Angela Weiss/Getty ImagesIs Kate Gosselin ready to date again?
Over the years, the TLC reality star was romantically linked to her longtime bodyguard Steve Neild, who is married, as well as millionaire businessman Jeff Prescott. However, Kate denies dating either of them.
Still, her eight children want her to find love again—and soon!
"They are encouraging me more and more. I just don't have a lot of time to be out there to be searching for someone! I would love to date! And I would love for the kids to have that male role model," she says. What kind of man is the former nurse interested in dating? "He has to be comfortable with the publicity, my eight kids—and all the noise in my house!" Kate reveals in In Touch's Apr. 20 issue.
The Kate Plus 8 star also reveals she has a crush on Patrick Dempsey, who is recently single! Kate hasn't been in a serious relationship since her 10-year marriage to Jon Gosselin ended in 2009.
How is her relationship with her ex-husband today? "I don't have one," the former Celebrity Apprentice star says matter-of-factly. "I keep the peace. Some of the kids visit and some don't. That's for the best."
"There were many tears. Things that happened with my divorce were hurtful," she says of the split. "I'm definitely a no-regrets kind of person. I've always done my best with what I had at the time," Kate adds.
Kate is unsure if she still believes in marriage, saying, "I wish it would have worked for me." Will she ever marry again? "I haven't even found anyone to date, so I'm not really qualified to answer that question."
Is there anything Kate wants to clear up before she dips back into the dating pool? "People think I'm mean and bitchy," she tells In Touch, on newsstands Friday, "but I'm actually laidback and I don't have an ego!"
Earlier this year, Kate opened up to E! News about her lack of a love life.
"The truth is I don't really leave my house very much and that's the truth. I'm just so busy with kids," she said. "...I don't have a lot of help and it's just so much. I'm really focused on [my kids] right now, but yeah, if the right person presented themselves, absolutely. I've always said that. My kids still talk about it all the time. Our microwave broke like a week or so ago, and I was trying to take it out, you know, it's like mounted into the thing, and I was trying to get it out and the kids were eating dinner and I have my screwdriver out and Leah said, 'And this is another perfect example of why you should get married again!'"