Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed have been roaming around the media circuit and promoting the sixth season of their A&E reality show, Family Jewels. On Monday, the couple (who have been together for 26 years but have never married) sat down with Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb during the fourth hour of the Today show, and gave an incredibly unpleasant interview where a photo of Simmons surrounded by hot blondes that appeared on TMZ was discussed. As Simmons tried to explain why the photograph showed him in the company of women who weren’t Tweed, Tweed kept interrupting him and saying she saw some other men in the studio that she’d be interested in leaving him for.
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A lot of people thought the terrible interview was a publicity stunt to boost ratings of their show. But that theory was squashed last night when Tweed and Simmons appeared on Joy Behar‘s show on HLN, and a clip was played from Family Jewels that showed Tweed telling Simmons that since their kids were in college and out of the house, she had to decide for herself if she wanted a better life. Once the clip ended, Behar asked what was happening between Tweed and Simmons and Simmons complimented Tweed for sticking by him for almost 30 years. Then came the question about how many women Simmons has slept with over the course of his life. Behar said she heard that the number was around 5,000, and Simmons made a joke about how tired he was from all of it. Then, Tweed ripped her microphone out from under her shirt and slammed it on the table and walked off the set. Simmons tried to get her to come back to the table and sit next to him, but she never returned. Simmons then chatted with Behar by himself for a little bit, and when she asked him if they were really having troubles in their relationship, Simmons said “yes, this is really happening to us.”
I’m still not entirely convinced this isn’t a stunt. But if it really isn’t and the couple is in fact having problems, then I guess shmeckle happens?
