After 14 seasons on Real Housewives of New Jersey, OG Teresa Giudice is still going strong.
During a July 9 appearance on Live With Kelly & Mark, Kelly Ripa asked Tre, “Rumors are that you’re considering leaving the show. Are they true?”
“Really? Who put those rumors out there?” the mom of four responded. “Maybe some of my cast members. No, I’m not leaving. I started the show. When Bravo wants me to leave, that’s when I’ll leave.”
No Season 14 reunion
Co-host Mark Consuelos mentioned that Teresa was “there first,” the only remaining cast member of RHONJ Season 1. “Yes, I was there first!” Tre said before moving on to the subject of the planned “reunion-style episode,” she says Bravo is planning for the end of Season 14.
Last month, Exec Producer Andy Cohen announced that Season 14 will not have a traditional reunion. He said producers made the surprising decision after watching the season finale, which he described as a conclusion and a reunion rolled into one. Anything’s better than the screaming and arguing of the last few New Jersey reunion shows.
“We’re having something,” Tre revealed. “I don’t know what they’re calling it, but we are doing something.”
Tre added that she’s “glad we’re not doing what we did last year” because of the contention it stoked. “When you wanted to speak, other people wouldn’t let you speak,” she said. “Come on, if we have something to say, let us get our point out, and then you speak.” Um, I think she was talking over and interrupting as much as anyone else. And the whole mess was very unpleasant to watch.
Family feud
For years, the most drama on the show has come from Teresa’s relationship with her only sibling, Joe Gorga, and his wife, Melissa Gorga. In Season 14, Teresa and the Gorgas have refused to so much as speak to each other, so we’ve been spared the huge family fights we’ve witnessed in the past.
“Things have gotten really toxic,” Melissa told Entertainment Tonight in the understatement of the year. “There’s two of my cast members that have played really dirty behind the scenes, and it’s coming out. It’s all coming out, because it always rises to the top, it always comes out in the laundry,” suggesting a cast shakeup could be in order. “It’s been years, so it’s all coming forward.”
Even with Teresa and Melissa avoiding each other this season, there’s been plenty of fighting. Things took a shocking turn recently when Jennifer Aydin and Danielle Cabral got into an argument at Teresa’s Tulum party. Tempers turned up when Jen shoved Danielle, and Danielle reacted by breaking a plastic cup on the side of Jen’s face. When is enough, enough?
Some have suggested that RHONJ could benefit from a full reboot, à la Season 14 of Real Housewives of New York. I, for one, would be open to that idea.
Real Housewives of New Jersey airs Sundays at 8/7c on Bravo.
