In an exclusive interview with EW, Jon and Kate Gosselin — the stars of TLC’s top-rated Jon and Kate Plus Eight — addressed the recent tabloid coverage that alleged the 32-year-old father was unfaithful to his wife. In the early morning hours of April 18, a paparazzo photographed Jon leaving a Pennsylvania bar with a woman who has since identified herself as Deanna Hummel, 23 (Kate was out of town promoting her latest book, Eight Little Faces). Since then, Hummel and friends of Jon have come to his defense, including a bouncer at the bar who said “there was no romantic anything” between Jon and the woman.
EW: What did you think of the story and photo?
Jon: It’s really upsetting. I may be guilty of choosing the wrong time and place to hang out with my friends, but I am not guilty of cheating on my wife. It hurts me to see what it’s done to my family, and it’s scary to know that these tabloids are in town constantly following us and even paying locals large amounts of money to contribute to these negative stories. It’s even gotten so bad that [one tabloid] has reached out to a youth pastor from our church, which in my eyes is completely unacceptable.
Kate: It’s disturbing and unfortunate that these tabloids have gone as far as they have to try and bring us down. Jon’s poor judgment and irresponsible behavior has also without a doubt caused some added tension and stress between the two of us.
EW: Does the tabloid story make you want to spend even less time in public? Do you feel like you have to decline future requests for fan photos for fear they may end up in the wrong hands?
Jon: Our fans and the majority of viewers have been overwhelmingly supportive, but when tabloids take photos and turn them into something they are not, yes it definitely makes us hesitant to take photos with fans and go about our daily lives. We still want to live normal lives. We want our kids to have opportunities that we didn’t have growing up, which is why we participated in the show in the first place. But of course it makes us think twice about how we spend our time in public.
EW: Will you address how the tabloid coverage has affected your life in the upcoming season on Jon and Kate, which begins May 25?
Kate: I think we will address the bigger picture, regarding the very public focus on our family and the stress it’s caused in our relationship, but not necessarily any specific tabloid.
EW: That said, the latest tabloid coverage should only boost ratings for the fifth season of your show. Is this comforting, or troubling?
Kate: We are not concerned about the ratings right now. Our main focus is on our family and working through this.
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Does the following sound more like (A)like a wife talking about her husband, or (B)A 3rd grade teacher criticizing a stundent on his report card? : “Jon’s poor judgment and irresponsible behavior has also without a doubt caused some added tension and stress.”
Just like Kate to talk that way about Jon…gee, wonder why he was out with another woman having fun in the first place? Time to look in the mirror Kate!
As much as I love the show, and think the kids are adorable, maybe they should consider not doing it anymore. Their kids are now schoolaged and you know they have to hearing things outside of school. While I do feel bad for them and the fact that they have become a paparazzi magnet, but they should do what they have always done and put the kids first. Time to end it and concentrate on your beautiful children and family.
Kate’s comments about “irresponsible behaviour” may be true, but there has to be more adding a strain to the mariage. It goes both ways.
http://tvdonewright.com/2009/05/06/tv-tonight-wednesday-may-6th/
Jennifer, I totally agree. She sounds horrible and his behaviour is justified. That orange woman is such a mean-spirited and unsympathetic person, it is hard to believe she is the same person from the beginning.
Run, Jon, run! Get away from her as fast as you can.
His “irresponsible behavior” is actually normal for human beings, going out for drinks with friends, while the harpy shrew jetsets around the country unloading her bull pucky onto a gullible public. Her attitude and personality are irresponsible in general. GO away Kate, you are now a product and your real unlikeable personality is becoming more and more known. Octomom is a moron, this one is not so much ignorant but mean and unpleasant. Please Jon, next time don’t sign the release form and get on with you and your childrens’ lives.
I just read an article on momlogic that quoted an interview with the other woman’s brother who says he’s tired of hearing her and jon have sex at her apartment…The brother thinks it’s “icky” DUH!
Ouch.
“Jon’s poor judgment and irresponsible behavior has also without a doubt caused some added tension and stress between the two of us.”
That seemed to come out of left field from Kate.
I just want this family to go away, off my TV and off EW’s website.
my gosh Kate is mean biznotch.
Does anyone else feel like this might be a big TLC-Gosselin conspiracy to keep people talking about them even when their show isn’t on? The night with their biggest ratings was the night that Jon seemed the most pissed off about his wife and the show. I’m just sayin’…
“Jon’s poor judgment and irresponsible behavior has also without a doubt caused some added tension and stress between the two of us.”
Wow. Way to put up a unified front, Kate. Make sure you get your licks in, too, as your husband is being publicly flogged in the press.
If they want to save their family, then they need to stop doing the show. I’m pulling for them, but what’s sad is that Kate does need to humble herself and look inside to change some things. I had no idea they were that young either. I’m sure the stress of 8 kids throughout your twenties and not building that relationship with each other is causing some tension as well. Overall, they need to stop doing the show…period!
I’ve seen lots of photos that fans have taken with celebrities and none of them made me think the star was cheating on his/her spouse. Here’s a tip Jon. Don’t have the photos taken at 2am in front of a bar with a single girl and then run away like a criminal. Amazingly enough their stupid fans will believe any bs these two dish out.
They must have paid off that woman Jon was with to shut up and say nothing was going on. TLC was cutting some nice checks.
Geez, people, obsessed much? Funny how so many of you watch the show just to judge them. And believing tabloid BS is pathetic. So what if he’s at a bar. Big freaking deal. Stop watching the damn show and live your own lives.
I’ve only watched the show a couple of times with my fiancee (who watches it regularly), but we both agree that Kate is a ston-cold beeyotch. She talks to Jon like he’s one of the kids, and is always just so shrill and mean-spirited. She’s the definition of a controlling wife.
Lies. If their main focus was on their family they would do the hard thing that would take the attention away from their family – and that is to pull the plug on their show.
But greedy Kate can’t say no to the money she gets for putting her family on display every week.
I’ll believe their family comes first when they say they aren’t filming a fifth season.
Yikes! I think I might cheat on her. She is the definition of ball buster.
As much as I dis-like Kate, I want this family to succeed. They used to be so sweet, so happy and funny.
That was when Jon used to go to work and Kate worked hard taking care of those kids.
Very sad. TLC exploited this family and now TLC has destroyed this family.
More important than ANY of this? Who was watching the kids while he was (supposedly) out and she was ont he other side of the country promoting her book?
There’s nothing wrong with freebies. Especially when you have 8 mouths to feed and have to think about their future college tuition. Anyone who would turn down money is an idiot. Judge them all you want, but at least their doing quite well for themselves.
The girl’s brother (who is also her roommate) tells the story of the affair in vivid detail in a magazine hitting the newstands today. Jon is in big trouble. Kate treated him like dirt before all of this happened, and now, she owns his a$$ for life. This shady couple quit their jobs and used their children as a meal ticket. The mansion, sports cars, a Hummer, diamond jewelry, a Utah ski condo, all bought with money the kids earned. No laws in PA protect children filmed in reality TV. No law requires money earned by kids be set aside for their future. It appears the parents are selling the kids childhood and blowing all the cash. TLC needs to stop the show. The kids deserve better.
Next season should be their last one. Then they can focus back on their lives as a family and forget all this nonesense. But what will the haters watch to fulfill their dull and ordinary lives? Oh no!
oh come on people! like they would leave the kids home alone!? Its just very sad that a person cannot do anything without the parasite paparazzi zooming in on it and twisting it out of context worse than Dorothy on the wizard of oz. We may not like the way Kate treats Jon sometimes but she is his wife! He loves her and they have made a comittment to each other that I don’t believe they would ever compromise. And I should know! I watch them all the time. Give them a break already!
when this marriage ultimately fails they will blame the paparazzi and press for the stress it caused them…Kate will NEVER blame herself for anything and Jon can’t seem to get a grip on life
If we really want to help this family-and I think most people are pulling for them to work this out-then time away from the spotlight is needed. We can help them by not watching their show. When the ratings go down, the show will not be renewed. They can go back to “normal” life. Jon and Kate have both changed over the years and not always for the best. I never wanted to miss an episode-because of the kids, not the parents. Unfortunately, I can’t take the interaction between Kate and Jon anymore. It seems TV stardom has magnified Kate’s flaws. I’m sure she has always been a control freak but it has reached the point of being obnoxious now. Jon isn’t completely blameless either. They both need to go to marriage counseling. Hey…maybe that could be their next reality TV series. Kate, I know you don’t care what others think of you, but when so many people think you are a big part of the problem, maybe it really is time for some honest self-reflection.
EW has not, and has never been a tabloid magazine. Over the past 2 or 3 weeks, every single day I come to this website there is some new story about this Jon & Kate non-news “controversy”. This D-list “celeb” was seen leaving a bar at 2am with or without a “friend” – who cares???
Please EW – for the love of all that is holy and unholy – stop “reporting” on this story on this website. You don’t have a bigger EW/pop culture fan then me, but if I see another Jon & Kate story on this issue, I’m done. I can’t take it anymore. Please — for everyone’s sanity, stop talking about this already! Next time I come to this website I don’t want to see testimonials by Jon’s high school peers how he always had a wandering eye. Gaaaaaaaaaah – please make it stop already!
Was this interview before or after the latest story? Sounds like before. I want to hear him explain leaving her house at 7:30 am.
You naive sycophants … that man is boning that teacher and has you sheep blindly baa-baa-baa-ing in his defense!
Just admit your affair already, we all know you’re cheating. Marriages don’t always work, especially the stress from all the kids. You have to have good communication, and it’s obvious they lack that, there is no passion in their life. If that is what marriage is then I pass. Deanna Hummel’s brother has confirmed the affiar, he lives with his sister and says he is disgusted at how Jon lies. He can even hear them having sex. gag.
Totally agree with everyone who responded to Kate’s comment! Low blow Kate. If she’s willing to go that far in public with a snarky comment, what must she be saying to him in private?! Poor Jon, he can’t leave. The child support would give him $2.00 a day to live on if he was lucky. Don’t know if the amount is true but I read that TLC pays them $30,000 per episode. They undoubtedly pocket a fair amount as most of the rest of what they do is free in turn for them using the business or facility and getting their name mentioned on the show which is free national advertising for them. I guess she doesn’t mind being a rude, condescending and controlling roll model for the kids. Used to love the show but the longer it goes the meaner she gets.