Still distant. Jon Gosselin revealed that he hasn’t spoken to his 21-year-old twin daughters, Mady and Cara, in nearly a decade as he and their mother, Kate Gosselin, continue their custody battle.

During a Monday, November 8, appearance on The Dr. Oz Show, the former TLC personality, 44, admitted that his relationship with his eldest kids is still strained. “I haven’t talked to my twins in eight years,” the Pennsylvania native explained. “I text them every single year. And every time I come here to your show or interview, I text my daughter every single time.”

Host Dr. Mehmet Oz had asked the Jon & Kate Plus 8 alum about the recent news that Cara did not list her father in an online bio for her college rowing team, noting only that she is the “daughter of Kate Gosselin.”

While speaking to Oz, 61, Jon claimed that the bio omission didn’t bother him. “It’s just like anything,” he explained. “It’s just like an emergency contact.”

Despite his texts going unanswered, the IT technician thinks that Mady and Cara haven’t blocked him because his messages are still “blue” when they’re delivered. As for why they won’t speak to him, he thinks it could have something to do with their mother, 46.

The former couple, who divorced in 2009 after a decade of marriage, have been locked in a battle for custody of their minor children for several years. The duo share 17-year-old sextuplets Aaden, Collin, Joel, Alexis, Hannah and Leah.

Jon currently has custody of Collin and Hannah, who live with him in Pennsylvania. Aaden, Joel, Alexis and Leah moved to North Carolina with Kate when she relocated to the state in March. The twins are both away at college in New York, with Mady at Syracuse University and Cara at Fordham University.

Though Jon isn’t in touch with the twins or the sextuplets who live with their mother, he told Oz that Hannah does still speak to some of her sisters. She also recently visited with Mady when she was passing through Pennsylvania on her way back to school in upstate New York.

“She feels a little bit slighted from what things have transpired,” Jon said of Hannah. “I know she misses Leah and Alexis. She’s been snubbed by her brothers, so I don’t know what’s going on with that.”

The Multiple Blessings: Surviving to Thriving With Twins and Sextuplets coauthor added that he doesn’t want to come between Hannah and her sisters despite his own strained relationship with the teens.

“I don’t have the phone numbers of Leah and them,” he explained. “I don’t want that to break down the relationship between Hannah and her siblings.”

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