Real Housewives of New Jersey’s Melissa Gorga is continuing to open up about the drama surrounding Teresa Giudice and Luis Ruelas on season 12 of RHONJ. In a new interview, Melissa is claiming that Teresa made the rumors surrounding Luis’ newly resurfaced bizarre video worse.
Melissa says that Teresa’s refusal to even talk about the video (showing Luis surrounded by half-naked men at a “warrior camp”) made the situation that much more complicated.
Speaking to Page Six, Melissa said, “It was the whole Teresa trying to protect the situation and not discuss it that actually made it worse.”
However, Melissa does say that Luis does address the issue with the cast.
“I was so happy [when he addressed it.] I’m like, ‘Thank you!’ because I don’t want to talk about him, I really don’t. I don’t want to discuss his issues or whatever happened in his past and I was sick of my castmates talking about it,” she stated.
Ultimately, Melissa is happy with Teresa and Luis as a couple, calling Luis a “great match” for Teresa.
“If my sister-in-law is happy, then I’m happy, I’m like, ‘Leave her in her love bubble, please! Let her be happy!’”
Melissa also added that she can’t judge Luis too harshly as Teresa has a past of her own, and she’s big on leaving the past in the past and moving forward in a positive direction.
“No one has a bigger past than Teresa, let’s be real,” Melissa said. “But the past is the past…We need to judge people off what we see now and I’m big on that. He’s going to be my brother-in-law. I want him to come in with open arms. I want him to prove to us who he is.”
Meanwhile, Melissa also shared that her castmate, Margaret Josephs, was “relentless” in her pursuit of proving her opinion and concern for Teresa over her relationship with Luis.
“Margaret was relentless. She really was,” she told Page Six. “She had an opinion on something, and she was not letting go.”
As teased in the RHONJ season 12 preview, this will lead to an “epic showdown” between Margaret and Teresa on the cast’s Nashville trip, ending in what fans are calling “table flip 2.0” with Teresa clearing the dinner table and covering Margaret in food and drinks.
Melissa says this really puts a strain on her and her friendships with the cast and puts her in the middle.
“It sucks for me, to be honest, because it’s my family and they’re my girlfriends who actually treat me really well,” she said. “They’re very good friends to me, they really are…but this is my sister-in-law. So, when they all go at it, I just want to walk out of the room! I try to bring them back together as much as I can. But screw it! You guys are old enough, you know what you’re doing. Figure it out.”
The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. EST on Bravo.