Collin Gosselin was called in for tactical interrogation with the Executive Team (DS) during the October 15 episode of Special Forces: the toughest test in the world. During his meeting with Rudy Reyes and Jovon “Q” Quarles, Collin talked about his biggest challenge on the course.
“I think sometimes when the rest of the group is talking, I have a hard time fitting in,” he explained. “I guess I’m not putting myself forward. It’s hard to trust.”
Collin cited his unconventional childhood and his mother Kate Gosselin as the reason he often finds himself like an outsider today. “I’ve been on TV since I was 3. I’m one of eight kids and I’m a sextupt, so I guess we were kind of an attraction when we were kids. I was kind of forced to be on TV,” he explained. “My mom, I guess you could say, she’s like a drill instructor. I was afraid of her when I was a kid.”
He told Reyes and Q that he “started to see things for what they were” and realized he was “exploited” as a child. “I didn’t want to do it anymore. After I said I didn’t want to be on TV, I was taken out of school, I was isolated from my siblings, from my best friends, in my own home,” he continued. “She kept me away from everyone. I had nowhere to go.”
Collin remembers being “sent to an institution for three years” when he was 11 years old. “I was alone,” he said. “Kids came and went; I made friends, and they left. I never had to rely on anyone but myself. It’s hard. I went through high school and struggled with relationships and friends and all that.”
KATE GOSSELIN, JOEL KEVIN GOSSELIN, COLLIN THOMAS GOSSELIN, MADELYN
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After graduating high school, Collin enlisted in the Marines, which he described as “f**king awesome.” He said he learned what “brotherhood” looked like during his military service. “I was 10 and a half weeks old and my mom said on Instagram that I had all these crazy diagnoses and emotional turmoil,” Collin revealed, while getting emotional and holding back tears. “It came back up the (chain of command) and they told me to go home and get a psychological evaluation. They dumped me, man. It would be hard to ever get me back there.”
Collin considered the Marines his “only chance to have a family” and said, “It sucks. This is the life I want. I’ll probably never get my chance again. Reyes urged Collin to use his “difficult past” in a “positive” way and view his fellow rookies as Special Forces like a family.
“I think I struggle with being vulnerable sometimes, but I really want to take this course because I’m not defined by my struggles; I’m defined by my successes and the things I’ve overcome,” Collin said in a confessional.
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He then explained to the other recruits how his conversation went. “It was a lot,” he admitted. “They noticed that I didn’t always allow myself into the group. They are right. When I was a child, my mother would separate me from my siblings, and they would all have family dinners, and they would leave, and I would have dinner alone. I have to learn to be able to be with people.”
Special Forces: the toughest test in the worldSeason 5, Thursdays, 9/8c, Fox
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