AceShowbiz -

Barbra Streisand has denied tabloid rumor suggesting that he and her husband James Brolin are on the verge of separation. The "Woman in Love" hitmaker slammed the false story during a an event discussing women's heart health at Hearst Tower on Wednesday, November 12, calling the rumor "absurd."

"I'm not even aware of these. Nobody shows me, and I don't go to the supermarkets much, though I love to go to supermarkets," said Streisand who was falsely reported heading for a "$400 million divorce battle" with her director husband. As reported by Page Six, she told Gayle King, "I said, I need ice cream ... So I'm in the supermarket and we're holding hands, and a guy behind us says, 'Oh, you're back together?' And I said, 'When were we apart?' "

"The damage is done. They go into the supermarket, they read this crap - excuse me, but it's absurd. We've been together 18 years," the singer added.

Streisand is supporting a new campaign called "Fight the Ladykiller" which urges women to talk to their doctors, get screened and educate themselves about heart disease, No. 1 killer of women in the U.S. "I'm passionate about gender discrimination. ... When I found out research about women's heart disease was being done on men - down to male mice in the laboratory - it seemed so unjust," she explained in an interview with USA Today.

"More women than men have died of heart disease each year since 1984. ... Heart disease kills more women than all cancers combined," added the singer whose grandparents and uncle died from heart disease. Her mother also had bypass surgery.