Jon Gosselin: Kate “uses the kids as her props”, is “exploiting” them

Kate Gosselin and her kids by Jon Gosselin cover PEOPLE Magazine and In Touch Weekly.

The older two girls spoke to PEOPLE exclusively, talking about their family and being well-adjusted. “People expect us to be damaged,” said Cara. “People think we’re supposed to be messed up, like, ‘Oooooh, the poor Gosselin kids, they’re going to be scarred for life, waaaaah’ … here’s the big news: we’re not messed up.”

Jon spoke to In Touch to complain that his ex-wife is exploiting their kids.

“She uses them as her props,” says Jon. “It’s a problem for her that she can’t afford her old lifestyle anymore.”

“I think she wants a show on TV again — I consider that exploitation.”

A source adds of Kate, she “didn’t think she would end up like this. Ever since she got divorced and her show failed, Kate has been struggling financially and emotionally.”

“A lot of them do not want to film, and they come to me and tell me that,” Jon added. “They are enjoying having an ordinary childhood rather than being filmed all the time, and now they realize that it made them feel different.”

He claims his kids “shy away from cameras, and I don’t think that is normal.

“Developmentally, they have problems with their peers, and they have problems with talking to other people, and their problems with wants and needs and manners and morals and what’s right and what’s wrong,” he said previously. “I think some more so than someone who grows up off TV.”

Jon says Kate will remain in the public eye, despite the effect it has on the kids, because “she has to stay relevant… It’s her pride. She wants to prove to everyone that she’s still got it.”