Credit: Steven Bergman/AFF-USA.COM / MEGA, Instagram
Margaret Josephs addressed the pizza drama between Teresa Giudice and Luis Ruelas, and Melissa Gorga and Joe Gorga on Heather McDonald‘s podcast on Thursday.
Before admitting to filing a police report against Luis, 50, after learning he was allegedly involved in a smear campaign against her brand deal with Walmart, the Real Housewives of New Jersey star, 57, revealed that she kept what she knew about pizza-gate to herself as she shared new details about the failed business.
“I kept my mouth shut. And I knew all about it and Melissa and Joe said to me, ‘Please keep it quiet.’ And I didn’t want to hurt Teresa and Luis’ relationship,” Margaret explained on the August 15 episode of Juicy Scoop. “I was there for the whole thing and I was like, ‘I’m not gonna say one word because it’s a new relationship and I want their relationship to work out.’ So I was actually being a good friend to Teresa.”
“I didn’t want the world to know what happened and Melissa and Joe really wanted it to work out for them and they’re like, ‘Forget it. We’re gonna bury it,” she added.
According to Margaret, she wanted all good things for Teresa at that point in time.
“She was a different person then,” she explained.
While Teresa, 52, and Luis had planned to go into business on a pizza-based subscription service, they ultimately pulled out of the idea, with Luis claiming to have lost $250,000.
Looking back at the moments when the deal fell apart, Margaret said she and her husband, Joe Benigno, rushed to the Gorga’s home after Melissa called her very upset that Joe was “having a freakout.”
“I heard the screaming. Luis was like, ‘This is for your sister.’ We’ll give you 5% of the company. Joe’s like, ‘I thought of the company. It’s my nephew who’s importing the pizza ovens for you. You did all of this behind our back. You’ve ghosted our phone calls and now you’re gonna give me 5% of the company that was my idea? No, we’re not doing this,’” she revealed. “They had changed the name. It was gonna be Nonno’s and came out Skinny Italian. They had boxes made and then Luis like, ‘Alright, we’ll give you 10%,’ and Joe’s like, ‘We’re not doing it.’”
“It’s so stupid. They wrote gluten-free on the oven. Who writes gluten-free on an oven?” Margaret wondered.
After hearing what was going down between the two couples, Margaret said she told the Gorgas to “forget it” and “just let it fly.”
“And [Joe] was like, ‘It’s such a slap in the face.’ He was just so hurt. And then they were like, ‘Forget it. I’m gonna eat.’ And Luis was like, ‘I’ll eat the pizza ovens.’ I don’t think it was $250,000. I think that was a gross exaggeration,” she noted. “So they agreed not to talk about it and I was like, ‘Fine. Nobody’s gonna talk about it.’ We went to filming. We’re like, ‘We’re not bringing this up.’ I want her to be happy.”
Then, when filming began, Teresa started accusing Margaret of trying to hurt her on the heels of the leak of Luis’ Warrior video.
“Immediately, she starts accusing me. She got hyper-defensive,” Margaret shared. “[And] Luis got very aggressive with me.”
As for her police report, Margaret said she contacted the authorities after someone associated with the partnership informed her that they had been contacted.
“I was informed by someone with the Walmart deal who signed an affidavit for me, I did file, that’s a fact, police reports about that, about harassment because I was like, ‘This is crazy.’ He hired a smear campaign to try and smear my name, said he wants people to go after my Walmart deal, contact Walmart executives and say negative things about me,” she revealed.
“Even Bravo had to shut something down that Melissa’s Old Nose did admit to. She was reaching out to sources saying things about me that weren’t true,” she added.
