Well, I suppose the flip side of that is not understanding why people are so eager to attack Kate then

. Honestly, I don't agree with all of the decisions she's made but I don't know her personally. I'm not her friend or confidant. I have no idea what her 'real' life is like. We have no idea how this affecting the kids and can only speculate. To imply that she's a bad mother and is out to take advantage is a stretch. I believe she loves her kids and in her mind, she truly and honestly feels that by doing the show she is providing for them. Who are we to say that she shouldn't feel that way? We don't have any clue how stressful it is to raise 8 kids (in the beginning of course) and how heavy that would weigh on us. It doesn't appear the kids are suffering from being on TV, again I could be wrong but they *seem* happy. What I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall during one of the filming days. If I'm wrong then I'll completely change my stand though!
As far as your point of view because you're from a divorce, I too am a child of divorce and also have 3 kids of my own. And I don't see the same thing you are and let me tell you, my parent's divorce was rather ugly as well. Assuming that because you're a child of divorce therefore you don't understand how people can defend Kate is illogical in my opinion. Of course it's your opinion and that's fine. I just don't agree.
Now, my take on the interview was that Kate was hurt, angry and trying to battle through this thing. I do think her PR set it up but I'm sure Kate was willing since Jon is acting like such an idiot right now and throwing her under the bus. I commend her for keeping parts of the story private, no need to air more dirty laundry...oh wait, Kevin & Jodi can do that for them!

Serioulsy though, I think she didn't expect her life to take this turn, and I think she may have regrets about how she and Jon treated each other. She came across hurt yet strong at the same time. Obviously she is appearing as the stable parent and that is a credit to her no matter how you feel about her personally IMO. Most of us can agree that she didn't treat Jon with respect all the time but would you want to admit that on TV or in interviews? Perhaps she's ashamed of it and is in denial. We just don't know, we're not in her head. Maybe I'm completely wrong about her but I'm unconvinced at this point at least that she's as awful as people (general) alledge.