Key Highlights
- Joe Gorga’s manipulative behavior on ‘The Real Housewives of New Jersey’ has drawn criticism from cast members and viewers alike.
- Teresa Giudice’s gesture towards her brother Joe was met with hostility, reigniting family tensions.
- Former cast member Jacqueline Laurita exposed the Gorgas’ manipulative tactics on social media.
- Fans and cast members are urging Joe Gorga to step back and allow the women to resolve their issues independently.
(livesinsight.com) –
Joe Gorga’s manipulation of the RHONJ cast, especially the husbands, overshadows the show’s focus on the women. Viewers are tired of Joe Gorga’s theatrics and constant drama with his sister Teresa, calling for him to step back. OG Housewife Jacqueline Laurita exposes Gorga’s manipulative behavior, urging him to let the women handle their conflicts independently. It’s a tale as old as time: the feud between Joe Gorga and his sister, Teresa Giudice, has finally reached its breaking point. For years, viewers have gone back and forth trying to figure out the main problem, and mostly everyone will say that Teresa is the problem. In reality, it can be seen how Joe Gorga has become the master manipulator of everyone in The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Not only has he been manipulating his wife, Melissa Gorga, to be the face of their family on the show and be the one to have arguments with Teresa, but he has also manipulated most of the Housewives cast members and the husbands. The main reason the husbands have played such a key role in this franchise is because of how involved Joe became in the franchise, and it makes viewers forget that this is a show about wives and how they live their lives. Seeing how involved the husbands have been in all the arguments throughout the different seasons, especially Joe Gorga, is getting annoying. He has meddled in many of the arguments between the women, relating to arguments about his sister and problems with the other ladies. For example, he keeps meddling with his friend of many years, Dolores Catania, whom he keeps pressuring her on when she will get married to her boyfriend, Paulie Connell.
Not only has it been tiring to watch him meddle, but it has become normal for him to continue having many confessionals throughout the seasons to have him comment on what is happening on the show. Viewers have begun to grow tired of having him constantly talk on the show and have called him out on X (formerly known as Twitter) on how he has been playing the victim card in front of his friends and turning on the theatrics while filming. Besides viewers seeing clearly how manipulative Joe Gorga can be, OG Housewife Jacqueline Laurita even revealed on her Instagram how manipulative the Gorgas can be.
It’s The ‘Real Housewives,’ Not ‘The Real Husbands’
When it comes to The Real Housewives franchise, everyone will always know the show revolves around women, and the men are a small addition to it, but they don’t truly get involved in the drama. The closest any husband has been to being involved with the drama has been on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, where Lisa Vanderpump’s husband, Ken Todd, defends Brandi Glanville while the cast attacks her. Still, his involvement was minimal. But when it comes to The Real Housewives of New Jersey, the husbands have been involved in the drama ever since Melissa Gorga joined the show in Season 3. When he was introduced on the show, viewers knew her husband. Joe Gorga, only as Teresa’s brother. Still, everyone could see an underlying tension between his sister and him, and it all exploded during his son’s christening.
After their argument, it didn’t slow things down for Joe Gorga. He continuously kept going after his sister and ex-husband, Joe Giudice, for how they treated them, and even the two Joe’s got into a physical altercation. At this moment, he makes viewers forget who the show revolves around because the men have become too involved in the drama, which could have been fixed between Melissa and Teresa. From that point on, Gorga did not stop talking about his sister and started to get many of the husbands involved in drama, like his best friend Frank Catania Sr. and Joe Benigno, who both have been involved in many arguments with the women. At the head of it all, Joe Gorga manipulated the storylines and the husbands’ strings to relay information to their wives.
It is not an RHONJ, if not at least once there is a scene with all of the husbands hanging out and getting drunk; this may seem fun, but in reality, it is cringey to see these grown men talk about the drama with their wives and start to put on the theatrics because they know they are filming a show. Recently, fellow Housewife Jackie Goldschneider stated on her podcast Two Jersey Js how she felt about the husband’s involvement on the show, “[I don’t like the] husbands being involved. I strongly believe that Jersey Husbands has a bigger role than other franchises, but I don’t love seeing husbands so heavily involved in the drama. I don’t like when husbands fight with [other] wives.” Having one of the main cast members come out and make a statement like this shows how they don’t have to be involved, and it becomes a more toxic environment for everyone.
‘RHONJ’ Viewers Are Sick of Joe Gorga
The feud between the families has been going on for too long, and viewers have taken to social media to call out how Joe Gorga treats the women on the show with his added theatrics. In the most recent RHONJ episode, Teresa gave Dolores Catania a bottle to take to her brother to congratulate him on his new house. This may seem like nothing, but it is a small gesture that even though they may not get along, she still wishes her family the best. Joe Gorga took this as a cue to put on a show and express how he felt about this olive branch from his sister by bringing up their late father and saying, “Do you think she respects her dad for what she has done?” X user @ItsBravoBtch noted how Joe’s dramatics is another moment for the cast to continuously talk about Teresa and show how Joe and Melissa Gorga truly don’t have a storyline without her.
Seeing how many viewers have taken to social media to talk about them having enough of Joe being so dramatic about the situation with his sister needs to indicate how things have worsened on The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Another user on TikTok and X called out Gorga for mentioning his father while talking about Teresa and saying that Teresa was the one who was with her dad every step of the way while he was having constant health issues. Many viewers will never forget how, after Teresa’s mother passed away, she brought her father into her home so he wouldn’t be alone and could help him out with anything he needed. During this season, it was also seen how Joe was not as involved with his dad and left the “whole package” to his sister.
Joe Gorga has been manipulating everyone in the cast since he entered The Real Housewives franchise, and it is time for him to step down and let the women handle their issues independently. Also, it doesn’t help his case that one of the original housewives steps in and calls him and Melissa out for being manipulative. Just as Jackie Laurita said on her Instagram, Joe and Melissa were “telling me secrets about Teresa, things Teresa would say and do to them, and telling me things Teresa would say behind my back.” Having someone like Laurita, who became enemy number one Teresa years ago and called them out, should open everyone’s eyes to who he truly is.
The Real Housewives of New Jersey releases every Sunday on Bravo and the next day on Peacock.
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Joe Gorga threw the greeting card into the flames before ever having a chance to read what it said inside.
Teresa Details What Her Card to Joe Said — and Who Actually Wrote It: “Nice Gesture”
Teresa Giudice’s gesture to her brother on The Real Housewives of New Jersey went down in flames … well, at least part of it had.
In a preview for Season 14, Episode 8, Teresa, Jennifer Aydin, and Dolores Catania gathered for a sound bath and crystal session at the Zentuary Healing Center, an effort to rid themselves of the stressors they’ve faced so far this season. Inevitably, the conversation went to the much-talked-about housewarming gift Teresa sent for her brother, Joe Gorga, as captured in Episode 7.
Joe and Melissa Gorga — in what Jennifer would later refer to as a “sh-it show of a housewarming party” — opted to keep the bottle of liquor (bow included), but Joe made a statement with his response to the unopened card, Jennifer informed Teresa.
“He didn’t even open it or read it; he just threw it in the fire,” Jennifer said.
Teresa said she was “not at all” surprised.
“My brother’s very petty,” she told producers.
What did Teresa’s card to Joe say? Teresa told the others what the handwritten inscription on the card, a gift from her and her husband, Luis “Louie” Ruelas, actually said. “I mean, the only thing that was in the card was ‘Congratulations on your new home. Love, Louie and Teresa,’” the Skinny Italian author said. “Like, it wasn’t an olive branch; it was just a gesture.”
Later, when speaking to RHONJ producers, Teresa claimed the card had little to do with her.
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“I’m not gonna take the credit for that; I don’t wanna take the credit for that,” said Teresa. “That was all my husband.”
She said as much to Dolores and Jennifer, which Dolores acknowledged as a “very nice thing to say.”
Teresa during a The Real Housewives of New Jersey Season 14 interview. Photo: Bravo
“I really didn’t want to send it ’cause I’m not kissing anybody’s ass, I don’t want to make up with him,” Teresa continued to producers. “[Louie] is like, ‘Babe, it’s a nice gesture,’ and I’m like, ‘OK, fine.’”
Teresa’s sentiment matched her recent statements on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen following a fan’s question.
“That was my husband’s doing,” she said. “Louie is that kind of guy. I didn’t want to do that. I mean, that was his doing so.”
What did Melissa have to say about the housewarming gift?
All in all, Melissa didn’t find her sister-in-law’s housewarming gift authentic, as noted in the new preview.
While at her newest Envy boutique location in New Jersey, Melissa had fellow fashionista Danielle Cabral swing by ahead of the Envy fashion show. Danielle — a guest at the limoncello-themed soiree — said the “gift situation” between Teresa and Joe was “crazy.”
Joe Gorga and Melissa Gorga attend the Food Bank For New York City’s Second Annual Gotham Ball on May 08, 2024 in New York City. Photo: Jared Siskin/Getty Images
“Can I just ask: Why in the world do you think that that bottle was sent?” Melissa wondered. “Honestly, what do you think?”
Danielle warned Melissa that her answer would be based on a similar experience with her brother when she tried to extend a gift amid family drama. Danielle was referring to an update she gave at the Season 13 reunion when she said she’d sent a present for the birth of her new niece, only for the token of love to be returned.
Unlike Teresa, however, Danielle did not try to send her gift through mutual friends. Before their big blow-up, Teresa tried sending her brother’s gift through Rachel Fuda and John Fuda, but when that failed, she sent the gift through Dolores and Paulie Connell.
“Right, you do it when it’s a personal thing, when it’s real,” Melissa told Danielle. “This was not a personal thing. This was a spectacle.”
More to come as Season 14 of The Real Housewives of New Jersey continues, airing Sundays at 8/7c and streaming the next day on Peacock.