Controversial reality TV mom Kate Gosselin is speaking out on the recent controversy centered around photographs of her publicly spanking daughter Leah as members of the paparazzi looked on in shock.

The incident took place last Saturday after the child — one of the family’s 5-year-old sextuplets — disobeyed her mother by blowing a whistle after she was instructed not to.

“Whether the paparazzi are there or not, I am a mother first. I love my children and when they misbehave, I discipline them as I deem appropriate for the situation,” Kate Gosselin, of TLC’s Jon & Kate Plus 8, said in response to SpankGate in a statement to Life & Style Magazine on Wednesday.