Danielle Cabral offered an update on her strained relationships with her dad and her brother during an interview this week.
As she also teased the dramatic finale episode of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, spoke of her past friendship with Jennifer Aydin, 47, and accused Jennifer Fessler, 53, of being jealous of her full-time role, Danielle, 38, said that she and her father are “working in a positive direction.”
“We are responding more via text message. I am trying,” she said on the July 1 episode of Access Hollywood’s Housewives Nightcap. “I get the fans are like, ‘It must be her,’ because of how I describe it but it’s really about protecting my peace and my heart because I am so hurt by my family dynamic.”
According to Danielle, she’s “heartbroken” that she lost her close-knit dynamic with her relatives, including her brother, Thomas.
“I live with it every day of my life and it would affect my life … So I just do it at my own pace. I love my father. My father texts me all the time, my brother, that’s the biggest heartbreak of my life, it’s very hard,” she continued.
Although Danielle and her family aren’t in the best place, she admitted that her father and brother would be the “breakout [stars]” if they were to join RHONJ.
“They are so funny and comical and that’s a big loss for me too … I lost a big part of who I am so it’s really hard to put that out there,” she noted.
Moving on to the finale, Danielle said she’s “more nervous” to see it play out than anything else that went down amid season 14 — including her physical altercation with Jennifer Aydin.
“I go through a full emotional range of like, put it this way: I left, I went to my best friend’s house and collapsed on her floor and I didn’t talk to my husband [Nate Cabral] and tell him what happened for like three days because I just couldn’t get the words out,” she stated “You’ll see why. It was tough. That’s why I say if you think what [Jennifer Aydin] did with the hairdresser was bad, wait till you hear the things she said.”
“I hope they play it cuz it really shows what kind of person she is,” Danielle added.
Although Danielle and Aydin’s relationship came to an end amid filming, she said they were actually closer than Aydin is to Teresa Giudice, 52, prior to their falling out.
“I had a closer relationship with Jen than Jen did with Teresa. I would talk on the phone with Jen all the time. We were close. She would come over to my house, we would go away with the kids, and it was a very different conversation,” Danielle shared. “When I’m on the phone with Jen, I can have somewhat of a conversation. But with Teresa, it’s more of like, I just have to sit and listen to her for an hour. She doesn’t give a sh*t about what I say, with Jen I gave her more of a friendship than I know Teresa ever has so for her to say things like, ‘I’m just getting to know you,’ or ‘It’s so…’”
When Danielle was then asked if she felt Aydin and Teresa were true friends, she stated, “No.”
“Listen, I take friendships very lightly. And I’m glad I went in being friends with them first and now getting to know the other girls because if it was the other way around, I don’t think they would’ve given me the time of day. They didn’t give me the time of day and I was a great friend to them so imagine the other way around, and to Rachel,” she reasoned. “No. Every time I would be with Jen or Teresa… It wasn’t so much Teresa, Teresa could give a sh*t. She’s just doing her thing but Jen, cameras out, filming everything, an Instagram picture, this and that, [Jackie Goldschneider] did that too on the other side but it was almost a moment. Can’t I just come over .. in my sweatpants and just bullshit? It was never that. It was always a moment. I’m glad I’m out of that one.”
As for Fessler defending Aydin after their fight, Danielle noted that the series “friend” hasn’t liked her since she landed a full-time role on the show and she didn’t.
“I’m convinced she didn’t like me from then on. I’ve always tried to be kind to her, nice to her. You watch some scenes and her and Jackie are like ’She did what?’ Shut up, man you don’t even know the story,” Danielle noted.
And now that Fessler has seen the episode, Danielle hopes she’s “going, ‘Damn, I picked the wrong side here.’”
“I know what her and Jackie’s life is like being friends with them and I don’t feel bad. She came in very hot. She came to my Boujie Kidz party fully defending Jen. They cut so much out of that, and I was proud of myself because I was very reserved when talking to the girls,” Danielle recalled.
When Danielle was then asked about how no one reminded Aydin that she pushed Danielle before Danielle hit her with a cup, Danielle admitted she wasn’t surprised by Teresa’s chat with Fessler.
“I think at that moment she didn’t know what to do because now her little posse is gone. Now it’s just her and Jen. How does she navigate me and her? Jen Fessler, I say blows whatever way the wind blows … So you can’t take anything she says seriously, so that conversation was exactly how I thought it was going to play out,” she noted.
Also on the episode, Danielle gushed over her friendship with Rachel, saying, “I’m so enjoying Rachel. Our kids love each other.”
As for the rest of the cast, she added, “As much as I wanted to believe I was friends with certain people, I was really not and I learned that the hard way.”
The Real Housewives of New Jersey season 14 airs Sundays at 8/7c on Bravo.