Kate Gosselin Sues Ex-Husband Jon Gosselin Over Tell-All Book, Alleged Phone Hacking
Former reality TV star Kate Gosselin filed a lawsuit Monday accusing her ex-husband Jon Gosselin of stealing her computer hard drive and hacking into her phone and computer to get material for a tell-all book.
The couple starred in the TLC show Jon & Kate plus 8, detailing life with their twins and sextuplets, before they separated in 2009 and later divorced.
Kate accused Jon of accessing email, bank accounts and other private information for a book called Kate Gosselin: How She Fooled the World, according to the federal lawsuit.
The 2012 book was written by Jon Gosselin's friend and business partner, tabloid writer Robert Hoffman, but was pulled from the market after two days because the information had been illegally obtained, the lawsuit said.
"Jon violated a federal anti-hacking statute in order to publish salacious, scandalous and defamatory information about Kate," said her lawyer, A. Jordan Rushie. "It's damaged her reputation."
Kate, 38, claims that at one point, Hoffman publicly bragged about being in possession of 5,000 family photos, personal documents, tax and business records, and contracts of hers. She claims that Hoffman knew he was committing illegal activity "and at one point even told Radar Online: 'I'll be sued by one of more parties before this is over.'"
She goes on to detail in the lawsuit how Hoffman claimed that he obtained this data by digging through trash on the street found outside of Kate's house. However, the lawsuit points out that he knew the materials were obtained illegally, as the information "could not possibly be physically found in paper format."
She lives in Sinking Spring, while he lives in Wyomissing. Both are in Berks County, outside Philadelphia. Kate is asking for compensatory damages, punitive damages, liquidated damages, attorneys' fees and costs, declaratory and injunctive relief, and actual damages in her prayer for relief.
