Rachel Fuda is revealing her “biggest downfall” as a Housewife as she reflects on Luis Ruelas‘ impact on The Real Housewives of New Jersey.
Credit: Michael Simon/startraksphoto, INSTARimages
During an interview on Monday, Rachel, 33, suggested that Teresa Giudice‘s podcast was set up to defend her controversial husband and spoke of Louie’s “toxicity.” Rachel also reacted to Teresa, 52, defending him wishing harm on Margaret Josephs‘ son, and she admitted she never considered saying anything about his behavior on the show.
“I have morals,” Rachel explained to Us Weekly on August 12. “I’ve said that a million times, but that is my biggest downfall, as a Housewife, is that I hold myself to a higher standard than some of the women that are on our show. I don’t feel like I need to ruin people’s reputations and livelihoods in order to make myself successful. I wasn’t raised that way.”
While many have said that Luis, 50, has been the “downfall” of RHONJ, which reached a ratings low amid season 14, Rachel said she couldn’t say firsthand as she was never on the show without him.
“I wasn’t here before he got here. And I think that’s an important thing to kind of realize is, like, it happened at the same time,” she noted. “From what I recall, his involvement in the show happened simultaneously, increased when I became a Housewife … [But] from what people are saying, it sounds like that.”
Although Rachel acknowledged that Luis has seen a lot of backlash in recent months, she hinted that Teresa was also a problem for the series.
“I do feel like there’s been a common denominator for 14 years and that hasn’t been Luis,” she stated. “I think that he kind of poured gasoline on the fire. He just kind of [mic-dropped] it, you know what I mean? He just put the bookend on it. Unfortunately, I feel like Teresa does have to clean up a lot of the things that he says. I mean, I feel like her podcast solely exists to clean up Louie’s mess.”
“Every time somebody sends me something or I hear something, it’s like she’s talking about or justifying his actions or something he said, so it does seem like there’s quite a bit of toxicity around him,” she continued.
Looking back at how Luis wished harm on Margaret’s son and how Teresa defended his comment, Rachel wished Teresa knew how to “self-reflect.”
“It’s okay to look at your partner and to say, ‘You made a mistake,'” she stated. “And if I recall correctly, she defended it and then she backtracked. Because I think [Dolores Catania] was trying to say in so many ways, ‘You can’t defend it so just own it.’ But I think she knows he shouldn’t have said that but she’s such a ride or die, like, ‘I’m gonna defend this,’ even when it’s completely — you can’t say those things. These are conversations you have when cameras are down, not when they’re up — not when you have a mic on.”
“I was shocked when the words came out of his mouth,” she added.
Rachel also spoke to Us Weekly about her recent pregnancy news, confirming that stepson Jaiden, 17, and daughters Gianella, 4, and Giuliana, 2, will welcome a new sibling.
“I just feel so grateful, and I have so much gratitude,” she said. “I feel very blessed and very lucky.”
