a troubling home life hidden from the cameras. Now a mom herself, she hopes her account encourages others to speak up.

A former housekeeper and nanny for the Gosselin family has come forward to support Collin Gosselin's abuse allegations against his mother, Kate Gosselin. Ashley H. says she worked for the family for less than a year but saw more than enough to report the matriarch.

Ashley, who chose not to reveal her last name, was studying for a master's degree in social work in 2013 and was a fan of TLC's "Kate Plus 8." Having struggled with fertility issues herself, she found hope in Kate's story.

"I used to watch the show, like, 'My gosh, this is actually real. You can have infertility issues and you can still have kids,'" Ashley told People.

While working as a nanny alongside her studies, she came across an online job posting that turned out to be for Kate and her eight children: twins Mady and Cara and sextuplets Collin, Alexis, Joel, Leah, Aaden and Hannah.

"She didn't say who she was [in the post], just that the nanny could live on the estate, and you could tell she was very, very wealthy," she said. "So, I met her at Starbucks, and she showed up in her sports car."

Because her class schedule clashed with the hours Kate needed covered, Ashley took on the role of house cleaner and fill-in nanny instead. Her positive first impression, however, didn't last long.

Ashley claims the reality inside Kate's home was far different from what viewers saw on TV. She decided to speak out now to back the claims of physical and emotional abuse Collin made in his memoir, "In The Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood."

"She very much outwardly treated Collin different," Ashley said. "She 110 percent abused Collin. It's hard to almost put into words the specific hate that she had towards Collin. You could just feel it. I saw her grab Collin many, many times."

According to Ashley, Kate kept a "house manual" of rules for staff, which banned taking pictures of the kids and kept the family dog out of the house, except for the basement.

"The house was to look unlived-in at all times," she said. "She would have weekly chores, biweekly chores, and they would include having a toothpick and going around the edges of the fridge."

Ashley also alleged the kids were only allowed "either one or two school outfits per week because it would cause too much laundry" and that Kate's interactions with them were "robotic."

"It was not loving," she says. "She very much made it known who was a favorite, who wasn't, who's annoying. Someone would come and pick the dog up for grooming, but she treated her kids basically worse than animals."

While going through a drawer of school supplies one day, Ashley was taken aback to discover a large red plastic spoon, as "everything in the house was always so meticulous."

She asked the children about it, and, she said, "Instantly, I'm pretty sure it was Alexis who said, 'Oh, that's the spoon mommy uses when she gets mad.'" The discovery prompted Ashley to quit after just six months, but not before calling Children and Youth Services for Berks County on Kate.

Collin wrote in his memoir that CYS opened an investigation after he arrived at school in pain because Kate had pulled his ear, and that he later discovered several reports had been filed against her.

"I know for a fact that I was not the only one who did that," Ashley said. "I want to use this opportunity to not only back Collin that his mom was psychologically abusive to him, not to mention the physical."

Now 42, a social worker, mental health advocate and mom to twins, Ashley hopes her story will encourage others to share their own experiences in the Gosselin household. "I really hope it will spark people to speak up, even if it's been 15 years later," she said. "I am so incredibly proud of Collin and hope he feels validated."

In 2024, Kate's attorney, Richard Puleo, told The Sun that he didn't think she had ever set out to deliberately hurt her son. He maintained that her actions were meant to shield herself and the rest of the family from what he described as problematic behavior.