As the longest standing star on Real Housewives of New Jersey, Teresa Giudice has withstood a lot in her time on reality TV. She is arguably the most experienced Housewife ever when it comes to knowing how to play a dirty game while keeping your hands plausibly clean. In her time on the series, she has outlasted many of her detractors, including her cousin Kathy Wakile, her one-time friends Caroline Manzo and Jacqueline Laurita, and her once foe, now friend, Danielle Staub. In all of these conflicts, Teresa played an innocent game, while viewers, alert to her passive-aggressive ways, understood there was more to this Housewife than she was letting on.
But in Season 14, Teresa’s true colors are starting to shine through, and the hues are not exactly complimentary. Her relationship with her brother, Joe Gorga, and her sister-in-law, Melissa Gorga, has exposed over time the high expectations that she has when it comes to being honored as a matriarch in the family. Teresa has also revealed a toxic desire to manipulate and control what is said and done on camera within her friendships in Season 14 and her loyalty is certainly in question. A part of what viewers are seeing in Teresa’s friendships this season is the result of her vendetta against her long-standing nemesis, Margaret Josephs, and John Fuda, the husband of newbie Housewife Rachel Fuda. Teresa’s love bubble may also be about to burst, as her change in her on-camera demeanor this season towards her husband, Luis “Louie” Ruelas, slowly starts to show her exhaustion over the constant negative media attention that Luis’ many legal battles brings. Teresa has long been the centerpiece of Real Housewives of New Jersey, but her reign is starting to come at a heavy cost to her image.
The Real Housewives of New Jersey follows the dramatic lives of a group of affluent women living in the Garden State. Centered around family, friendship, and fierce rivalries, the series delves into their personal and professional endeavors. With lavish lifestyles as the backdrop, the show captures intense confrontations, heartfelt moments, and the complexities of balancing relationships and social expectations.
Teresa’s Feuds Expose Her Pettiness
Custom Image by Zanda Rice
Teresa’s longstanding feud with the Gorgas has caused a fracture within Real Housewives of New Jersey, to the extent that it most certainly will play a role in Dolores Catania‘s tumultuous “sit down” dinner, which Andy Cohen has said serves as both the finale and the reunion of the season. The division among the group is undeniable, and with no reunion to come, it appears everything that has festered between Teresa and Melissa will resurface at this dinner. In a clip shared by Bravo, chaos breaks out among the Jersey Housewives, and Melissa is shown yelling “white trash” towards Teresa’s side of the table. This could be a trick of editing, but it is difficult to think that anyone could evoke this amount of vitriol from Melissa other than her sister-in-law.
For her part, Teresa has so far stayed true to her word that she does not wish to speak to her brother or sister-in-law this season. Viewers may have been surprised, then, to see her send a gift to be delivered to her brother at his housewarming party. When Joe, in turn, burned the card that accompanied the gift without reading it, it showed that pettiness is a trait that runs in the family. But Teresa took pettiness to another level when, after finding out how her gift was received, Teresa bragged in a confessional interview about not wanting to send anything in the first place, insisting it was her husband’s idea. This petty back-and-forth has become such a standard between the siblings, it appears to be their only remaining way of expressing their love for one another.
Teresa Is Known For Holding Grudges
Other than her continuing feud with her family this season, Teresa also knows how to hold a grudge when it comes to her co-stars as well. Last season, John Fuda brought a manila envelope of “evidence” which supposedly proved that Luis had hired a private investigator to dig into the past of different cast members. From there, the feud has spiraled into this season. Although previously denying that she had been digging into anyone’s past, Teresa accused John of having been “the biggest drug dealer in Bergen County” at a celebration for Jennifer Fessler. Their failed sit-down to repair the relationship after this most recent slight went south, according to John, because Teresa was incapable of apologizing for digging into his past relationship with his ex.