LOS ANGELES — With rumors swirling that her husband is having an affair, Kate Gosselin believes the reality TV couple just needs to push forward like they've always done in the past.
"We just need to weather this storm just like all the other storms that we've been through," said the 34-year-old Gosselin during a Thursday morning appearance on NBC's "Today Show."
Gosselin said she knew what she was getting into when she signed on for the hit TLC reality show "Jon and Kate Plus Eight," which revolves around her and her husband raising their eight kids — 8-year-old twins and 5-year-old sextuplets. But perhaps she couldn't have predicted the media circus that would ensue when her husband, Jon Gosselin, became the subject of affair rumors.
The latest issue of Us Weekly attempts to blow the lid on Jon Gosselin, claiming that he's been having an affair with a third-grade school teacher named Deanna Hummel. While Hummel has claimed that the pair are just friends, her brother - and roommate - tells the magazine his ears tell him another thing.
"A lot of the time, it was pretty, um, gross listening to her, you know, um — how do I say this? The walls are thin. Let's just say that," Jason Hummel told the mag. "I mean, no one wants to hear his sister having sex, let alone with a married dude who's, like, almost twice her age and who has eight kids and a maybe-crazy wife. Ick. Nast."
On Wednesday, Deanna Hummel told People that her brother's comments were devastating.
"My brother is making this all up," she said. "I can't even stomach the lies he's saying about me."
When asked about the allegations, Kate Gosselin told "Today's" Meredith Vieira that you can't always believe what you read.
"To be very honest, I'm very hesitant to believe any of it," she said. "It's goes with the territory and we're dealing with it just like everybody else does."
"We're dealing with it privately," she added. "It's kind of ironic since we do have a reality show and people see the good, the bad and the ugly. But there are those things we keep to ourselves, and we're working through it together, and that's the important thing."
Jon Gosselin, 32, was scheduled to join his wife for Thursday's appearance to promote her new book, Eight Little Faces, but he stayed home with the kids at the last minute. Vieira read a statement from him in which he denied having an affair with Hummel.
"These allegations are false and just plain hurtful," read the statement. "As I adjust to the attention that comes from being in the public eye, I need to be more careful and aware of who I am associating with and where I am spending my time. But the bottom line is, I did not cheat on Kate. I am sorry for putting my family in this awkward position, given some poor decisions and bad judgments I've made recently. I am working through this difficult time with my family. My family is my top priority."
Kate Gosselin said she has been inspired by the public's reaction to the couple's imperfections that have been played out on the small screen.
'We're not perfect," she said. "I am the first one to say it. I don't have all the answers. I'm parenting as I go along. I'm learning as I go along."
While she admitted that some of the tabloid stories have been "hurtful," Kate Gosselin said the couple knew what they were getting into by signing away their lives.
"We knew to expect it. Are we any more comfortable than the next person? No. You have to remember to take it with a grain of salt," she said. "Tabloids pay thousands of dollars for stories. The juicier the story, the more they're paying. So when you pick up those sorts of magazines, is it believable? I don't know, ask yourself. People are being paid to talk."
"I'm not going to sit here and say I enjoy it," she continued. "I tend to be very thick-skinned. We all know that. But it's hurtful to see."
While she's strong enough to handle it, the busy mother said the hardest part is watching her children suffer.
"Looking through their eyes and seeing the things that are out there is absolutely not enjoyable," she said. "But we're learning as we go along and I'm really focusing on our kids, because that's where my focus has been. Everything I do is for them."
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