It’s a consistent pattern on “The Real Housewives” franchise: Every cast member claims they want to keep things drama-free. But if that were true, we probably wouldn’t have had the shocking, gives-“Jersey Shore”-a-run-for-its-money season premiere of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey.”
During that episode, which kicked off the show’s third season, veteran Teresa Giudice and her new castmate and sister-in-law, Melissa Gorga, along with their respective husbands, got into a screaming match during Gorga’s son’s christening that ended in a massive brawl. Glasses and punches were thrown, men sobbed in Italian and children were crying as the ice sculpture crucifix melted. A world without this episode would’ve been a sad thing.
But Gorga says she went into filming with every intention of working things out with her sister-in-law, with whom she’s had a long, difficult relationship.
“I really went in with all intentions to be happy together and to mend whatever was going on, to fix it. I went in nice, warm, sweet,” Gorga says.
“Teresa and I weren’t really speaking much. [Being on the show] was something I made a decision upon with my husband and my family. I knew it would be a great stepping stone for my music because I’m a singer so I went for it and I said, you know what? It can’t get any worse. Maybe it’s going to work out, if she plays herself out on screen. Well, we all see how we are on screen, maybe it’ll help things.”
But that fight at the christening — which was the first day of shooting — was devastating for Gorga.
“I cried for a week straight and I couldn’t sleep for three nights, to be honest with you,” she says. “Without candy coating it, I’m sick over it.”
