Jon & Kate Plus 8 star Kate Gosselin says she's "very hesitant" to believe recent reports that her husband Jon Gosselin has been having an affair.

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"To be very honest, I'm very hesitant to believe any of it," Kate told Meredith Vieira during a Thursday morning appearance on NBC's The Today Show that was intended to promote Kate's new "Eight Little Faces: A Mom's Journey" book but ended up focusing more on the recent allegations instead.

"It goes with the territory and we're dealing with it just like everybody else does," Kate told Vieira.  "It is so public and it's one of the things that we did not envision obviously when we started our show.  It's one of the things that comes with it, the tabloid stuff."

"Very much so, oh, without a doubt," Kate told Vieira when she asked if the recent allegations were still hurtful.  "I'm not going to sit here and say I enjoy it.  I tend to be very thick-skinned, we all know that.  But it's hurtful for the sake of my children, looking through their eyes, seeing the things that are out there."

"It's absolutely not a bit enjoyable but we're learning as we go along and I'm really focusing on our kids because that's where my focus is, everything I do is for them," she continued. "And so we just need to weather this storm just like all the other storms we've been through."

Both Jon and Deanna Hummel, the 23-year-old schoolteacher that the 32-year-old family patriarch has allegedly been having the affair with, have denied the recent allegations, which began when Us Weekly published a cover story report in which the pair where photographed leaving Legends Lounge, a club near the Gosselin home in Wernersville, PA, alone at 2AM on April 18.

Jon, Deanna and their friends all subsequently denied the report, which termed Deanna the "other woman" and was the cover story in last week's May 11 issue of Us Weekly.  However the allegations resurfaced this week when the magazine published a follow-up cover story report in which Deanna's brother Jason Hummel told the magazine its earlier report was correct and he can confirm the pair have been having an affair for the past few months.

According the new report in Us Weekly's May 18 issue, Jason is allegedly one of five people "close to the situation" who have recently told the magazine -- fairly graphically, in Jason's case -- that the pair have been having an affair.  In addition to Jason and the four other sources, the magazine has also released video footage that allegedly shows Gosselin "sneaking" out of Reading, PA home that Deanna shares with her brother after spending the night there on March 13.

Jon and Deanna both subsequently denied the new infidelity allegations in separate interviews on Wednesday.

"My brother is making this all up.  He has no credibility," Deanna told People.  "My brother is very shady... he has no job. He has a criminal background. He was charged for drug distribution. He's on probation right now."

"These allegations are false and just plain hurtful," Gosselin said in a separate media statement.

Kate declined to reveal what she said to Jon when the allegations surfaced during her Thursday interview, which was also supposed to feature Jon and the famly's eight children until "you guys decided he would stay home with the kids" and asked the show to just read Jon's statement aloud instead, according to Vieira.

"We're dealing with it privately," Kate said.  "It's kind of ironic to say that because we do have a reality show [where] 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 I think that's the important thing."

Kate seemed to deflect Vieira's question about whether there was some part of her that was no longer interested in continuing Jon & Kate Plus 8 given the recent tabloid attention the couple has been receiving.

"You know, we are living our lives whether in the public eye or not, so we've always said 'Come along, capture what you can, it's the realest reality show there is and come along for the ride,'" Kate said. 

"It's been very encouraging for us to see how people have found us inspiring and we're not perfect," she continued.  "I am the first one to say it, I make sure always to say it, I don't have all the answers. I'm parenting as I go along, I'm learning as I go along [and] learning information from other people.  We have more than the average number of kids but we've done our best to learn as we go, just like everybody else."

Kate also rejected Vieira's suggestion that the tabloid attention was part of the "trade-off" she was willing to endure because of the TLC reality show.

"I don't think if it in terms of a trade-off, I think of it in terms of it goes with the territory, we knew to expect it," Kate said.  "Are we any more comfortable [with it] than the next person? No." 

During the interview, Kate also seemed to stop just short of accusing Deanna's brother Jason of lying in exchange for payment from Us Weekly.

"You have to remember -- take it with a grain of salt.  Tabloids pay thousands of dollars for stories," Kate told Vieira.  "The juicer the story the more they're paying, so when you pick up those sort of magazines [ask] is it believable?  I don't know, ask yourself.  People are being paid to talk, so..."

Jon & Kate Plus 8's fifth season won't feature any detailed coverage of the allegations when it premieres on Monday, May 25 at 9PM ET/PT, according to Kate.

"No, no tabloid specifically, no storyline specifically," Kate told Vieira.  "Obviously you will see how different events or different ways that we're dealing with this just I don't know that we're going to sit down and give credibility and you know, lay it out there.  You'll see what we feel is healthy and comfortable and safe from our children's perspective.
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