(UPI) -- Jon Gosselin, once part of TLC's most popular reality series, sat down with Oprah Winfrey for Sunday night's "Where Are They Now" special on the OWN network. Now 36, Gosselin blamed his show, Jon and Kate Plus 8, for permanently damaging his relationship with his wife and the emotional and social stability of his eight children.
"Yes, they got to travel the world, and yes, they got these fabulous things, and yes, they have trust funds, and they're taken care of educationally. Great," Gosselin, who now works as a waiter in Pennsylvania, told Winfrey. "But developmentally, they have problems with their peers, and they have problems with talking to other people, and they have problems with wants and needs and manners and morals and what's right and what's wrong. I think more so than someone who grows up off TV."
Jon and Kate separated in 2009 after 10 years of marriage, eight children, a best-selling book, several TV specials and a hit reality series. Gosselin said that the show "just became stressful on the kids and stressful on me."
"You're trying to keep your marriage together, and you're trying to keep your family ties together," he said.
Kate went on to film two more season of the show until it ended in 2011.
Jon also refuted speculation that his alleged philandering led to the end of his marriage.
"The most common misperception [is] that I cheated on my wife, that I left my family, that I'm a party boy," he said. "But my family knows the truth."
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