Kate Gosselin showed off her fit bikini body while vacationing in Mexico to celebrate her 40th birthday.
Kate shot the scenes for her TLC birthday special, “Kate Plus 8: The BIG Four Oh,” which aired June 23.
On the show, Gosselin said she’s a lot happier since divorcing her ex-husband Jon in 2009. “It’s been the greatest five years of my life,” gushed Kate.
While Gosselin has been slammed by fans for being an abusive mom and horrible wife, there’s no denying she has an amazing bikini body, thanks to an organic diet and running workouts.
Gosselin, a one-time couch potato, has dramatically transformed her body and blossomed into an accomplished runner since she started began running in 2010, Examiner reported.
“I’m a runner by hobby and by nature of stress relief and staying fit,” said Kate. “I think I got to the point where a lot of runners end up: You plan another race so you have something to focus on and that’s what I do: I focus.”
Gosselin, who has competed in several half-marathons, had never planned to become a serious runner. The transformation was gradual and organic.
“I’ve been running wherever I can,” said the mom of eight. “There’s no set plan. At my best, I’m doing 10 miles every other day. I can’t say I’m doing that right now, but I just try to fit it in when I can.”
Gosselin, who looks better now than she did 10 years ago, credits her healthy diet and active lifestyle — not plastic surgery — for her age-defying looks “I am probably one of the rare few who de-age,” said Kate, who admitted getting a tummy tuck in 2007 and a breast augmentation in 2009.
Meanwhile, Kate Gosselin’s ex-husband, Jon Gosselin, has accused Kate of spanking their eight children so hard it left horrible welts and bruises on their bodies.
Jon said Kate used to spank their eight children with a wooden spoon in front of strangers and once hit their then five-year-old daughter Leah so hard she had visible marks on her body.
In his shocking book Kate Gosselin: How She Fooled The World, author Robert Hoffman revealed how Kate beat her children with a wooden spoon and pulled them by their hair in fits of rage.
Hoffman said he based his book on Kate’s own journal entries. In one, Gosselin recounts one particular “stress meltdown.”
“The kids were outside playing and Collin poured some beans on the floor and was sent inside. He didn’t like that so he knocked down some highchairs in the kitchen and that set Kate off,” he writes.
“Kate said that she was instantly so SO angry that she grabbed him and spanked him as hard as she could and thought that she may seriously injure him so she sent him to his crib and whipped him into it very hard!”
This isn’t the first time Gosselin’s excessive spankings and rumored child abuse have made headlines. In 2012, reports surfaced that Gosselin had admitted to hitting her kids with a wooden spoon and pulling them by their hair in fits of anger.
Whether the child abuse rumors are true or not, Kate has admitted to leading a hectic, stressful life, exacerbated by the constant negative media attention surrounding her bitter 2009 divorce from Jon Gosselin, the father of her eight children.
Kate Gosselin: How She Fooled The World has so far received mostly positive reviews, but readers noted with sadness how outraged they are by Kate’s alleged abuse:
“The book is absolutely chilling,” wrote one reviewer. “The abuse is horrible. Not only did she beat them but did things like lock a boy outside in the freezing winter because he didn’t close the door all the way. This book will make you so mad.”
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