Jacqueline Laurita is opening up about her infamous rift with Teresa Giudice and blames the drama on her former co-stars Joe and Melissa Gorga.
On a recent episode of her new podcast, Turning the Tables, Teresa Giudice and Jacqueline Laurita discussed their very public friendship fallout.
For the first episode of her new podcast, Teresa Giudice welcomed her fellow RHONJ OG Jacqueline Laurita. The two reflected on their rift, which Jacqueline says was fueled by former co-stars Joe and Melissa Gorga.
According to Jacqueline Laurita, she had “people” in her ear during the last few seasons of RHONJ, which caused her to distance herself from her friendship with Teresa Giudice.
RHONJ’s Jacqueline Laurita, Melissa Gorga, and Teresa Giudice
“You know, I had people in my ear who, like, I, I kind of have to back it up because when I first came on, like when her family came on the show, I knew how bad that was, like bothering her. And she almost wanted to quit the show because of it. And I, in my head ‘I’m like, oh, if I get them to make up and they’re fine, then it’ll be fine to film because like, I gotta film with these people now.’ Like, I don’t wanna be fighting with them either. But like, if I could get everybody good, then we could all film together and it’ll be safe and they won’t be like after her or like, whatever.”
“And then, and then I think it made you uncomfortable, and then you kind of pulled away from me a little bit,” the RHONJ alum continued. “And then I’ve got them in my ear. Like my husband said it at the last reunion, how like Melissa and Joe kind of turned us against Teresa. They kind of were manipulating us by kind of telling us things that it was like making me feel bad for her about things. And then they would tell me things that maybe you were saying behind my back. And at the time, I, you and I never had a problem.”
“Then I was like, is she saying these things? Because she did pull away a little bit. Maybe she did say these things or, you know, whatever. And they were in the ear. Over time, you distanced yourself more than they were, you know? We got like pulled apart for a lot of reasons.”
Teresa Giudice interjected: “I distanced myself, you know what it was because, you know, ’cause we were so close and you knew what was going on there. I don’t like to fight, so I really don’t. And then that’s why I distanced myself. ’cause I was like, Jacqueline should really know, you know, like, she should really know harder. I thought you would know why I was distancing myself.”
Jacqueline explained that she knew of Teresa’s drama with her brother and sister-in-law and had no problem avoiding them before they were cast on RHONJ.
However, when Joe and Melissa joined the season 3 cast of RHONJ, Jacqueline said she felt forced to interact with them despite knowing their bad history with Teresa.
She explained, “Melissa was at a couple of your parties. I could care less to talk to her. I wouldn’t even bother with her. But because we’re now all cast on a show, it’s like we’re all faced with each other. It’s like, how do we juggle this, though? It became a problem. We should have talked about it more, but we just didn’t. It’s really hard to maintain a friendship and a relationship when you’re filming a show together. That’s like constantly a lot of pressure.”
“And plus, I went through a lot the time with Nicholas being diagnosed and I was like, not in a good head space at all. Like, I was shot. So there were just a lot of factors. So eventually we got so estranged [and] I hated her for hating me. I felt rejected, and I felt like she didn’t like me, so now I don’t like her. It was kind of, it was stupid. That was my way of dealing with it, I guess is like, if I stayed angry at her, then I wouldn’t be as hurt.“
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