Silly Joke…Or Is Kate Really Broke?

Play the vid below now and witness this Today Show sob-fest put on earlier by Kate Gosselin, whining about Jon’s pilferage of $230,000 and how she can no longer provide food for the 47 kids.

“He took $230,000 of the $231,000 we had,” Kate told TODAY’s Meredith Vieira in New York Monday. “I have a stack of bills. The last thing I wanted was to do this show and end up not being able to pay our bills.”

If this isn’t a joke, it must be a dream. WTF? The ploys are becoming ridiculous at this point, yeah. More Gosselin drama when you click inside.

Jon Gosselin virtually cleaned out the account that Kate said contains all their liquid assets last week after TLC announced that it would continue filming the Gosselin family, but was changing the name of their show from “Jon & Kate Plus 8” to “Kate Plus Eight.” Kate told Vieira that under the Gosselins’ agreement with TLC, the network will stop filming if either she or Jon make such a request.

“It has ended our income and our paychecks and our opportunities,” Kate told Vieira. “I wish Jon would think more about it.” But, she added, while her finances are in turmoil as attorneys sort things out, the futures of the eight children are secure: “Financially, the kids are protected. They have the fund that I set up for them,” Kate said. “That was my long-term goal. It is secure and substantial … and it is safe. I had the presence of mind to start that on my own. That’s what I want for them, [for] their future to be secure.”

Vieira asked Kate how she’s holding up under the latest assault on what once appeared to be the perfect family life. “I’m hanging in there. It’s hard. Every morning I don’t know what I’m going to wake up to,” Kate replied. “He has gone way far off the trail … Obviously, I am very upset. I can’t sleep at night. I can’t pay my bills.

I think he’s receiving bad advice. I think he’s making bad decisions.” But while “Kate Plus Eight” remains on hold, Kate confirmed to Vieira that she is working on another show that she would host (with Food Network star Paula Deen) that would not involve the children. “It is true. It’s a project I’m very excited about,” Kate told Vieira. “It is in the works. It is minus the kids. There is no word yet on whether it will go alongside or replace ‘Kate Plus Eight.’ ”