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Melissa Gorga reacted to Teresa Giudice‘s suggestion that her late parents have given her signs that she’s in the right when it comes to their family feud.
As the 45-year-old Real Housewives of New Jersey star addressed her estrangement from Teresa, 51, and suspected financial jealousy, she also reacted to Milania Giudice‘s recent car accident, revealed the secret to her 19-year marriage to Joe Gorga, and shared the best part of the show.
“That is the most sick … This is a sick statement she made, that’s a sick statement,” Melissa said of Teresa’s claims about her and Joe’s parents during a May 22 interview with Extra TV. “You even want to take that away from him, make him feel as if they‘re not approving of his actions?”
According to Melissa, she believes Teresa made the comment as a tactic to control her and Joe.
“I don’t care what show you got on first. You’re not the controller of me, my husband, or my family. So you can take the drama, you can be the queen of the show, but you’re not the queen of me, my life, my house, or my family. And that’s that,” Melissa declared. “And she doesn’t like that. [But] that’s how it’s always gonna be. I need to keep my ducks in a row with my husband and my kids. You can keep the drama. You can keep the queen of toxicity, that’s on you. I don’t want to be the queen of toxicity. I‘m happy with what I have and living a happy life.”
Joe weighed in on the drama as well, asking, “What should I do? Should I bash her?” He then decided, “I’m gonna take the right road and not do anything ’cause that’s my sister.”
While some have remained hopeful that Melissa and Teresa will ultimately reconcile, Melissa shut down the idea, noting that it wasn’t her and Joe’s “choice” to end their relationship with his sister.
“Certain things have happened that are just really hard to come back from, and I know it’s hard for people looking at it from the outside, like, ‘You guys are a family. Get it together.’ But it’s not that easy,” she explained. “To come after my marriage, for some reason, she’s never been happy for us, she’s never wanted to support us.”
Although Teresa has claimed that the Gorgas made her and Luis Ruelas‘ August 2022 wedding about themselves, Melissa said it was Teresa who made it all about them.
“You made it about us by excluding us from every single thing. Just do the right thing. Keep the peace, number one. You have one brother. Number two, to call my husband over to your house to try and say I’m some sort of bad wife with your new fiance you met a minute ago — I’m gonna be married for 20 years in August with three children, happily married, and we’re the longest-standing couple on Bravo,” she shared. “Joe and I, I don’t know why anyone would want to hurt that instead of [embracing] your younger brother.”
When host Billy Bush wondered if it was Melissa and Joe’s success that had caused Teresa to take such issue with the two of them, Melissa asked, “Is that what it comes down to?”
“That’s sad to me. That because we’re doing well and we’re successful, we can’t all enjoy it together, be happy together. That I don’t believe in,” she continued, adding that she has yet to reach out to Milania, 18, due to the tension within their family.
“I’m so happy she’s okay,” Melissa noted.
As for her and Joe’s relationship with Milania’s dad, Joe Giudice, 51, Joe admitted he misses his former brother-in-law.
“In Bahamas, it was a real moment, we saw each other, we hugged. I’ve known him all my life. I miss him. Somebody tried to hurt that moment, tried to ruin that moment,” he recalled as Melissa described their encounter as “nice.”
Moving on to their marriage, Joe said the secret was to “keep it in the bedroom.”
“Not only that,” Melissa interjected. “He is [romantic]. You know what he used to say, ‘If you want the doctor, I’ll be the doctor. If you want the fireman, I’ll be the fireman.’ I’m like, ‘I just want to go to bed.’ [But] honestly, we date, we have fun, we’re best friends. We travel together. We spend a lot of time together.”
“I’ll be anything she wants me to be, as long as she’s turned on,” Joe replied.
While Melissa has gone through many ups and downs on Bravo, she praised the network for giving her a platform to open up her boutique.
“I wanna say my business, Envy, for me [is the best part],” she revealed. “Being able to use the Bravo platform as a business and just to grow my business and be a small business owner, I have locations in New York, New Jersey. I have a huge website that I have a lot of loyal customers so I have to give props to Bravo for giving me that platform and I learned how to utilize it also. It’s not all just drama. I tried to make the best of it with everything that’s going on.”
She then joked that the name of her boutique was appropriate since some of her castmates are “green with envy.”
“That’s kind of the name of the game,” she explained. “It’s crazy, but I do believe in women supporting women, and when anybody has anything they have going on, we do support, we do come out. I do believe that it’s a great platform to show womanhood and how we can support each other.”
The Real Housewives of New Jersey season 14 airs Sundays at 8/7c on Bravo.
