Collin Gosselin Says He Was 10.5 Weeks into Marine Recruit Training When His Mother’s Instagram Comments Reached His Command

Gossip

By Sari Moon

Updated 3 minutes ago, October 20, 2026

On the October 15, 2026 episode of “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test,” Collin Gosselin, 22, said he was 10.5 weeks into Marine recruit training when his mother Kate Gosselin’s Instagram comments about diagnoses and emotional disorders reached his command. He said he was told to go home for a psychiatric evaluation and was discharged in August 2023.

“My only shot ever at a family was joining the Marines,” he said. “Literally.”

Collin had graduated high school in June 2023 and enlisted. He says that, as a child, he refused to be filmed for his family’s reality shows and was then removed from school, separated from his siblings at home and placed in an institution at 11 for 22 months. He says he had no one to rely on but himself during that stay, and that the Marines gave him a sense of brotherhood he’d never known.

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On July 21, 2023, Kate said Collin had multiple psychiatric diagnoses and described an earlier emergency-room admission after an outburst involving a weapon. His diagnoses and childhood placement remain disputed. Kate denies his abuse allegations and says the placement was medically necessary for safety; she hasn’t directly addressed his claim that her Instagram comments caused his discharge.

Kate wrote on TikTok: “I know rational logical ppl or anyone who has dealt with mental illness understands what’s going on here.” The Marine Corps hasn’t publicly confirmed her post as a cause of Collin’s discharge, and a Marine spokesperson said privacy protections limited what could be disclosed about his case. His separation has been described as involving “non-disclosure of pre-enlistment history,” though that hasn’t been confirmed as the military’s explanation in his case.

Collin first discussed the discharge publicly in August 2024. An evaluation he publicized took place in October 2023, after his discharge, as he considered re-enlisting. Psychologist Dr. Paul E. Delfin found that Collin didn’t then meet criteria for bipolar disorder, autism, ADHD, OCD, oppositional defiant disorder or PTSD and showed no other psychiatric or behavioral disorder in his functioning at the time; that finding doesn’t establish whether he’d had an earlier diagnosis.

His memoir, In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood, about his childhood and military experience, was published October 13, 2026, 2 days before the episode. Collin says he still hopes to return as a Marine officer after college.

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