Gia accuses her aunt and uncle of putting a “wedge” between the cousins, while Teresa called the growing rift between all their children “upsetting.”
The rift between Teresa Giudice and Luis Ruelas and Melissa and Joe Gorga is trickling down to their children, something made apparent during last night’s episode of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey.”
The new hour began with Teresa talking to a therapist she’s been seeing for about six months, with Giudice crediting Louie with talking her into going to the sessions. She explained that, growing up, her father also had issues with some of his family members, which led to her not seeing her cousins for long stretches of time — something she feared repeating.
“I want my kids to grow up with their cousins. It is upsetting,” said Teresa, who said daughter Milania was “so hurt” when Melissa and Joe’s daughter Antonia didn’t show up to her Sweet 16 party — even though they all went to Antonia’s. “Every single cousin on my ex Joe’s side showed up and the only one that was missing was Antonia, it’s sad,” added Teresa.
Later in the episode, Melissa vented about the ongoing feud between the two families. While the family members have had a sometimes-contentious relationship for years, it really intensified after Gorga was iced out of being a bridesmaid for Teresa’s wedding.
Speaking with some of her costars, Melissa called BS on Teresa burying the hatchet with Margaret Josephs, who was one of the most outspoken in the cast when it came to airing unflattering stories about Louie on the show in the past.
“She hates f—ing Margaret. Listen, I see Louie for what he is. He’s charming, but he’s also very manipulating,” she added in a confessional. “It’s so obvious that Louie told her to be good to Margaret, ‘Don’t f–k with Margaret, because we’re gonna need Margaret to stop telling all of the truth about us, that’s what we’re gonna need.'”
She reiterated that Teresa “can’t stand f—ing Margaret” to the group, adding, “She can’t stand me and she can’t stand [husband Joe] and that’s a fact and that’s why I’m not rolling with the whole fake f—ing parade that’s been happening.”
The whole cast met up later for a charity baseball game organized by Dolores Catania, where everyone played nice and the kids got a chance to catch up as well.
“This is the Joey I like. This is the way it always should be, especially because we are around our children,” Teresa said in a confessional — though Joe kept his distance from them most of the time. “Teresa can switch from zero to a hundred, instantly, and then I just have to defend myself and it becomes ugly. I don’t wanna do that,” he said, explaining his standoffish approach.
While it was nice to see the cousins interact with each other, seeing them was bittersweet for Gia.
“My cousins are growing up so fast, so every time I see them it reminds me I’m not able to be there as much as I would want to,” she said in a confessional. “It almost seems like my Zio Joe and Zia Melissa are trying to put a wedge in-between us and that’s definitely a feeling that doesn’t sit well with me.”
New episodes of RHONJ air Tuesdays on Bravo.