Teresa Giudice had a lot to say about her estranged brother, Joe Gorga, and his wife, Melissa Gorga, on the latest episode of her podcast
Before taking aim at Melissa, revealing she was recently sicker than she’s ever been, and teasing what is to come on The Real Housewives of New Jersey‘s upcoming 13th season, Teresa reacted to Joe’s suggestion that her marriage to Luis Ruelas won’t last and accused him and her sister-in-law of abuse.
“Even after the wedding, he never apologized for not coming to the wedding. Nothing. And then … we went to BravoCon, and he makes jokes and he wasn’t even asked a question,” Teresa said on the January 18 episode of Namaste B$tches. “Melissa was asked the question, and my brother proceeds to get up [and suggest marriage won’t last]. It’s like, ‘Why would you do that?’ My brother is not my brother. I don’t know what happened to him. I have friends that act like more family to me than my own family.”
While Teresa kept quiet about much of the Gorgas’ behavior for years, she told listeners she’s “finding [her] voice” and “speaking the truth.”
“I am always about family. But when family is toxic and is trying to hurt you, that’s when you need to step away, and that’s what I’m doing now,” Teresa revealed. “I’m being truthful and honest, and I’m standing strong in what I believe. The past 10 years, it’s like a revelation happened to me now. My eyes have been opened.”
“I’ve been taken for a fool. I’ve been dragged through the mud. My family did come on the show and betrayed me. It was an ultimate betrayal. If this wasn’t so like hurtful to me, so painful in my heart, I would have not been saying this whole time,” she continued. “I kept forgiving and forgiving.”
According to Teresa, Joe and Melissa used her to get cast on RHONJ.
“My brother would only come around when I was filming, now I get it. I was just used and abused just so they could become famous, so they could get their paycheck from [RHONJ],” she explained. “Even my children, they’re like, ‘Your brother and Melissa only come around when we film.’”
Although Teresa said she kept her mouth shut to keep the peace for her parents, who wanted her and Joe to “always be united,” she noted that Joe was always motivated by cameras — even as he helped her with her kids after her former spouse, Joe Giudice, was deported.
“Here I thought my brother was coming around to help me … Meanwhile, it was cuz of the show, it was only when the show was filming,” she shared. “Never once did they ask me to go out, my brother or Melissa, on a Saturday night — when we weren’t filming. Not once did they say, ‘Let’s go out to dinner. We want to take you out to dinner.’ And I even said to him one time, ‘Why don’t you ever ask me to go out?’ And he’s like, ‘Well cuz we always go out with couples.’”
While Teresa claimed Melissa recently accused her of making up reasons to be done with her and Joe, Teresa insisted she does not need to create a thing — and added that her recent watching of RHONJ has nothing to do with it, saying that is “just the icing on the cake.”
“I’m glad everyone’s seeing the truth, that she’s lied through her teeth for the past 10 years, that she looked at me in the face, she lied to the fans, right to their faces,” Teresa stated, giving a nod to Melissa’s reported lie about not joining the show behind her back (As RHONJ fans may have heard, former producer Carlos King confirmed that Melissa did, in fact, reach out to production without Teresa’s knowledge to get on the series).
“The only way she’s relevant is if she talks about me and I f-cking finally … I f-cking finally woke up,” she added.
Teresa went on to shade Joe and Melissa for poking fun at her wedding with Melissa’s family.
“My only brother, my only family, my only sister-in-law … not only did they not show up at my wedding but … they were saying terrible things on social media… something like ’This is better than a wedding,’” she recalled, confirming she never removed the couple from her guest list. “They were invited. For her to even say that … That’s crazy to me … And then to know and see my brother and to see what he’s doing and to make this announcement that he’s not coming to my wedding and to talk trash about me on social media with Melissa’s family, how do you think that made me feel?”
As she moves forward from the feud, Teresa says she wishes the Gorgas well and hope they will do the same for her.
“I need to heal. I need peace in my life, and I need the toxicity out of my life. Ten years is a long time. I need to heal myself, I need to protect my family, and I need to just keep the toxicity out,” Teresa shared.
Teresa also reacted to the Gorgas’ suggestion that she’s not happy at home, saying, “I’m not even gonna address that.”
During another moment of her podcast, Teresa opened up about a recent illness she contracted from drinking out of a glass in Mexico.
“I’ve never been so sick in my entire life,” she revealed. “We were doing shots, it’s New Years Eve, in Tulum. I started feeling sick the day after. Don’t drink out of a glass. Use a straw,” she advised.
Despite her sickness, Teresa returned to Mexico for a work trip — and to celebrate Gia Giudice’s recent 22nd birthday — shortly after she fell ill. However, she wasn’t able to participate in all the activities and instead stayed in bed for the first two days.
“Then I made the two dinners, and then the last day we went into the fields and that was fun,” she explained.
Once she returned home, Teresa went back to the doctors, where she was told she had a virus.
“I was on antibiotics, but I wasn’t getting better. I had blood work done. Finally, it came back. They took a culture of my throat. I have this rare form of strep throat,” she revealed.
Also, during the podcast episode, Teresa teased what is to come on season 13.
“You will get your answers … Everyone’s gonna see what happened between my brother and Melissa and I and Louis during the wedding planning … It was just heart-wrenching to me,” she admitted.
The Real Housewives of New Jersey season 13 premieres on Tuesday, February 7, at 9/8c on Bravo.