EXCLUSIVE - Kate Gosselin's sister reveals they haven't spoken in a 'very painful' SIX years as friend claims reality star left a 'trail of hurt' behind on her pursuit of fame and fortune

• Sister Kendra speaks for first time about 'very painful' relationship with her sister, Kate Gosselin
• Says she is at a loss as to why she no longer speaks with her family and that they last spoke six years ago in a church parking lot
• Kendra, 44, said: 'I guess we have our own life and she wants a big life and we don’t fit in'
• Bodyguard Steve Neild, who was a regular fixture at Kate's $1.2m farmhouse, is no longer working for her
• Friend speaks of fears after Kate's excruciating appearance on Today Show with twin daughters
• Kate is keen on a new show - and may have something to do with having to pay for the future of her children - whose school fees are said to be around $200,000 a year - and the $750,000 mortgage on her $1.2m house
  

By Will Payne In Reading, Pennsylvania

Published: 15:30 EST, 27 January 2014 | Updated: 19:17 EST, 27 January 2014

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Kate Gosselin has left a 'trail of hurt' behind her as she climbed the celebrity ladder and cut off ties with her friends and family but is now left isolated as her fame and fortune wanes, MailOnline can reveal.

Her heartbroken sister Kendra Wilber has spoken out for the first time, telling how she hasn’t seen or spoken to Kate and her eight children for around six years.

Kendra says the seismic fall-out has left the entire family distraught and Kate has apparently spurned numerous attempts to heal the rift.

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Age of innocence: Kate's sister and a friend told MailOnline that Kate jettisoned those closest to her because they didn't 'fit in' with her new celebrity status and lifestyle

Awkward! Kate's cringeworthy appearance with twin daughters, Mady and Cara, 13, has led to speculation over her desperation to get a new show for her and her children to keep up her lifestyle

On top of that one of the reality star’s former closest confidantes claims Kate has left a ‘trail of hurt people in her wake’, casting aside her entire inner circle of loyal and faithful friends.

The revelations come after the Kate and Jon Plus Eight star thrust herself back into the headlines following an excruciating TV appearance with her two twin daughters – who refused to utter more than a few words during a live interview.

The Today Show appearance was supposed to be an opportunity for Kate to drum up interest in a new TV show – something she desperately needs as she apparently has no regular income – but it backfired spectacularly.

Since the on-screen debacle with Mady and Cara, 13, her ex-husband Jon Gosselin has called her parenting skills into question, claiming the children ‘live in fear’ of their mother. He is now threatening to sue Kate for primary custody of their sextuplets, now nine-years-old.

Kate and Jon’s explosive fall-out and subsequent divorce has been incredibly well documented. But it is far from the only relationship in Kate’s life that has completely broken down since the fame-hungry star embarked on her celebrity quest, back in 2007.

According to her sister Kendra she has not spoken to any of her family for years, completely shunning their efforts to reconcile and keeping them out of her eight children’s lives.

Kendra believes her normal, everyday family just don’t ‘fit in’ with Kate’s money driven, fame hungry ambitions.
Representatives for Kate refused to respond to MailOnline despite numerous attempts to contact them. 

Pain: Kate's sister, Kendra (pictured left with husband Jeffrey), said Kate's refusal to speak to any of her family is 'very painful'. Meanwhile, Steve Neild (right), a bodyguard who was a confidante of Kate's, no longer works for her, leaving her even more isolated

Humble beginnings: Kendra told MailOnline that Kate (third from bottom in high school cheer photo): 'She wants a big life and we don't fit in' adding she believes Kate was angry because they raised concerns about the show

And a former friend, who did not want to be named, has also revealed that not a single member of Kate’s inner circle have anything to do with her anymore.

They were apparently cruelly cast to one side as Kate’s profile and fortune sky rocketed, despite selflessly dedicating hours and hours of their time to Kate and her children.

In fact it is unclear whether she now has any friends at all. It seems even her former bodyguard and close friend, New Zealander Steve Neild has stopped working for her. He was a regular fixture at Kate’s $1.2 million Pennsylvania farm house, but he is now living back in Maryland.

Kendra, 44, only lives a few miles away from Kate’s home, but she has absolutely no idea what is going on in her sister’s life, despite numerous efforts to re-establish contact.

She is still reluctant to speak publicly, but does say she has always been concerned about the celebrity path her sister was taking and the people she started to surround herself with.

‘Kate does not speak to her family at all. It is very painful’, she said. ‘In the past the people who were close to her were the people who were making money from her and we thought that was very dangerous.

‘The last time we saw and spoke with her it was in our church parking lot. That was years ago, I have lost track of time.

‘I guess we weren’t totally on board with what was going on with the kids, I guess we weren’t excited enough for her and were concerned about her family.

‘Years later the divorce came about and we had every right to be. But there was no conversation and no argument. I guess we have our own life and she wants a big life and we don’t fit in. We are just normal everyday people and she doesn’t want us to be part of her life.’

Home: Kate's $1.2 sprawling farm house was bought in 2008. Documents show she took out a $750,000 loan which is due to be repaid by 2018

Comfortable: Kate tweeted a picture of her children watching The View from inside her well-appointed home

She added: ‘My sister-in-law Jodi and I get talking about the past and we don’t understand what she’s thinking. When the kids get old enough are they going to come and try to find us? I hope so.

‘What are we going to tell them? We’ll have to tell them we tried to get hold of their mom, we tried to be part of their life, but we weren’t allowed to be. We didn’t leave her, she left us.’

The situation is incredibly upsetting for Kendra who would like nothing more than to reconcile with her sister and spend time with her nieces and nephews.

She said: ‘I send a Christmas card every year, but I never hear anything. It’s hard, it’s really, really hard. I don’t know why. It’s terrible because my children, their cousins, talk about them and wish they could see them. We have our memories from years ago, but we have no contact.

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‘It’s very painful and it’s hard when people ask. People who know me ask and it’s so hard because they ask me things and I can’t answer because I haven’t seen her. I love her and wish she would be open with us, but she’s not.’

Kate has also had a very public spat with her brother Kevin and his wife Jodi, who sometimes appeared on the reality show.

In 2010 the couple actually testified against her at a child labor laws hearing, telling a judge that Jon and Kate were harming their children by subjecting them to unfair conditions on the show.

Kate hit back saying Kevin was making 'hundreds of thousands of dollars' telling lies about the family.

Soon after Kate’s mother Charlene Kreider – married to Kenton, a pastor – spoke out to defend her daughter.

Careful: Kate has talked about how she uses coupons to buy everyday goods for her and her large brood. But her outgoings for her mortgage and private schooling are enormous by every day standards

History: A friend of Kate said she had turned her back on many people who had helped at first

But that did not stop Kate criticizing her parents, saying they are not as ‘open-minded’ as she is. According to Kendra she no longer talks to them either.

And it is not only her family who have been totally alienated by the fame-chasing star. Her former friend said: ‘I lived nearby and when the sextuplets were born I went round and volunteered to babysit. We became very close.

‘But after the show was on a little while, things really took off and Kate went in a different direction, we haven’t spoken since.

‘Kate is incredibly charismatic and there were a lot of people who were drawn in and willingly laid down their everyday lives for those kids. None of them have any contact with her now.

‘Kate managed the situation and made everyone feel like they were needed so they kept coming back. Yet in the end when she wants to flip the switch when you have no more use in her life, she flips the switch and she’s off onto the next thing.

‘There’s a trail of a lot of hurt people in her wake. I don’t know if Kate even cares about that. There were older women in the community who were at her house for three, four, five hours every day for two years.

‘Their lives revolved around the children and now they have no contact with them. We don’t even know whether the kids know about us and realize what we did for them.

‘It still breaks my heart to see those kids, who are incredibly capable, tongue-tied and confused in television. Their body language was very sad and it’s terrible to see.’

It is all a dramatic fall from grace for the previously popular star, who was once viewed as an innocent country girl from a traditional church going Pennsylvanian family.

She made millions from her two TLC TV series as well as Dancing With The Stars, Celebrity Wife Swap and numerous endorsements. But Kate now is not making anything on that scale.

It is believed the family pocketed around $2.5 million from Kate and Jon Plus 8 and then Kate Plus 8 following the couple's split. At its peak it is thought to have made them $22,500 per half-hour episode and pulled in around 3 million viewers a time.

'Living in fear': Kate's ex-husband Jon has claimed the children are frightened of controlling Kate and has threatened to try and win back primary custody of the sextuplets

Kate and Jon also traveled the country making a number of high paid personal appearances. It has been reported that during speaking gigs at various churches, the collection plate would actually be passed round for them.

She has also penned four books, the first two of which debuted at number 5 on the NY Times best sellers list and earned her a considerable amount in cash advances.

In 2010 she made a somewhat brief appearance as a contestant on Dancing With The Stars, reportedly bagging $500,000 in the process.

But all those revenue streams have now dried up. She even lost her job as a blogger for CouponCabin back in 2012 after a series of high-profile claims that she was a bad mother.

Speaking on The Bethenny Show in October last year she said: ‘The majority of what we made, I, personally, took and put in a college fund for them because they will go to college.

‘So I use coupons, we don’t wear the top brands. Those things to me really aren’t overly important but college, school and their house, where they live is important.’

And those 'important' outgoings must surely be taking their toll. Her $1.2 sprawling farm house was bought in 2008. Documents show she took out a $750,000 loan which is due to be repaid by 2018.

On top of that she is believed to pay around $200,000-a-year on her children’s education at a private Catholic school. Even an extremely conservative estimate would put her yearly out-goings at around $300,000.

Spat: Kate has also had a very public spat with her brother Kevin and his wife Jodi, who sometimes appeared on the reality show

And while TLC paid for some of her plastic surgery, it has been suggested Kate has had further expensive operations over the subsequent years, depleting her assets even further.

Jon reportedly pays no child support as part of a deal which says he cannot ban Kate from featuring them in future TV programmes.

All this has left Kate desperate to relaunch her career. She has been hawking herself around, looking for a chat show.

But after her most recent book, Love Is In The Mix bombed and was left languishing at number 16,320  in the Amazon charts over the weekend, it seems she has no real fan-base any longer.

That makes her an unattractive prospect to broadcasters, making any prospect of a future TV deal unlikely.

‘Kate is a smart woman and I very much doubt she would have wasted all her money, but a lot of people are wondering how she is coping financially’, said her former friend.

‘But in my opinion, she will find a way. She has a huge ego and sense of entitlement, but by the same token she is unbelievably resourceful and determined.

‘Her personality allowed her to make the show such a success, but it is also the reason why she has no one in her life anymore.’

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