William Gilvin Bates (Gil Bates) is an entrepreneur who is popular for his appearance in the American reality T.V. series ‘Bringing Up Bates’ which airs on Up T.V.
The show is centered on Gil and his wife Kelly Jo Bates along with their 19 children, and how they manage to live in peace and harmony with each other in today’s world where family feuds have become so common… The Bates family has a joint net worth of approximately $1 million, as of 2017.
Early life
Born on 1st January 1965, not much information can be found about Bates’ early life.
Career
Bates served for the ministry team at Anderson University in Anderson Sc.
Gil owns a tree cutting business which he runs along with his sons except for Lawson, who has his own business.
Gil also has an interest in wrestling, and he won the 1983 sc state championship.
Bates is best known for his appearance in the reality T.V. series ‘Bringing up Bates’, which started in January 2015 and is currently running its 6 the season. This show is the main source of income for Gil and his family.
Prior to appearing in “Bringing up Bates’, Gil also appeared in a show named ‘United Bates of America’ along with his family in 2012.
Personal Life
Gil met his wife Kelly Jo Bates while working at Anderson University, where Kelly worked as a lab assistant for girl’s chemistry classes. Gil and Kelly soon grew fond of each other and fell deeply in love after some time. Finally, they ended up tying the knot on December 19, 1987, when they were 22 and 21 years old respectively.
Bates and his wife belong to the rare section of modern American families who share the thought that they should let God decide how many children they will have. Therefore they have no regards for the use of birth control. As a result, they had 19 children in total, 9 boys and 10 girls, in the years from 1988 to 2012.
Bates main source of income is through the T.V. series ‘Bringing up Bates’, although at first Gil was not very keen on the idea of appearing in a T.V. series with his family as he believed that this family was “pretty leary.” But eventually, he realized that his coming up front with his family will inspire a lot of people to follow the same path he believed & followed, and he started giving full insights of his family in interviews.
The Bates family lives a very modest life and only spends on bare essentials. In an interview, Gil opened up and said that his family does not even have proper medical insurance. Further, Gil added that they mostly bought things from the sale or second-hand things to save up the penny.
Gil has a 16-foot long table in his house where the family has at least one meal of the day altogether, preferably dinner. They try to maintain this gesture in order to secure their bond more. Gil claims that he has always tried to maintain his family’s interest in being together and especially to believe in God.
Gil once stated that the family has no television set in their house. As Gil believed that watching T.V. would be a waste of time which they could invest in some other activities. Also, he said that if 21 people tried to watch T.V. at the same time, it would create nothing but chaos in the house, which he wanted to avoid.
Gil and his family, in 2012, established their own church where they now practice their religion.
Gil and his family have come up on the news many times. Recently, Gil’s name came up in a lawsuit filed against the Institute of Basic Life Principles in which Gil serves as a director. The lawsuit claimed that Gil and other officials covered up evidence of sexual abuse and harassments reported by multiple women.
Gil Bates and his family are quite famous on the social media and have more than twenty-nine thousand followers on Instagram. The family shares a very strong bond and their love for each other has inspired many people.
Quick summary
Full name: William Gilvin Bates
Date of birth: 1st January 1965
Birthplace: NA
Profession: Entrepreneur, Reality T.V. star
Age: 52
Height: NA
Weight: NA
Net worth: $250 thousand
