By Jeanmarie Tan

SHE'S a former registered nurse and the original Octomum, who also happens to be an aggressive control freak.

He's her long-suffering half-Korean IT specialist husband.

Kate and Jon Gosselin can hardly be considered celebrities, even though they are the stars of the top-rated reality TV series Jon & Kate Plus 8. The show documents how the couple deal with raising their adorable 9-year-old twins and 5-year-old sextuplets.

Yet, they are being stalked by the paparazzi and the clan's every move has been under the media microscope.

Fame has its price.

Juicy details of the estranged couple's troubled marriage have been hogging the covers of US celebrity magazines and tabloids for the past month, and readers have been lapping them up.

Us Weekly magazine put the Gosselins on its cover for seven consecutive weeks - the family have proven to be on par with Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and their own supersized brood in terms of reader popularity.

According to MSNBC.com, a recent issue of People magazine with Jon opening up about his marital problems was one of the year's best selling - early estimates have sales hitting the 1.8 million mark.

Once the picture of a happy family, today, the tumultuous state of Jon and Kate's union threatens to overshadow everything Jon & Kate Plus 8 was originally about.

Pretty ironic, considering they renewed their vows at a Hawaiian ceremony in one of the episodes.

The show's wholesome image became tarnished in May when Us magazine reported that Jon, 32, had a three-month affair with 23-year-old school teacher Deanna Hummel.

Booze & drugs

And when Kate was celebrating her 34th birthday with their eight kids in March, Jon was photographed on a booze and drug-filled trip thousands of kilometres away with his alleged mistress. It was then that Kate acknowledged that they might split.

Meanwhile, Jon - who lives in an apartment above the garage of their US$1.1 million ($1.7 million) home - has adamantly denied cheating on his wife and instead is suspicious of her close ties with her bodyguard.

Other negative reports about the Gosselins followed, like how the notoriously short-fused Kate fired 40 babysitting help in three months and how she used to give Jon only US$5 to spend each day.

Critics have slammed her cookbook and previously released recipes, claiming she stole them from product boxes and magazine articles.

Even her ex-fiance has come out to accuse her of being money-grubbing and unfaithful while they were dating.

Jon himself faces allegations of animal abuse when he admitted that his German Shepherd pups are often mishandled by his young children.

But most controversial of all, the Pennsylvania labour department is investigating the show for possible child labour law violations.

Commentators are already questioning whether reality TV is guilty of exposing their domestic strife - or the cause of it.

Kate said on Larry King Live: 'We, as you know, have a reality show. Everyone wants to know everything about us. And I feel like this is a situation where... you can't believe everything that you read...

'And so we are dealing with it privately. We are handling it one step at a time.'

Despite her personal drama unfolding in public, Kate doesn't regret signing up for the show - for which she earns an estimated US$50,000 to US$75,000 an episode and gets free vacations, appliances, and household goods.

She said: 'I feel like we have learned a lot, the kids have gained a lot. We have benefited a lot... this is full of life lessons... we all have to react to what happens to us.

'And I choose happiness. And I choose to survive anything.'

For most of the current fifth season, the Gosselins - who used to give interview testimonials seated together on their couch - are filmed speaking to the camera separately.

According to Us Weekly, they celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary last week apart. They reunited this week for a playdate with the children, but did not show any affection toward each other.

Their home life may be in ruins, but the cable TV network TLC, which airs Jon & Kate Plus 8, is seeing a huge payoff.

The fifth season premiere on 25 May attracted a record 9.8 million US viewers, more than doubling the series' previous ratings high.

The fourth season is showing here on Discovery Home & Health (StarHub Ch 70) on Thursdays at 6.30pm and Saturdays at 10pm.

So whether or not the Octoparents will reconcile or divorce, it looks like their rapidly growing and endlessly fascinated fanbase are still clamouring for a front-row seat.

On choosing to devote resources to the Gosselins over the Jolie-Pitts, a magazine editor probably spoke for his industry by telling MSNBC.com: 'We want celebrities we can relate to... parenting struggles, marriage problems, cute kids? That resonates.

'People want to know they aren't alone in what they're going through. It's part of what makes it the Gosselins' time.'

This article was first published in The New Paper.