The One About Jon & Kate

May 27, 2009 by Dennis Amith 

I’ve watched “Jon & Kate Plus Eight” for a few years now on TLC and the season premiere was just heartbreaking.

I have to say that I’m not so surprised with their situation, after all, many celebrity families or couples who have appeared on a reality show have a tendency to breakup. But what made Jon & Kate so different is that this is a husband and wife who truly loved each other when they were younger and had children…eight of them.

With the Hulk Hogan reality show, the problem that I saw is that “opportunity”, “fame” and/or “money” seem to have gotten in the way of family life and we have seen the result of what happened there.

When normal families are put into the limelight, whereas the Hogans, Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson, Britney Spears, Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston and many others are celebrities to begin with, these people are not prepared for the paparazzi or media scrutiny.

And now allegations that Jon has been having an affair with a young woman, Kate has had an affair with her bodyguard, personally I don’t believe any of that, but I do believe that there are problems in their relationship as seen from the latest episode.

These two have become media fodder and I just hope they can keep strong. Personally, to save the marriage, one would think of stepping back away from the cameras and fixing things. But I think that the two have built a business around their “celebrity” profile (and I know Kate doesn’t like to be called a celebrity but having over 10 million watch you every week and major entertainment magazines now covering you instead of Brad and Angelina, they are celebrities) and are profiting from that, it’s their livelihood.

Everyone comes to a reality show expecting some sort of “fame” but also as a business to make money. But when you’re down for the count, you can only be strong and take the punches or surrender in defeat. I hope and pray that Jon & Kate can stay strong through this difficult time because what we saw this week was the face of two people who are seriously in marriage trouble. It’s one thing to stay in the marriage for the children, especially eight young children. But the last thing you want is the children to see both parents unhappy with each other.

This new season’s first episode is heartbreaking because without any damage control, this can literally be another example of reality TV breaking down another marriage.

Now we’ll have to see how Spencer and Heidi keep their emotions in check for “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here”.