News

Actions

Kate Gosselin’s twins go silent on ‘Today’

Posted at 9:44 PM, Jan 16, 2014
and last updated 2014-01-16 21:44:30-05
(CNN) — Despite Kate Gosselin’s command to her twin daughters to just “spit it out,” neither Cara nor Mady Gosselin were interested in speaking much on the “Today” show Thursday.

The 13-year-old twins, who became famous as kids on the TLC reality show “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” appeared on the morning show along with their mother for an interview with “Today’s” Savannah Guthrie.

The segment was supposed to be a chance for the twins to elaborate on the conversation they sparked with People magazine last week, in which they said their lives are pretty normal for having grown up under the lens of reality TV.

The only problem was that neither twin wanted to speak up during the awkward sit-down — instead, they glanced around at their mom and each other.

When Guthrie asked Mady what she would say to the world about how her family is doing in their post-reality life, she was met with an “um” and a long pause.

Mom Kate jumped in with instructions: “Mady, your words,” she said. “It’s your chance. Spit it out.” When that didn’t work, Guthrie tried to get a response from Cara, who was just as quiet.

“This is their chance to talk, this is the most wordless I’ve heard them all morning,” Kate told Guthrie. “I don’t want to speak for them.”

After some coaxing and a few more lengthy silences, Mady piped up to speak for her sister.

“A lot of people think that filming our show has damaged us,” she said. “But it’s only really helped.”

The original series, “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” ended in 2009 along with Jon and Kate Gosselin’s marriage. Kate Gosselin soldiered on with another reality show, “Kate Plus 8,” but that ended up getting canceled as well. Aside from the occasional celebrity weekly story or OWN interview, Kate, Jon, and their brood — which includes their 9-year-old sextuplets, Alexis, Aaden, Collin, Hannah, Joel and Leah — have mostly faded from view.

But with the cover of People magazine’s January 20 issue, Cara and Mady step back into the spotlight to correct any misconceptions the public has about their family.

“People expect us to be damaged,” Cara said, as her sister chimed in that others “think we’re supposed to be so messed up, like, ‘Ooh, the poor Gosselin kids, they’re going to be scarred for life, waaaaah.’ Here’s the big news: We’re not messed up.”

“It’s so false,” Cara said. “We’re fine. We’re better than ever, actually.”

Those words are likely a relief to anyone who caught the “Today” interview and wondered why the two were so quiet.

According to Kate Gosselin, any press that they do are things that the twins agree to do.

“It’s really frustrating when there is so much out there that is not true,” she told Guthrie Thursday. “We know the truth, and that’s why they’re here, even though they’re tongue-tied this morning, to say, ‘hey, we’re OK, we’re doing well.'”

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2014 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.