Jon Gosselin revealed that he suffered a serious medical emergency ahead of his wedding to Stephanie Lebo last November.
The former “John & Kate Plus 8” star said she was diagnosed with bilateral pulmonary embolism after experiencing severe pain in her legs a few weeks before her wedding, which spread to her upper shoulders the next day.
By the next night, he had a coughing fit.
“I thought, ‘Something is wrong,'” he told the Daily Mail. “I coughed up something that looked like stupid putty. It was a blood clot.”
Gosselin said she drove herself to the hospital because it was past midnight and she didn’t want to wake anyone. However, he later learned that the decision was a potentially fatal mistake.
“If you have deep vein thrombosis, you can die while driving,” he explained.
Gosselin, 48, currently takes a variety of medications for treatment, including heart medication, blood pressure medication, aspirin, and Eliquis, a prescription blood thinner to prevent blood clots.
“I definitely could have died,” he said. “If I had stayed home that night, I could have had a real pulmonary embolism and died straight away.”
Gosselin married Lebo, 38, on November 23, 2025, with two of their eight children, son Colin and daughter Hannah, both 21, in attendance.
Jon has sextuplets with ex-wife Kate Gosselin, including Alexis, Arden, Leah and Joel, in addition to Colin and Hannah. His ex-girlfriend also has twins Maddie and Carla, 25.
Colin, who served as a groomsman at his father’s wedding, later addressed his brother’s absence, telling Entertainment Tonight that he “would have loved to see” any of his siblings other than Hannah at the wedding.
“I love them, and I hope they know we wanted to see them here,” he told the outlet. “I hope they understand how important marriage is and how happy Hannah and I were to see my dad get married today.”
“My first thought was, he deserves this,” he added. “It just reinforced to me that he really deserves this, considering everything he’s been through.”
John and Kate, 50, divorced in 2009 after 10 years of marriage.
She is currently dating former bodyguard Steve Nield, who Job and Colin accused of having an affair with Kate.
