Season 7 of Real Housewives of New Jersey might be over, but Teresa Giudice’s beef with Jacqueline Laurita is not. In her blog this week, Teresa claims that she will never rekindle her friendship with Jacqueline, and claims that most of the drama surrounding their falling out happened off camera.
An exhausted Teresa reflects on the season first: “I can tell you that for me personally, this was a very emotional season, and I am happy to have it behind me.”
CLICK THE CONTINUE READING BUTTON FOR MORE!
Some painful moments were tough for Teresa to relive this season. She explains, “Obviously, being reunited with my family in the first episode after being away for almost a year was AMAZING. I cry every time I re-watch it. If you listen closely as I am getting out of the car and walking from the garage into the house, you can hear my heart beating so loud, it sounds like it is going to jump through my chest! While that was a happy episode for me, saying goodbye to Joe [Giudice] later in the season when he went away absolutely crushed me.”
On the upside, Teresa admits, “I am very happy that my brother and I were able to repair our relationship and that Melissa [Gorga] and I were able to leave the past in the past and start fresh. This is my family, and nothing or no one will ever break us apart, no matter how hard they try. I am also very happy to have met Siggy Flicker. You won’t find a more genuine person with such a big heart. Siggy is also one of the funniest women I have ever met, and I am so happy to have gotten so close to her, especially AFTER the season finale at Rails.”
Teresa also continues her close relationship with Dolores Catania, with whom she and Siggy took a trip to Florida after the season wrapped. On the agenda for the trip? Dishing about Jacqueline other people, of course!
Teresa shares that the three of them “had a very deep and very honest conversation about certain people (you know who they are) who were obviously not to happy to see us smiling and laughing together.”
Of the drama this season, Teresa claims a lot of it happens off camera, “You see, one of the things about being a Housewife, and a New Jersey Housewife in particular, is that most of the drama seems to happen behind the scenes when the cameras aren’t around. Someone once described being a Housewife to me as being one big chess game, and in many ways, I guess it is for some people, but not for me. First of all, I don’t play chess, and I don’t play games. Whether you like it or not, with me, what you see is what you get.”
Citing her behavior – good and bad – past and present, Teresa claims she’s always been honest. Mmmkay. “When I was angry with Danielle [Staub], and I flipped that table, that was real, that was what I was feeling at that moment. When I shoved Andy [Cohen] at the Season 2 reunion, that was real, that was what I was feeling at the moment. In one of the moments from this season when all of the girls went to Crystal Springs, you see Jacqueline getting upset thinking about her son Nicholas, and you see me trying to console her by playing with her and talking to her. That was genuine — one mother trying to help another, one friend trying to be there for another.”
RELATED: Siggy Flicker Is “So Happy” About The Reunion Group Hug
“I wish the show had more of that and less of the drama, but when some people are REAL and others play games, it’s always bound to end up like we did at this year’s reunion,” asserts Teresa, who adds that her relationships with Melissa, Siggy, and Dolores are REAL, REAL, REAL!
“My relationship with Jacqueline?” continues Teresa, “For me, at one point, it was very real. I considered Jacqueline one of my very best girlfriends. Anyone who has watched the show knows that Jacqueline and I had a lot of laughs together as Lucy and Ethel. But when the relationship went from being REAL to being part of some Housewives game that she was playing, where she actually set out to hurt my family, that’s when and where it ended for me.”
As evidence of Jacqueline’s messy ways, Teresa cites Chris Laurita’s involvement with people who were trying to bring down her family. “Think about this: Why was Chris talking to people that were trying to destroy my family? Why would he be involved with someone like that if he was friends with us? Why was Jacqueline so concerned about me not wanting a relationship with my cousins? That’s my family, not hers, so why does she care so much? Why try as hard as she did at the reunion to come between Melissa and I?”
In fact, Teresa pretty much blames the toxicity of the entire season – and the RHONJ reunion – squarely on Jacqueline. About the reunion Teresa cites, “There was so much tension and toxic energy in that room, and when Jacqueline got up and left, it was like the dark clouds went away and the sun came out. You could almost hear the birds chirping. Once she was gone, Melissa, Dolores, Siggy and I laughed and had a really nice time together. In many ways, it was the perfect ending to such a roller coaster of a season.”
Closing her blog with one final plug for herself as hero rather than villain, Teresa offers the viewers some “food for thought.” She defends, “There are a lot of times where I am made out to be the bad guy, the villain on the show. But think about it. If I am so bad, why are Siggy and Dolores going on vacation with me away when they don’t have to? Why am I spending time, and lots of it, with my brother and Melissa, and our children, even when no one is watching? Why is it that I have maintained my relationship with Dina Manzo, Audriana’s godmother, after all of these years. Just last week I had dinner with Rino, Teresa and Nicole from Season 6 in New York. I have reconnected with Danielle Staub and would love to see her back — same goes for Rino and the twins.”
Hmm. Does Teresa think she is back in the courtroom? #ExhibitsDinaAndRino
“I am going to take the high road here, but many times it’s what you don’t see that speaks the loudest about who is who and what is what,” closes Teresa.
TELL US: DO YOU THINK TERESA WAS UNFAIRLY PAINTED AS THE RHONJ ‘VILLAIN’? DOES MOST OF THE DRAMA HAPPEN OFF CAMERA, OR IS IT AN EXCUSE?
Photo Credit: Bravo