Jon & Kate Mom: "There's Really Never Any Going Back"

USMagazine, Wednesday, May 6, 2009, 4:55pm (PDT)

One week after Us Weekly first broke the news that Jon & Kate Plus 8 dad Jon Gosselin was caught with another woman, his wife, Kate Gosselin, opens up for the first time.

"It's one of those things that we're just handling privately," Kate said on Wednesday's taping of The Rachael Ray Show. "We're just taking it one step at a time and I'm trying to walk through it."

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She added: "The focus remains on our kids. It has always been there and will continue to be there. One day at a time, like we've always done. One hour at a time, one minute at a time, and my life's been like that."

Her interview with Rachael Ray -- which will air on Tuesday -- came the same day Us Weekly's current issue (on newsstands now) revealed that five people close to the situation confirmed that Jon, 32, has been having an affairwith third-grade school teacher Deanna Hummel.

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"It's definitely another learning experience," Kate said about the recent media attention. "I look at life through the eyes of my kids in that I've always said life experiences... I feel like you can learn something from every situation and I am absolutely learning a lot from this."

After Jon and Deanna met in mid-January at Chill Lounge in Reading, Pennsylvania (they sent each other $3 shots), Deanna's brother Jason Hummel told Us that Jon -- who has twins, 8, and sextuplets, 5 -- began relentlessly pursuing his sister. By mid-February, he was coming over to their Reading house.

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(At the Hummel house, Jason says Deanna and Jon would "pretty much stay locked away like two teenagers. It was weird. He's a grown man.")

Kate said that she didn't see it coming.

"Certainly none of this could have been predicted," she said. "Now going into our fifth season, we have stepped back and realized that it is part of this process, and I always say there's really never any going back. We just need to go forward. That is my new saying -- just keep on marching through this. Just doing what we need to."

Instead of focusing on the news -- which includes Jon and Deanna spending time together while Kate was traveling in late April -- of her husband's three-month long affair, she said she is putting her attention on her eight children.

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"I know that I'm continuing on as I am the best mom I know how to be and that's really where my focus is," Kate said. "I really try not to let any of that stuff that comes with it get to me."

As for comments that Kate is combative (she once chastised her husband for breathing on their TLC reality show), she made no apologies.

"Just to put it out there, I am who I am," she said. "I do not care how you see me. Call me crazy, but it's out there because I am not perfect and I will never boast that I'm perfect. Everyone makes mistakes."