Eric Gay/AP Photo

Former senator and GOP candidate Rick Santorum often jokes that American voters prefer hearing more from his wife and less from him. Karen Santorum heeded her husband's call tonight for "less Rick, more Karen" on a solo interview with CNN's Piers Morgan.

The 51-year-old mother of seven was interviewed on "Piers Morgan Tonight" before Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., who recently took a jab at Santorum's contraception beliefs ( and the couple's large brood) when he joked that Santorum's Secret Service detail is the first time he has "used protection."

"Sometimes you have to just laugh and other times you just shut it out and ignore it," Karen Santorum told Morgan. "But I thought that was funny."

The neo-natal nurse and former law student also insisted her husband would not make changes to contraception laws if he becomes president.

"Women have nothing to fear when it comes to contraceptives," she said, adding that her husband would "absolutely not" bring his personal religious beliefs "to play" as president.

"When I was on book tours, Rick was the one who was home changing diapers and cleaning the kitchen," she told Morgan in response to whether her husband is anti-woman. "He's a man who cares deeply about the heart and soul of America, about all people."

Karen Santorum also affirmed that daughter Bella is "fragile, but she's doing great." The couple's 3-year-old daughter suffers from a rare genetic disorder called Trisomy 18.

"Someday, I want you to meet her," she told the host. "It's a juggling act, but she's taught us so much about what's important in life."

As for her husband's physique, which was exposed in a photo of him in a bathing suit while campaigning in Puerto Rico last week?

"I'm working on it," she said. "He needs to start taking more steps and fewer elevators."