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The Real Housewives of New Jersey alum Kathy Wakile isn’t holding back when it comes to how her relationship with cousin-in-law Melissa Gorga unraveled — and according to Kathy, fame and reality TV loyalty may have come at the cost of family.
In a candid and emotional interview with the Page Six podcast, Kathy opened up about her complicated past with Melissa, Joe Gorga, and Teresa Giudice, and how her time on RHONJ left her feeling betrayed — particularly by Melissa.
“I was brought on the same time Melissa was on. We were together all the time before the show,” Kathy explained, recalling how they started their Housewives journey together. “And I kind of got thrown into being like a side, and I never liked to take a side. So I got thrown on Melissa and Joe’s camp and I stuck my neck out for them.”
But while Kathy says her intentions were never to divide the family, things spiraled quickly.
“I only wanted to reason with Teresa. I never wanted to fight with her, because, you know, we grew up together so I never really wanted that. But that’s the way it turned. Because of misinterpretation, lack of really good communication that should have opened. And I’ll take my blame for my part in that as well,” she admitted.
What stings the most, though, is how things ended — not with a bang, but with silence.
“After we were on there and I got, you know, I put my neck out. I was out there. I took the blows and all that. They might have made like some kind of side deal between the family and then I was, like, pushed out and that was completely fine with me,” Kathy said. “Listen, brother and sister should always reconcile, should always put their differences aside. And that was my aim anyways but there was never a conversation. It was just like, we had that sit down. It happened before that anyway.”
Kathy detailed a particularly painful moment when she realized the dynamic had completely changed.
“We were filming one day and you know as shows go, you have to talk about drama that happened the night before. We were out at a situation and there was drama, so I went to Melissa’s house and she was doing some kind of photo shoot, and she was just like, stop. You know, you have to stop talking about my sister in law,” she recalled. “Meanwhile I’ve been listening to you complain about your sister in law for like ten years. Like, what? And I’m just like, why I am I here to watch you do a photo shoot? Yeah, I’m out.”
Looking back, Kathy suspects there may have been more going on behind the scenes.
“Then there must have been an interior conversation between them — let’s reconcile, push her out. Totally cool with that, because I think that’s the way it should be,” she said. “Or was it that they were making an alliance to stay on the show? This is the only way you are going to stay on the show if you take my side and push Kathy out and that would have been cool too, because show is one thing, family is something else, and friendships are something else.”
But the biggest hurt, according to Kathy, wasn’t being pushed out — it was the complete lack of communication.
“I never got the phone call conversation. This is what happened. This is what went down. Do you get it? Nothing. We were like, boom! Going from speaking every single day, multiple times to nothing at all,” she said. “And it was like, oh, what a sell out, you know? So I was just like, yeah, I got your number and I see who you are.”
