Several castmates on Real Housewives of New Jersey suggest Margaret Josephs masterminded a revenge plot against two of her co-stars.
During the first episode of the season, Margaret exposed Jennifer Aydin‘s husband’s affair, and brought up a strange video concerning Teresa Giudice’s finacé, Luis Ruelas.
In a video chat with ET, Margaret discussed the accusations: “[Teresa] accused me of leaking to the press, I talked to the blogs — I did this, I did that — you know what, anything to protect and make it look like I’m trying to ruin her life. For what? I have no agenda.”
“I didn’t do anything mean to Teresa,” said Margaret. “If you don’t agree with her, she takes it as a personal affront . . . With Jennifer, things had happened after the reunion . . . She kept [saying] very negative things towards myself, Jackie [Goldschenider], Melissa [Gorga], people I love that I’m very close to. She didn’t dial it back. It didn’t end at that reunion, and that was the issue.”
She went on to say, “I was waiting for an apology [from Jennifer] or just like, ‘You know what? You’re right,’ and it didn’t happen . . . And then she pushed it. [She said] ‘you’re jealous.'”
Margaret, who admitted to having an affair with her now-husband, revealed, “I’m going to tell you why I [discussed the Bill Aydin affair] — I don’t care that it even happened, and I am not judging it — obviously, I’m not one to judge, right? But . . . I don’t like hypocrisy.”
The star choose to expose it on camera “because she has slut-shamed me. She has judged mine and [my husband Joe Benigno’s] relationship. She has said horrible things about my mother. She had tried to dig up stuff.”
“[Jennifer] said I slept my way to the top — really attacked me,” added Margaret. “Meanwhile, she put Bill on a pedestal and always said, ‘He’s the greatest. He’s this, he’s that’ . . . I was like, all right, the hypocrisy’s got to stop here.”
Margaret knew about the affair “for years . . . Before [Jennifer] even got on the show, I had known . . . This was talk around the town . . . I knew people who got their Botox at [Bill’s] practice . . . They’re like, ‘Oh yeah, her husband got caught sleeping with the office manager, had to leave his job…’ I was like, ‘Great! It’s not just me!'”
“They worked it out, and I love Bill,” she said. “And I think they have a good marriage — but she never dealt with it, and I think that was the issue. And I never knew that.”
A preview of the season shows Teresa and Margaret having a huge fight, as Teresa claims Margaret dug into Luis’ past.
“Listen, I saw what everybody else saw,” said Margaret, alluding to Luis’ bizarre video, which showed him apologizing to his ex as several half-naked men surrounded him on a beach.
“How bad would it be if I would just say, ‘Everything’s great . . . no questions asked, blind? I’m just not like that,” she said. “If this was my daughter, if this was my longest friends, the girls that work with me … I’d be like, ‘Are you nuts? Did you see [the video]?'”
“The truth is, [Teresa] is a woman who is very guarded, paranoid, thinks everybody is out for her,” said Margaret. “And I do believe she does feel this way — not just with me — that she feels everybody [is not to be trusted], because she has been hurt so many times. And a lot of people have done things, or she thinks everybody has an ulterior motive to hurt her.”
The star explained, “There is no benefit for me for anything bad to happen to Teresa. None whatsoever. And I have no vendetta against her.”
Margaret also laughed off Teresa’s claim that RHONJ is The Teresa Show. “I think if it was The Teresa Show, she would’ve had her own show already . . . It’s 12 years! I think it’s an ensemble show. We all need each other to succeed and do well. I think it’s funny. I think that’s what’s in her head, that’s what she thinks to make herself feel better.”
“I love when people say, ‘Well, they waited for her when she went to jail to film again,'” she added. “That was coming off of season 6, where it wasn’t the best season ever. They got rid of [more than half the cast], so they literally had no one.”
The Bravo star addressed the scene from the recent preview, when Teresa shifted the table in anger: “She’s a very overgrown toddler,” claimed Margaret. “A very strong one, obviously — but it’s a very big temper tantrum.”
Margaret also explained why she called Teresa a liar in the clip. “She says that I’m the one who leaked [anything negative about Louie] to the press,” said Margaret. “‘I leaked the video…’ I mean, cut me a break. I didn’t even know who this guy was! That was classic. I mean, if I had that video, I would’ve sent it directly to her. I wouldn’t have leaked it to the press. I’d be like, ‘What the hell is this?'”
The star, however, still thinks Teresa lied: “[Teresa] says she never saw the video . . . She just proceeds to constantly pretend things aren’t happening. And she just makes up story after story after story. For what? What do you have to hide? What are you protecting? If there’s nothing wrong, what are you protecting?”
“I don’t know if she coached [Luis] so he doesn’t say the right thing… you never know,” said Margaret. “Is he generous to her? Is he generous to the daughters? Of course . . . But you know what? This [relationship] is a year in. One year, 12 months. I mean, I have underwear older than that!”
She then explained, “Yes, I have questioned her judgment. That’s not coming for her. I haven’t tried to attack her. The entire Bravo world, anybody who’s seen this stuff on the internet, has questions. [The video is] not the only thing that’s come out. So of course, anybody logical would say, ‘Hey, what’s going on here?'”
Photo Credit: Charles Sykes/Bravo