If you're Debbie Mathers, you file a multimillion-dollar defamation suit against him (though she has recently said she's "considering" dropping it) and release your own rap CD to "set the record straight" (and perhaps make a little cash in the process).

Then you give interviews and tell the world how much you love your son. Recently, she did just that in this conversation with Salon's Amy Reiter.

What prompted you to put out a CD?

So they can't change my words, and to kind of let everybody know that I'm not this evil, horrible monster that my son has portrayed. The media has been very cruel. And I have to say, I really feel sorry for Marshall. I really do. He's going through too much right now. He's under so much stress. I have to just sit and try to listen. If I try to say anything, he starts screaming and self-destructs.

I'm trying to figure him out, because he's like, "You only loved me until I was 8 years old." He's got all these different personalities I'm trying to deal with right now. It's very hard for me because I'm thinking, "Well, is it alcohol? Is it drugs? Plus, the stress -- what is he really going through?"

You mean you two are in touch?

I was there, hon, for the gun charges, when he went to court. Nobody even knew I was there. He called me and said, "Mom, I need you here. I'm scared. I don't want this to get out, but please come up, bring Nathan [Eminem's younger brother], and I'll put you in a hotel, just to be there for moral support if I need to talk."

I'm very proud of both my boys. And of course, with me being with the older one for 14 years, just me and him, he was the apple of my eye. Everybody was saying, "That child is out of control, he needs to be spanked, he's not minding, he's a monster" and so on. I didn't believe in spanking. I never raised my voice to him. I never allowed anybody to raise their voice to him.

Do you think that has anything to do with how Marshall is now?

Yeah. He was too spoiled. Anything he wanted, I would just buy it, and I'd go without. The CD kind of says a lot of that. It was a letter that I wrote to him. It took me about four or five times to get through it in the studio, because I kept breakin' down crying. It was pretty hard, tryin' to let him know, because he's always sayin', "Nobody loves me." And that kills me to my heart. It's like, "I do love you, and I don't know what has happened here in the past two years."

I think it was because when I moved, he felt abandoned. He was two months away from his 26th birthday. And he's like, "Mom, I'm just getting started. I've signed with a big record label and you're gonna move to Missouri? You're not gonna see Hailie [Mathers' granddaughter]?" He took it really hard.

Why do you think he has said the things he has said about you?

It was because he was hurt when I left, because Marshall really had no responsibilities. He never had to pay rent or anything. He tried to go out on his own a few times. It didn't work ... He's very stubborn.

Does he get that from you?

I think a little bit of that comes from me. But he's a workaholic. He's in the studio 24/7 almost. And I would never, ever say one bad thing about him.

Yet you're suing him.

I don't know how to even explain that. The lawyer that I went to see had files. He was supposed to be sending Marshall letters. When Marshall got angry at me, I didn't even pick up half the magazines and read them. And people were sending in, like, articles cut from the newspapers and magazines and no return addresses to my P.O. box, and I'm looking at these and I'm going, "What is this? I never worked a day in my life? We never had a house to live in? We lived on welfare?" I mean, everything he was saying was, like, I mean, I almost went into shock. I'm like, "This is not true. Why are you doing this?"

Has it gotten harder for you now, with all the stories about you that are circulating?

A little bit because, actually, what I was going to say on that lawsuit -- I had no idea. The attorney told me that was a wake-up call, to wake Marshall up to tell him, "Hey, you need to stop demeaning your mom." When he filed that [suit] for $10 million, I almost had a heart attack. And Marshall called and said, "Mom, I got hit for $10 million." I'm like, "What?" I didn't even know it.

You didn't?

No. The lawyer told me, "I know what I'm doing." And then he said, "No, we dropped it down to $2 million." And I was totally confused. I'm like, "Well, Marshall doesn't have that kind of money." And he said, "Don't question anything I'm doing." Half the things that were going on I have not had a clue about -- [such as] any court dates. I'm not kept informed. But I think everything will become settled between me and Marshall.

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