‘RHONJ’ Dolores Catania on Why She & Paul Almost Split

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Dolores Catania shared why she and Paul “Paulie” Connell nearly broke up while appearing on Jeff Lewis‘ radio show on Friday.

While also addressing the future of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, her use of Ozempic, and her many failed diets, Dolores, 53, revealed that she raised around $200,000 at her recent charity softball game as she gushed over her castmates’ participation and explained what nearly caused a split between her and Paulie.

“Menopause is such a thing. I’m thinking of going [deeper] into it and maybe getting some more menopause [products] for women because I lived it. Me and Paul almost broke up over it. The heat, the thermostat, and it doesn’t discriminate,” Dolores shared on the August 16 episode of SiriusXM’s Jeff Lewis Live.

According to Dolores, she doesn’t want to see the RHONJ cast get rebooted, either fully or partially.

“I want my cast together. I want everyone together,” she declared. “We were so good in Ireland. We had such a good time. We stuck together. We jumped in the mud flaps together. We stayed in a haunted castle together.”

She also said that when it came to the title of “former housewife,” the slogan didn’t apply quite yet.

“It’s not over til it’s over. I love my job. We’re still a cast … until we hear differently, which we haven’t,” she revealed. “We have only heard they don’t know.”

While Dolores hasn’t heard anything yet, she’s preparing for the worst.

“I’m very realistic. I don’t like building myself up for a fall, and every year I’ve told myself it’s over, I’m not getting called back, no matter what the season looked like,” she explained.

As she awaits a decision, Dolores is preparing for an upcoming trip to Portugal.

“I’m going to Portugal for the first time. Frankie Jr.’s girlfriend is Portuguese, and the families are going together,” she revealed.

Moving on to her use of Ozempic, Dolores confirmed she’s using the prescription drug for medical reasons: a thyroid condition.

“I forgot to take my thyroid medicine today so I’m gonna talk a lot. It’s gonna make me weird,” she noted. “I’m insulin-resistant. I’m pre-diabetic.”

Before the Ozempic craze, Dolores was taking the drug Metformin, which came in large pills and kept her regulated. Then, after hearing about Ozempic from her doctor, she started taking that instead.

“[My] doctor said, ‘You don’t have to take four, you can take one shot a week. It’s called Ozempic.’ I’m like, ‘Great.’ But it was $800 a month. My insurance wouldn’t cover it because it was like the luxury brand of what I was taking. So then I went on that, but I kind of fell off the wagon with that. I’m like, ‘I don’t want to pay $800 a month.’ So I gained weight real quick. So I’m back on it, I’m on Mounjaro, and I’m not parting with it,” she stated.

In recent years, Dolores has tried a number of diets but hasn’t had success.

“I’ve been on every diet before this. I swallowed the balloons … I was on a 500-calorie-a-day diet, lost nothing, swallowed the gallons, lost nothing. I don’t think they worked very well,” she admitted.

Looking back on her fourth annual softball game, Dolores said the event was “amazing.”

“It was [Margaret Josephs], Danielle Cabral, [Rachel and John Fuda], me, Frank Catania, [Brittany Mattessich], my kids were there, [Dorinda Medley], Bob Harper, Chanel Ayan came … [Jennifer Fessler] hit a home run. [Jennifer Aydin], [Teresa Giudice], and [Melissa Gorga] weren’t there. They were in Boston. They had an appearance to do,” she explained.

“Jenn Fessler and Dorinda hitting the ball the way they did, you would’ve thought they played softball. They were so good. [Dorinda] was great,” Dolores added.

As for how much money she raised, Dolores said her events usually bring in “around $200,000.”

“It’s a mini BravoCon. It’s so much fun. I keep nothing. I haven’t even checked how much I spent on this charity thing,” she clarified.