One of the "ingredientses" of a good reunion is a Real Housewife leaving in a huff. So thank goodness for Teresa Giudice, who is fed up discussing her legal woes. Though the cookbook author gave a sweeping, two-part interview to Bravo honcho Andy Cohen -- in which she spoke at length about her upcoming prison sentence for fraud -- this time, she runs to the ladies' room when the subject comes up.
Early on in the episode, Cohen brings out Teresa's cousins (and part-time Housewives) Kathy Wakile and Rosie Pierri. He then plays a clip of the Wakiles and Rosie discussing Teresa's situation with their mom, Teresa's aunt. "When you don't do the right thing... It always catch[es] up with you," she remarks. Pretty tame, right? Teresa doesn’t think so. She gets up and announces dramatically, "I need a break."
Teresa runs to the bathroom (where cameras can't follow), but thankfully doesn't remove her microphone. "I don't want to be out there for that conversation," she tells a staffer on set. "To me, family doesn't act like that. What my aunt said is very inappropriate." (You know what’s also inappropriate? Lying on loan documents to obtain loans illegally, which is what got Teresa in trouble in the first place.)
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Teresa (who gets excited when she finds a penny in the bathroom; guess those legal bills are truly serious!) finally returns when she thinks Andy and her cousins are done discussing her situation. Not so fast. "Do you want to tell me why you left?" Andy asks her. She replies curtly, "I'm going through a lot and I needed a break." When Andy presses further, she snaps, "next question." Even Teresa's BFF Dina Manzo gets in on the "next question" bandwagon, trying to get Andy to move on.
Unfortunately for Dina, moving on means she's now in the hot seat. The veteran of the series, who has had a mysterious, years-long feud with her former cast mates -- sister Caroline Manzo, brother Chris Laurita and sister-in-law Jacqueline Laurita -- finally opens up (a little) about her family troubles. Reasoning that staying silent did nothing to help the situation ("I kept my mouth shut for four years," she says), Dina shares some family secrets.
Among the biggest bombshells: Chris reached out to Dina when he heard she was getting divorced, but Jacqueline interfered and wouldn't let them meet up; Dina invited Caroline, Chris and Jacqueline to her daughter Lexi's high school graduation party, but no one showed; and neither she nor Lexi were not invited to Caroline's daughter Lauren's engagement party. "Do you know how hurtful that was?" Dina, struggling to keep tears from flowing, asks Andy. "Hurt me, I can take it. Hurt my kid... All bets are off.”
Melissa Gorga, who has a long and well-known history of feuding with sister-in-law Teresa, jumps in and says that the show is about "mending family." Indeed, the two patched up their fractured relationship last season. But Dina isn't interested in Melissa's input. She snaps at Melissa, "You would not have come on the show--" but cuts herself off. Melissa eggs her on, asking, "If what?"
Dina backs down saying, "I lost my train of thought." But Melissa isn't having it. “That’s instigating,” she says. “Ask me the question. Be direct with me.” Dina tells Melissa that her relationship with Teresa was not okay when Melissa signed on the show back in season 3. “It was,” Melissa says. “That is ridiculous. Done.”
Part 2 of the Real Housewives of New Jersey reunion airs on Bravo, November 9 at 8 p.m. ET.
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