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Credit: Instagram, Charles Sykes/Bravo
Lexi Ioannou reacted to Dolores Catania‘s character letter for her stepfather, Tommy Manzo, during an interview with Gia Giudice on Monday.
Months after Tommy was found guilty of hiring an alleged mobster to attack Dina Manzo‘s now-husband, Dave Cantin, in 2015, and after he pleaded guilty to stalking and harassing the couple, the 29-year-old Real Housewives of New Jersey alum recalled how their family and friends betrayed them and abandoned them in a time of need as they protected Tommy, who was also accused of being involved in a 2017 attack against Dina and Dave.
“There were character witness letters submitted to the judge on behalf of Tommy to help kind of persuade the judge’s opinion of him. There was, like, [tons] of character letters from Mayors of New Jersey, police officers, my family members, my mom’s friends … Dolores wrote one,” Lexi revealed on the May 26 episode of Casual Chaos. “They’re not friends anymore, but they were like best friends. Me and [Dolores’ daughter] Gabby were best friends growing up.”
According to Lexi, Dolores’ letter, and the letters of other family members, including Caroline Manzo, 63, led to “layers of pain” for both herself and mom Dina, 53.
“I don’t think he was making anybody do anything. It’s what people really believed. I think a lot of people believe differently now that there’s a guilty verdict. [But] there’s still certainly a lot of people that believe in him and believe he’s innocent,” she noted.
Although Caroline aligned with Tommy years after his split from Dina, Lexi lived with her and her family, including her cousins, Albie Manzo, 39, Lauren Manzo, 37, and Chris Manzo, 36, for some time after the breakup.
“My mom and I lived with Caroline when my parents got divorced. They were basically my siblings. I’m an only child. So it was definitely a massive loss to lose those relationships in the crossfire of what happened with our moms. It was hard,” she shared. “I was living with them from ages four to seven. Lauren was there when I shaved my legs for the first time. She dropped me off at a boy’s house for the first time for my first kiss. Albie and Christopher were my brothers, my protectors, and now we’re complete strangers.”
While Lexi lost touch with her cousins for years, she contacted them after Tommy was sentenced to seven years in prison in hopes of reclaiming items she left at his home after she and her mom were “forcibly” removed from the residence.
“It was really difficult for me to extend myself and ask for help, but I was that desperate,” she explained.
After pointing out that she had been silent for 10 years before releasing her “Don’t Poke the Bear” article, in which she accused Caroline of a “staggering betrayal,” Lexi said she reached out to the Manzos for help finding connections to the house.
“I’m sure if you asked them, they did everything to their best ability, but if you ask me, it wasn’t nearly enough,” she revealed. “They disappointed me again.”
Lexi said that although they did tell her about a garage sale, they didn’t initially want to do much more.
“Lauren texted me … ‘There’s a garage sale. I heard some of your things are there.’ I was like, ‘Are you gonna go?’ And she’s like, ‘I’m gonna send some of my friends,’ And I called her. I was like, ‘No, you’re gonna go and you’re gonna now,’ because at that point the sale was almost over,” Lexi explained.
Ultimately, both Lauren and Caroline went to the sale, along with one of Dina’s friends and Lexi’s dad.
“I had my dad go and take pictures, and I saw things like the dollhouse that my grandmother made me that was in my room growing up, these are like irreplaceable heirlooms that have no value to anyone else. My mom’s insane shoe collection and her designer bags, those things are long gone. We accepted that. That wasn’t what I was looking for. I was looking for a piece of myself to have back, and people were just protecting the things in that house, protecting Tommy,” she shared.
Looking back, Lexi noted that Caroline and Lauren were only willing to do what they were comfortable doing.
“I would ask them to make phone calls to people, and they wouldn’t make them … I like to think they care. They’re my family. But I think they care about themselves more and keeping their own peace more than fighting for mine,” she reasoned. “So it’s okay. I needed a reminder of who I was dealing with because as a kid, I saw my mom going through so much pain with her family, and I guess had to understand what it felt like as an adult.”
While Lexi believes Caroline regrets writing the character letter for Tommy, adding that she “has to go to sleep in [her] own bed at the end of the night,” she was disappointed that her cousins didn’t do more to help her get her things back from Tommy’s home.
“I just said, ‘This is a way for us to repair something that’s so broken, if you can show me that you love me and help me with something that’s breaking me that I know you can help me with, then we can repair something,’” she recalled. “I don’t think my mom and my sister can ever repair what’s broken. It’s too far gone. But why can’t the cousins? I would love to know them and know their children and be in their lives … but the reality is, from my eyes, they failed me.”
“I was like on my knees begging for help … weeks went by. Nothing of importance was done … [And then] I just stopped hearing from them,” she continued.
After suspecting that both Dina and Caroline would love for her and her cousins to be on better terms, Lexi signaled the “politics of it all” before stating that it’s always been just her and her mom.
“I don’t have siblings. She’s been in these relationships that have been difficult, and it’s always just been me and her. She had me really young, and at the end of the day, I will always stand behind her. No matter what,” she declared. “And it’s hard for me to watch her be in so much pain.”
“I’m at peace with those relationships. When I think about it, does it make me sad? Yeah, but I made peace with that a long time ago. It’s the betrayal sometimes that just makes me really angry,” she added.
Looking back on the moment in which Teresa Giudice, 53, got a call informing her that Dina and Dave had been attacked, Gia, 24, said her mom “was hysterically crying on the floor.”
“She was so upset, and it was weird because I remember even Dave saying he had such an expensive watch on. They didn’t take his watch. They didn’t take anything. They didn’t take any of their belongings. The only thing they took was your mom’s beautiful engagement ring that she was literally showing me that day, it was the moon and the star, and she was so happy about it,” Gia shared.
“It was a beautiful ring, and [Dave] put so much effort into it,” Lexi replied.
While she and her cousins are no longer speaking, Lexi said she and Lauren had “some really awesome conversations.”
“I love her. I really do. She’s the closest thing I’ll have in this lifetime to a sister, and I think it kills both of us that we don’t have each other anymore, but there’s too much pain,” she explained.
Lexi then noted that the person who hosted the garage sale was “one of Tommy’s people.”
“I called her when she was having the sale, and I told her she was selling illegal goods. I lost my mind. I’m a very even, balanced person, and I very rarely get to the point of extreme anger … and I definitely lost it on that woman,” she confessed. “[Because] everything is gone. Everything.”
Looking back on their time on RHONJ, Gia noted that Dina’s relationships with Caroline and Jacqueline Laurita, 55, were impacted by the show.
“Oh yeah, [it] created such a mess,” Lexi agreed.
When Lexi was asked if Dina stopped talking to Caroline due to her split from Tommy, Lexi confirmed they lost contact “way before then,” as she admitted that she couldn’t nail down “one reason” for the falling out.
“The show creates a lot of chaos, especially with family dynamics and money, and fame. It can kind of have the ability to bring out the worst in some people, too,” she stated. “My mom fell out with her during that second season, I’m pretty sure.”
Meanwhile, of her own family drama, Gia shared, “You’re essentially competing against your family members to try to get to the top. It shouldn’t be like that. And as a family, build an empire. Grow as a family together. Create a unit. I always wished that for my mom.”
“I said to her, if your brother [Joe Gorga] didn’t come on the show behind your back and want what you had so badly and just asked you … my mom would’ve said, ‘Alright, Joey, let’s do this together. We’ll build this empire as a family, make our parents proud, and show America what an Italian family really is,’” she added.
