The Real Housewives of New Jersey brings family together, tears them apart, and tries to put them back together again. It started with the Manzo family and now Teresa Giudice and her brother, Joe Gorga, continue to go back and forth in their relationship. The two started on a rocky foot when Gorga and his wife, Melissa Gorga, joined the show, but they got back on solid ground until Giudice met and married Luis Ruelas. Now, the siblings are not speaking at all and barely want to be anywhere near each other.
Through that all, their cousin Kathy Wakile was caught in the crossfire. Fans loved Wakile and her husband, Richie Wakile, on RHONJ, but through the years, the family all had a falling out. Now, the Wakile family lives across the street from the Gorgas and Melissa expressed hope on SiriusXM Radio’s Jeff Lewis Live that the cousins could fix their relationship again. Gorga talked about how her family often ends up on her street, but in this case, she is hopeful that this could be good for the family.
The Real Housewives of New Jersey star also talked about how her husband might regret what happened between them. He stood up for his sister (who he no longer speaks to) instead of backing up his cousin, but Gorga seems hopeful that her husband can have his cousins back in his life. What we do know about their estrangement came from Wakile talking in the past about people living in a “bubble” while filming shows like The Real Housewives of New Jersey, but we don’t know exactly what went down between them.
“Kathy’s a good person and I do think that [Joe] regrets, you know, he did what he had to do at the time to back his sister up and do what he had to do, but I really think he enjoyed Kathy,” she explained. “Kathy was a good cousin to him. She took care of him. He had a great relationship with [Rosie Pierri]. They were, like, growing up, those two were extremely close, Joe and Rosie, so I do think it’s unfortunate that that’s family and they’re not together, and I mean, look at me, I have my cousin sitting next to me.”
Melissa Gorga Wants Reconciliation for Kathy Wakile and Husband Joe
Image via Bravo
While they talked a lot about how the two families became neighbors, host Jeff Lewis did wonder whether being that close to one another would be a good thing for all of them and if it could lead to them reuniting. “It would be [weird] not to … It’s a first cousin and her mother’s still here and doing well, so I just, you know, Joe’s aunt. I don’t know. That’s sad to me that whole thing.”
Hoping to leave the podcast on a high note, Lewis pushed to get Gorga to reach out to the Wakiles. “I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna do it,” she said. “It is what I want for [Joe], and I think deep down inside, he wants it too… Joe’s an emotional guy. He wears his heart on his sleeve. He, you know, it’s hard. He comes from a place where he feels like he has to please. He felt like he had to please people his whole life, and you know, you never know what people, how people grew up or what went on in life.”
The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs on Bravo weekly on Sundays in the U.S. Episodes are available to stream the next day on Peacock.