Last week, the cast of The Real Housewives of New Jersey split up into their two alliances after Melissa Gorga‘s luau party, and this week’s episode picked up the next morning, when everyone started rehashing what had gone on the night before. While initial talk focused on Danielle Cabral‘s family issues and her suspicious feud with her brother, the topic of conversation eventually changed when Teresa Giudice and Joe Gorga shared a big family secret.
The information came about after Joe and Melissa discovered that Luis Ruelas tried to invite her mom to his and Teresa’s wedding. They wondered how “genuine” his actions were, considering they had a falling out over a business deal not too long ago. At Jennifer Aydin‘s shore house, Teresa told her and Danielle that Luis “lost a quarter of a million dollars” and she blames Joe for it. She said Joe came up with an idea to create and sell pizza ovens. She claimed Joe wanted to do it with her, as a tribute to their late dad, and Luis contributed $250K to help make it happen. After Luis talked to his and Teresa’s attorney, Luis asked Teresa what percentage of the business they should give Joe, and “[he and the attorney] came up with five percent”. Teresa claimed Joe “went nuts” because he “wanted 50 percent.” But she said he “didn’t want to” put half the money in upfront so she didn’t feel he deserved half of the company. Luis “took the loss” since the deal fell through.
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Then, at Melissa and Joe’s shore house, they told Margaret Josephs and Jackie Goldschneider a similar story but from their point of view. Joe said a lot of his anger last season stemmed from the failed business deal, but everyone chose not to talk about it publicly. He said he didn’t want to “bury” Teresa, but now that she’s talking about it, he wanted to share his version of the story. “Luis screwed me with the pizza business,” he said. “I told him it was my idea — [for] me and my sister” to “honor our father”. Joe said Luis “loved” the idea, so they “ordered” some ovens. Joe said Luis was adamant about putting his money into it, and he figured they’d split the business profits and get “50 percent” each. But not long thereafter, Joe learned that Teresa and her daughters did a private photo shoot for the business, ordered boxes and started calling it “The Skinny Pizza or something like that”. He called Luis and Teresa to find out what was going on, and Luis started giving him “lip”. Teresa lashed out at him for not putting any money into it, and he said he was never given the chance. He said Luis insisted on covering the initial costs. “It was my idea”, Joe revealed, but they stole it from him and the situation “became very ugly”.
After the family secret was revealed, everyone reunited for a brunch at Rachel Fuda‘s shore house. The business deal didn’t immediately come up, but things started to get heated once Teresa learned that Melissa was upset about her mom not getting invited to the wedding. She was sick and tired of hearing about it, and insisted that if Joe and Melissa had just let her know how upset they were, she would have invited Donna Marco. But Teresa didn’t invite Donna from the start, and that was the real issue at hand. She just couldn’t understand that because she never thinks she’s at fault for anything.
Anyway, Luis took matters into his own hands when he asked Melissa to step aside for a private conversation. He apologized to her for the situation involving the wedding and her mom. But before their conversation could get much further, Teresa interjected herself, and it angered Luis. He told Teresa that she wasn’t “respecting” their space and it wasn’t “fair”. Teresa kept talking, so Luis stood up, got in her face and told her she wasn’t “making any sense”.
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“You need to respect that I’m here talking to your sister-in-law,” he told her. “Can you please leave?”
Once Teresa walked away, Luis tried continuing his conversation with Melissa by saying Teresa’s actions were “bulls***”. Melissa didn’t know what to say, so Joe entered the chat. He asked what they were talking about and Luis invited him to join them. Melissa said she was “hurt” over the situation with her mom and the wedding, and Luis said “there’s a lot of hurt” on both sides.
Melissa said Teresa’s the one “causing the hurt”, but outside of the conversation, Teresa was telling the other ladies that her brother “needs to get therapy” and Melissa has “daddy issues,” which is why she keeps Joe on a leash and doesn’t “allow” him to mend his relationship with her. Jackie couldn’t believe that Teresa would say Melissa has “daddy issues”, considering her dad died in a car accident when she was only 16 years old. But as soon as Jackie gasped at the comment, Teresa flipped out on her and told her to get lost. “Get out of my face! STFU!” Teresa yelled. Melissa overheard the ladies yelling at each other so she exited the conversation she was having with Joe and Luis and left them to have their own little chat without her. It didn’t last long though.
Just seconds after Luis revealed he wears Joe and Teresa’s dead dad’s pajamas at night, Teresa rejoined the chat. Luis begged them not to fight, but unsurprisingly, they did. Joe said he told Luis and Gia Giudice that he was upset about Teresa not including Melissa in the wedding, and begged Teresa to fix the situation, but she did “nothing”. So he basically called her a liar for saying that if they had shared their hurt over Donna not getting invited, she would have done what was needed to make things right. Teresa told Joe that he and Melissa should’ve defended her more last year when Margaret was spreading rumors about Luis. However, Melissa reminded Teresa that she didn’t defend Joe when Jennifer Aydin called him a “bitch boy” at least season’s reunion. In fact, she agreed with Jennifer and said Joe was acting like one.
Teresa then stormed off and told Luis to “fix” the situation. But when he refused unless she stayed, she went back and sat with them again. Joe told Teresa that she’s constantly “mean” to them. He accused her of not being happy, so she accused him of the same. Joe became so fed up with the situation that he got up and walked away, so Luis told him he was “playing [like a bitch boy] real well”, and Joe told him to “shut the f*** up” before he and Melissa left the brunch.
Unfortunately, Luis’ car was parked behind theirs, so Joe had to go back and ask Luis to move his vehicle. That’s when Joe saw Teresa sitting and chatting with Margaret, and he got upset. How could Teresa be sitting with the same person that she asked Joe and Melissa not to associate with? Joe started yelling, so Luis got up and tried diffusing the situation. But when Joe hugged Luis and joked about them dancing together, Luis pushed Joe away and said he was about to “punch” him. “I got nothing to lose, do you understand me?” Luis told Joe. Joe then backed down and Luis agreed to move his vehicle.
While in the driveway, Luis basically begged Joe and Melissa to try and fix their relationship with Teresa, but they said they’ve had enough and left the party “exhausted”.
Want more? New episodes of The Real Housewives of New Jersey air Tuesdays at 9pm on Bravo.