No one’s on Teresa Giudice’s team — at least, that’s how she felt on the Jan. 15 episode of The Real Housewives of New Jersey. The mother of four accused her husband at the time, Joe Giudice, 47, of making their four daughters Gia, 19, Gabriella, 15, Milania, 13 and Audriana, 10, always “go against” her! The confession came about after Teresa’s phone call with Joe, who was still in custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during filming, but had given Teresa a ring because it was Mother’s Day. Their daughters gave Teresa a necklace with her name on it for the occasion, reminding Joe of a similar piece of jewelry he once supposedly gave his wife. She had no recollection of it.
Teresa flat-out denied that Joe, like their daughters, got her a necklace with her name on it. “No you didn’t,” Teresa said, to which Joe said, “Years ago.” Amid all the chatter at the table, he could be heard saying, “You don’t remember anything. I bought you a lot of things…My wife’s brain is going mush!” Their daughter Milania shared similar sentiments, saying throughout the call, “Well he’s saying he did, so he did…You don’t remember anything, so you don’t! You have such a bad memory.”
Teresa’s day was ruined. “Today started out, beautiful day with my daughters but Joe always gets the girls to go against me. It hurts me tremendously,” Teresa admitted in a confessional. She added, “There should be no sides taken!” The Bravo star then took her complaints to co-star Dolores Catania, venting to her friend, “My kids, they take Joe’s side. Here I am busting my a– doing everything and then it’s like, he’s the greatest thing that walked the Earth!”
But Teresa and Joe’s eldest daughter, Gia, thought that her mom should be more sympathetic given Joe’s situation. He had been fighting a deportation order to his native Italy, and thus was forced to sit in ICE instead of returning home to his family after being released from prison in March 2019. “Honestly, they’re good at aggravating each other. But when he lashes out, I just wish my mom would keep quiet, just because he’s fighting for his life in there,” the college student said on Wednesday night’s episode of RHONJ.
Regardless, Teresa wants more credit for the hard work she puts in as a parent! She also made this clear right on Joe’s Instagram over the holidays, shortly after the couple reportedly split. Joe had showed off his Fendi shopping bags containing presents for his daughters, writing in the video’s caption, “It’s been a while since I baught [sic] my angels a Christmas gift.” Teresa didn’t appreciate the lack of a shout-out, because she hopped into the comments section to write, “What about Mommy for helping… Your [sic] welcome Daddy.”
Despite the ever-present tensions brewing between Teresa and Joe, the parents still reunited amid their rocky relationship in Italy in Nov. 2019. Joe had just moved to Italy to carry out the rest of his deportation case outside of ICE, and the happy family reunion was filmed for RHONJ. However, Teresa and Joe celebrated Christmas and New Year’s Eve apart. Joe still wrote about his co-parenting relationship with Teresa in a positive light, however, on Instagram on Jan. 11: “We will always stay strong. It’s not distance that breaks a couple it’s actions!”