Jon Gosselin’s secret to marital bliss the second time around might be in finding the “polar opposite” of his ex-wife, Kate Gosselin.
During his wedding in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, November 23, Jon, 48, was asked what makes getting married for a second time different — and he was ready with an answer. “So I took the polar opposite person and I fell in love with her,” he told Entertainment Tonight of Stephanie Lebo. “And it’s a lot easier when it’s someone that is in line with all your morals and ideals and family values.”
Lebo, 38, admitted Jon is “the first person outside of very important people that are my family that I can be vulnerable with.” She added, “He lets me be who I was supposed to be my whole life.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Jon said Lebo has “shown me how to be patient.” He added, “She has shown me how to be sympathetic because I was very non-sympathetic, coming out of my divorce. She just made a better me.”
The duo also revealed they have no plans to welcome more children into their lives. “There are no kids in my future, hopefully not hers,” Jon quipped before Lebo added, “We are ready to live our lives. Our kids are happy and well grown up and sophisticated.”
Jon is a dad to eight: twins Mady and Cara and sextuplets Collin, Hannah, Aaden, Joel, Alexis and Leah. He and ex-wife Kate were featured in a several specials on Discovery Health before starring in their own TLC reality series Jon & Kate Plus 8 in 2007. Jon is estranged from most of his children, but Collin and Hannah have been living with him since 2018.
Lebo is mom of one daughter, Juliana, who was mentioned in Jon’s vows Sunday. “When I got to Juliana’s part, because I am gonna treat her like my daughter because I’m trying to be a good father to her, just like one of my own, and that’s when I went [downhill and became emotional],” he explained to Entertainment Tonight.
The moment was impactful for Lebo, too. She told the outlet, “Today, Jon surprised me in his vows with the way he incorporated my child, which was very important and I didn’t see that coming, and that meant the world.”
Jon and Lebo were introduced at a backyard barbecue in 2021, but didn’t reveal their relationship to the public for another two years. “We met at a backyard barbecue at a mutual friend Dean’s house,” Jon told The Sun at the time. “It was a hillbilly thing we let fireworks off, it was fun. I had been single for a few months after Colleen [Conrad] and I broke up.”
The pair hit it off nearly immediately and began to message one another regularly, and Jon approached their mutual friend to make sure it was okay if he pursued a relationship with Lebo.
“I called Dean because he is like Steph’s brother and I said, ‘Did you ever hook up with Stephanie?’ and he said, ‘No, man, she’s like my sister,’ and then I called Stephanie and asked her the same she said, ‘No way, he’s like my brother,’” Gosselin continued. “So I called Dean back and said, ‘Do you mind if I ask Steph out?’ And he said, ‘No, I don’t mind, but if you hurt her, I’ll kill you, I’ll snap you in half.’ And he’s a big guy!”
