Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Songwriters Hall Of FameIf you think Chad Kroeger and wife Avril Lavigne are headed towards splitsville, this time, you may be mistaken.
The 39-year-old Nickelback frontman and 30-year-old rock-pop singer, who wed in July 2013, have been the subject of breakup rumors in recent weeks and the Canadian couple has kept mum about them until now. Kroeger addressed them in a recent, semi-sarcastic interview with ET Canada that was released on Thursday.
"You know my dad calls me up and he's just like, 'I haven't slept in two days, what's going on?' I'm like, 'Dad you're not buying all this crap are you?'" he told the outlet. "You know, I get to hear all the rumor mill stuff. So it's, it's...I find it very amusing."
"When you get out of high school, and it's like 'Ugh, OK,'" he continued. "All that rumor crap. All that stuff that people say behind each other's backs is minuscule, pales in comparison to the world of, you know, celebrity or being married to a celebrity. That's high school multiplied exponentially. It's ridiculous."
"Wait, let's start a new rumor," he said. "I'm pregnant."
The reporter noted that he was wearing a wedding ring. He had been photographed without his band in late October.
"You know what? They come off," he said, removing the ring effortlessly and then slipping it back on twice. "And they go back on and then come off and then go back on. What does that mean?"
Lavigne has not commented. The split rumors began in September. E! News learned the couple had been "fighting a lot" and that there was "jealousy on both sides" but that the two were determined to work things out and that Lavigne wants to start a family with Kroeger. That month, Lavigne celebrated her 30th birthday at a club in Las Vegas...without Kroeger.
A week ago, a source told E! News that "things still aren't good" between them, but that Lavigne still wants to have a baby.
Kroeger and his band mates appeared on ET Canada ahead of the release of Nickelback's eighth studio album, No Fixed Address, which hits stores on Nov. 17. The group is also preparing for a North American tour, which begins in Pennsylvania on Feb. 14, 2015—Valentine's Day.