The war is on.
TLC is suing Jon Gosselin for breach of contract.
According to the lawsuit — filed Friday in Maryland's Circuit Court of Montgomery County (where TLC's parent company is based) — Jon, 32, hasn't met the obligations of his Jon & Kate Plus 8 contract as an exclusive employee. The network claims he has appeared on other shows for pay and made unauthorized disclosures about the TLC show, The Associated Press reports.
The lawsuit says that, last June, in recognition of "the Gosselins'difficult personal circumstances, TLC asked both parents to refrain from making public statements about each other, the divorce, or the program, and negotiated an agreed 'cooling off' period with respect to media communications" for 45 days.
But the suit alleges that Gosselin "in violation of his contractual exclusivity" to his own show, "entered a lucrative arrangement" to appear regularly on Entertainment Tonight and The Insider to discuss his family and the problems he was having with estranged wife Kate. The suit said he also "routinely sold photographic rights to various media outlets ….
The lawsuit also claims that on Sept. 18, TLC requested that Gosselin be present for filming six days hence. He didn't respond to the request, and no filming took place on Sept. 24.
The suit is seeking from Gosselin unspecified compensatory damages and demanding he return income gained as a result of his breaches of the agreement, as well as to refrain from future violations of his contractual agreement, according to the AP.
"The network has been trying privately and patiently for months to get Jon to honor the contract he signed and to comply with his obligations relating to public appearances and statements," TLC said in a statement. "Those efforts have been unsuccessful."
Gosselin's lawyer, Mark Jay Heller, had no immediate comment.
Earlier this month, it was announced that the show would be renamed Kate Plus Eight and would feature Jon less.
Jon then took legal action to forbid TLC from filming his eight children for their show, claiming he had an "epiphany" that the show was causing harm to his family. TLC fired back, saying in a statement that Jon's actions were "grossly inaccurate, without merit and are clearly opportunistic."
Meanwhile, TLC said the show will stop filming new episodes next month. TLC spokeswoman Laurie Goldberg has said the show's longtime future remains in question.
