Kate Gosselin said the child she and ex-husband Jon Gosselin lost during her 2004 sextuplet pregnancy would have been named Emma, revealing the detail in a viral TikTok video that is part of a six-part series about her fertility and birth experiences.
In the fourth installment, which circulated widely after being posted last week, Gosselin recounted an early ultrasound that initially showed seven embryos. She said a follow-up scan revealed the seventh embryo had stopped growing and that, months later, she experienced bleeding that she feared signaled the loss of all the pregnancies. During that appointment the technician again scanned her and told her there were six heartbeats.
Gosselin, 50, who trained as a pediatric nurse, has been public about her struggles with infertility and said in the videos that she conceived all of her children through fertility treatments, including intrauterine insemination, because she has polycystic ovary syndrome. The TikTok series was posted between Aug. 19 and the previous Sunday and has drawn attention for its personal revelations about the pregnancies that preceded the birth of her sextuplets in 2004.
In comments on the TikTok, Gosselin responded to a fan asking whether she had considered a name for the baby she lost, writing that she immediately thought the child would have been a girl and that she would have named her Emma. She described the moment the technician confirmed six heartbeats as "very miraculous," and said it intensified her determination to protect the pregnancies.
Gosselin rose to national prominence with the TLC reality series Jon & Kate Plus 8, which aired from 2007 to 2010 and at its peak drew millions of viewers. After her separation and eventual divorce from Jon Gosselin, she continued with a spin-off titled Kate Plus 8, which ran from 2010 through 2017, with an additional "College Bound" episode in 2019. Her television appearances have also included brief stints on programs such as Dancing with the Stars and reality competitions, and she is the author of three nonfiction books.
Her family life has remained in the public eye. The couple's twin daughters, Mady and Cara, will turn 25 on Oct. 8; Mady graduated from Syracuse University in 2023 and works in sales at cosmetic company DECIEM, while Cara graduated from Fordham University in 2023 and works as a leasing credit officer at Bank of America, according to Gosselin's posts. Several of her other children are in their early 20s and enrolled in college.
Gosselin is estranged from one son, Collin, who has publicly accused her of abuse and of contributing to his hospitalization for an extended period between 2016 and 2018. Collin has also said his opportunities were affected by public disclosures about his mental-health diagnoses. He has since been working as a college resident assistant and a waiter, announced the launch of a pressure-washing LLC and posted that he has been given an opportunity to write a book.
Gosselin currently lives in North Carolina and has worked 12-hour shifts as a nurse. In 2023 she appeared on Fox's Special Forces: World's Toughest Test but left the show after one episode because of a neck injury. She has also appeared on Say Yes to the Dress, co-hosted episodes of The View and taken part in other reality formats.
Gosselin's TikTok series joins a string of recent celebrity social-media disclosures that revisit earlier, highly publicized life events. By sharing details about the early ultrasound and the loss she experienced before delivering six infants, Gosselin added a personal dimension to a story that unfolded publicly for years on reality television and in subsequent media coverage.