TLC announces 'Jon & Kate Plus 8' will be going on hiatus until August

Jon & Kate Plus 8 viewers are apparently going to have to wait over a month to get their next show update about how things are going with Jon and Kate Gosselin's newly-announced separation.


TLC has announced that the show will air a retrospective of the couple's ten-year marriage on Monday, June 29 and then go on hiatus for four weeks until it returns on August 3, Entertainment Weekly reported Tuesday.

"During this time the family will take some time off to regroup, and then a modified schedule will be in place to support the family's transition," the network in a media statement obtained by Entertainment Weekly.  "TLC continues to support the Gosselin family and will work closely with them to determine the best way to continue to tell their story as they navigate through this difficult time."

Monday night's heavily-hyped Jon & Kate Plus 8 broadcast had featured the couple publicly announcing that they will be separating and the TLC reality program stating they are "dissolving" their marriage.

"Kate and I have decided to separate," Jon said during an individual interview in which Kate wasn't present. 


"Yes, we have decided that we will separate," Kate said in her own separate interview.

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Jon and Kate both seemed careful to avoid terming their decision a divorce, as did an on-screen title card that aired near the end of the broadcast.

"On Monday June 22, 2009, legal proceedings were initiated in Pennsylvania to dissolve the ten-year marriage of Jon and Kate Gosselin," the text stated, confirming Monday afternoon reports of a legal filing at a county courthouse near the couple's home in Wernersville, PA.

Based on the comments made during their separate interviews, it appeared as though Jon was the one who pushed for the separation.  (Unlike last month's fifth-season premiere which featured a brief side-by-side interview with Jon and Kate, Monday night's episode continued the fifth season's new individual interview format and did not feature any joint interviews with the couple.)


"I tried to contemplate and think about it what would be better for us and it's just not good for our kids to be arguing in front of our kids.  We can't be cordial with one another and we've decided to separate," Jon said.

"I'm not very fond of the idea, personally," Kate said. "But I know it's necessary because my goal is peace for kids and if peace needs to be brought about by this then I'm in agreeance."

According to the couple, all eight children --  8-year-old twins Cara and Mady, as well as 5-year-old sextuplets Aaden, Alexis, Collin, Hannah, Joel, and Leah -- will continue to live in the $1.1 million dollar 24-acre home the couple bought last year, with Jon and Kate also taking turns living there depending on who has custody  of them at the time.

"The kids will remain living in their house -- I've always called this their house.  I will remain here as well during my portion of having them.  Jon will also come here when it is his days and we will flip-flop that way," Kate said.  "It's going to change a lot because I'm going to have time that I have to be away from here."

"They love it here, this is their house, we bought this house for them not for us.  The security, the room, the land -- [it's] all for them," Jon said. "I won't be here every day obviously. I don't have the schedule [yet], I'll miss them a lot."


Both parents said they plan to continue being part of their TLC reality show -- at least for now.

"How does the show go on -- the show must go on," Kate said.  "We've always done the show for the kids to be able to provide for them, to collect the memories for ourselves. I will continue to be here, be with the kids, do the same things I've always done with them.  I realize that Jon will probably not be a part of those, he may do his own thing."

"I'm still on the show," Jon said. "I guess we['ll] interview separately and we'll film different things -- me and the kids, her and the kids."

However unlike Kate, Jon -- who has increasingly expressed his discomfort with the media spotlight that has resulted from his participation in the show -- seemed less willing to make a long-term commitment to continuing with the TLC reality series, or even the couple's tentative "schedule" plan.

"It's day-by-day for me, I don't know what's going to happen.  I mean I could get offered a job... and that'd change the whole schedule," he said. "I don't know."






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