NBC's "Today" show got the first big interview with Kate Gosselin, but ABC's "Good Morning America" got the more emotional, less seemingly rehearsed one with her divorcing husband, Jon, on Tuesday.
Jon Gosselin, who has been depicted as a slacker and party boy for the last several months, came out breathing fire in the interview with GMA's Chris Cuomo that aired Tuesday morning. He said he despises Kate and can't stand to sit on the same sofa with her to tape their reality TV show. More of the conversation will air Tuesday night on "Primetime: Family Secrets" at 10 on ABC.
From co-host Diane Sawyer to Cuomo, the GMA team set out to recontextualize the Battle of Jon and Kate in keeping with the dueling spouse whom they have access to. As Sawyer put it in her introduction, "... here for the first time, telling his side...."
" I was beaten down" by Kate, Jon said. "She would hold my kids over my head. I would want to spend time with my mom, and she would say, 'Don't spend time with your mom, spend time with your kids.' Why can't I spend time with my mom and my kids?"
Citing years of "verbal abuse" from Kate, Jon said he cannot stand being near Kate.
"I can't sit on the sofa with that woman [the couch on which the two sat during segments of their show "Jon & Kate Plus 8" and talked to the camera about their family]," he told Cuomo. "I can't sit with someone I despise."
Jon Gosselin said TLC now uses "separate" crews for him and Kate to tape the show.
Jon also claimed Kate, who still wears her wedding ring, stole his. (Is this starting to sound a little trashy and tawdry?) "She took my ring," he told Cuomo, laying out an argument of supposition and circumstantial evidence -- but no real proof.
It wasn't all anger. Jon also told Cuomo that he has cried a lot in the past eight months: "I get frustrated -- pent up... I have no one in the media to tell my side."
You do now, Jon. You do now.
He also said he and Kate need to move on with their lives: "I would say, let's finish what we got to finish and move on with our lives," Gosselin said. "And stop feeding into the frenzy."
I think this interview is part of the feeding, Jon. I really do.
The GMA segment ended with the reading of a brief statement of response from Kate in which she said "for the sake of my children," she will not discuss specifics of the marriage.