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Credit: Elder Ordonez/INSTARimages
Jennifer Aydin is speaking out about her recent rant against Jersey Mike’s employees and her feud with one of their customers, insisting that while she has been accused of acting “entitled” and “disgusting,” it was actually the staff and patron who mistreated her.
As she admitted to feeling she was owed an apology from the employees and the man she called an “a**hole,” the 47-year-old Real Housewives of New Jersey star recounted the heated run-in, stating that the staff was “rude” and refused to fulfill her order while also slamming the man’s “aggressive behavior” and saying she now realizes she is “not allowed” to complain.
“Hindsight is 20/20, but I did not think it was going to go that way … not at all,” Jennifer told Us Weekly on January 8.
According to Jennifer, she and her husband Bill Aydin, 51, along with their five kids, 10 other family members, and two other groups, were traveling for the holidays when the incident occurred just after the sandwich shop opened at 5:30 in the morning.
“It was a little slow moving, but we weren’t going to complain,” she explained of the service after noting that she was initially in line with her cousin, Susie, who seemed to cut in the line after leaving to go elsewhere and later returning.
“I didn’t let her cut and she ordered four sandwiches. I only ordered one,” Jennifer recalled.
But rather than get their sandwiches right away, a woman behind Jennifer and Susie was served first.
“So, obviously, tensions are high,” she admitted. “Again, I don’t want to complain … [But] I reminded the employee. I’m like, ‘Hey, did you do my Italian?’ And she was like, ‘You have to wait your turn.’ I said, ‘Oh, but you did hers before mine and I was before her.’ So, obviously, she realized that [and] ignored me.”
As the Jersey Mike’s staff worked on Jennifer’s order, Bill arrived to the shop to request another sub.
“So I said to the employee, ‘OK, sweetie, I’m going to need another mini tuna.’ She goes, ‘Oh no, you have to get to the back of the line.’ And I said, but you just fulfilled that woman’s sandwich before me and I didn’t even say anything,’” Jennifer revealed. “So she looks up and I guess she realized I was right and she goes, ‘Well, then the guy behind you has to say it’s OK.’”
After the man declined to agree, allegedly saying it was “ridiculous” that she was adding another sandwich, Jennifer began recording, prompting him to inform her that he was a law professor and reportedly threaten to sue her for “all [her] fake diamonds” if she shared the video publicly.
“I am literally so shocked and disgusted by this man’s behavior,” Jennifer said. “I’m just a mom trying to get some sandwiches for her kid.”
Looking back, Jennifer said the staff was wrong for telling her to get back in line for another sandwich as she noted that she was “shocked” by the man’s antics against her.
“I was an angry mom. I was not a celebrity in that moment,” she explained. “I was just so shocked and appalled by this really unwarranted, aggressive behavior. Then, I put the camera on him. In my angst, I was telling him because I wanted him to know that you just can’t be rude to people like that [and] in the moment, I was not rude to the Jersey Mike’s staff at all. I was trying to be polite.”
Still, she admittedly became upset when an “elderly” employee allegedly suggested she would not make her sandwich, which she had been waiting on “for 40 minutes.”
“For them to tell me to wait to the end of the line or that I had to ask this guy’s permission — that just really started an altercation. They shouldn’t have done that,” she declared. “[But] I’m realizing now that I can’t say, ‘I’m a celebrity.’ People are very angry … But, obviously, this wouldn’t have gone so viral as it did if I wasn’t a public figure.”
Although Jennifer admitted she “didn’t go about it the right way” and confirmed she “one hundred percent” regrets posting the video, she continued saying she was “not rude to the staff in the moment.”
“It was wrong for me to go in my stories and then bash their bad customer service. I’m learning now that I’m not allowed to complain. It’s not entitled. This is not privilege,” she explained. “I’m learning now not to do things in the heat of the moment, because I was not furious as a celebrity. … I was a paying customer that didn’t get the sandwich for her kid.”
In closing, Jennifer said she “was owed an apology by Jersey Mike’s” and “was owed an apology from the gentleman” since they were “completely rude and dismissive.”
“It ruined our whole morning!” she complained, noting that she would not reach out to the staff.
“They’re constantly blasting me,” Jennifer stated. “I will apologize for calling her an 80-year-old woman and doing all that, but that’s where it ends. They’re monetizing this, which I’m very happy for. At last some good will come to them from this.”
“I don’t want to push anybody down but I do like accountability,” she added.
