
Credit: Charles Sykes/Bravo
Margaret Josephs shaded Jennifer Aydin, Teresa Giudice, and newbie Danielle Cabral amid the dramatic new season of Real Housewives of New Jersey.
Before filming season 13, Jennifer and Teresa met with Margaret’s ex-BFF Laura Lee Jensen, who claimed Margaret originally spread the Melissa Gorga cheating rumor.
In an interview with ET, Margaret unleashed her thoughts about what occurred.
“It’s really upsetting to me, because — and I am going to say this, I’ve said a thousand times — I make up with someone, I feel it’s genuine, and I am with people who just aren’t that way,” said Margaret, alluding to her problems with Jennifer. “I’m constantly shocked and surprised … [Jennifer] meeting with my friend behind my back, I knew about it. I knew about it before last reunion. She came into my dressing room to apologize about it. We had discussed it there, so why would I think, seven months later, this nonsense is still going on?”
Margaret believes Teresa and Jennifer were planning on discussing Laura’s allegations during the season 13 reunion.
“Jennifer was trying to bring it up, there was no context to it,” said Margaret. “Melissa says, ‘I know everything already.’ We knew everything. Jennifer comes to my dressing room, I was disgusted with it. She was like, ‘You know, I’m sorry…’ and, ‘This girl doesn’t even like me. I don’t know why I did it…’ You know this whole crocodile tear nonsense.”
“I was ready to move on with Jennifer,” she went on. “I felt like I used to think she had a really good heart, and that we didn’t see eye to eye on things, but obviously I was wrong. So, this year I was just like, ‘What is going on here?’ I obviously misread people.”
Margaret was shocked that Jennifer brought it up again.
“That’s what I find really shocking, you know?” said Margaret. “I wasn’t mad at her anymore about it. I was like, alright, she apologized. That part was over, but then to bring it up and … drag stuff out? It’s weirdo stuff to me. It’s really weird. I don’t operate like that.”
The star then addressed her past friendship with Laura. “I am going to give you the CliffsNotes,” she expressed. “I know Laura since I am a little girl, since I am 12 — so I would call that ‘little Marge’ — were very good friends growing up. We were separated for many years. We did get back together prior to me going on the show [in 2017]. Our husbands were friends, I took her in with open arms. I really did love her. She saw everything that I had. … I helped her with plastic surgeons, hairdressers, you know? Everything, elevated her and her and her life, which can happen when you get on Housewives. I’m very blessed with an amazing surrounding. I got her two [casting] interviews, two years in a row. I helped her tremendously. I pushed for her. I desperately wanted her on there. If she couldn’t come as a Housewife, then a friend. It did not happen.”
Margaret continued, “Then 2022, the beginning of, I caught wind out of Jennifer’s camp, someone who she thinks she’s close to — she’s not — called up and said, ‘You know your creepy friend is friending Jennifer and Teresa, coming over here and trying to talk about you, trying to get on the show?’ … ‘She can’t get on the show through you. She’s trying to get on the show through them. Talking lies and drama about you, about Melissa, saying Jackie [Goldschenider’s] jealous of…’ all this nonsense. I immediately called Melissa. I called Dolores [Catania]. I called Jackie. I immediately said, ‘We have some craziness going on, and Teresa and Jennifer are doing this…’ I have the dates. I have it all. I texted Laura, I texted her husband … anybody I introduced her to, I texted them with her on the chain just to say, ‘She’s interfering in my career.'”
“Teresa had no problem, calling up and getting her another interview by the way,” she added. “Knowing the rumor she was spreading, Teresa called her up to get her another interview, and P.S., she couldn’t get her on the show! So obviously, if there was no motive of getting on the show, why did you want another interview? So clearly this was show-motivated, and that was it.”
Margaret denied Laura’s claim that she wanted to expose the “truth” about Margaret regarding the allegation that Margaret discussed Melissa’s cheating rumor.
“She was out for blood for the Marge,” she said. “Why wouldn’t she reach out to Melissa if she is saying I said this about Melissa, and I am such a horrible person?” … “Why reach out to the two people who hate me and Melissa the most? I mean, I think that’s quite obvious. You wanted to get on the show. You could have reached out to Melissa. You set next to her numerous times in the hair salon.”
“You had every opportunity to say something to Melissa, you didn’t,” the star added, “and until you and I had a falling out — which, her big thing with me is I disinvited her to Christmas, that’s only she think she could say — is you decide to go to the people who hate us the most? It was about getting on the show. It was about causing drama. You thought you’d insert yourself that way, and that’s the real truth.”
“If you really are trying to expose the truth, you wouldn’t try and be getting on the show,” Margaret alleged. “Why would you try and take a third interview and go to the two people who hate me the most? Why wouldn’t you call Jackie? Why wouldn’t you call Melissa, and things like that? Why go to the press? Why do all these things? I find that, I mean… I think it’s very obvious to everybody who really knows.”
Margaret claimed she has not heard back from her ex-friend since the drama. “She’s a coward and wouldn’t answer the phone, wouldn’t answer back,” said Margaret. “Her husband answered me back. Her husband.”
Regarding Teresa and Jennifer, Margaret expressed, “Everything they have accused me of, they actually do … This is what I was accused of last year, meeting with [Teresa’s now-husband, Louie Ruelas’] exes, when everything was already out there on the internet. There’s no proof or anything like that.”
“The woman [Jennifer] can’t help herself and it just shows her character,” she continued, and then she alluded to last season when Margaret outed Jennifer’s husband’s past affair. “I just want to point out one other thing; she was so concerned about her children last year. ‘You hurt my family, you did this…’ which was sad. Everybody there’s collateral damage, I apologized, genuinely, for everything, but that was based in fact, OK?”
“This wasn’t made up,” said Margaret. “She had no problem coming this year, hearing it from someone who is trying to get on the show and hurting Melissa’s family and her children? That’s not hypocritical? That’s not a problem? So, you’ll do it again to someone the following year and it’s not even based in fact?”
Margaret claimed other cast members didn’t know about the Melissa cheating rumors until everything exploded.
“We have no idea that they were doing this,” said Margaret. “It was a secret takedown.”
She then reacted to Jennifer’s accusation that Margaret encouraged Melissa to split with her husband Joe Gorga.
“Oh yes, yes, yes! That’s my favorite part,” she said. “I encourage people to get divorced? No, I don’t. You know what it is? I build my friends up. I always say, You’re amazing, you’re strong…’ you know, I say those things, and the funny part is, everybody would always compare Melissa to [Jennifer Lopez], and I said, ‘If J.Lo could be with A-Rod, you could be with anybody!’ And what do I always say, you know who I would be with? A 90-year-old guy with one foot on the banana peel. A billionaire. Who doesn’t say these things in fun?”
“Laura obviously took an ounce of truth, heard me say that — of course, was Laura out with us a lot of times? I brought Laura into a world of my friends and access –and that’s said in jest, of course, and I mean nothing negative about that; I would build up anybody, to say some fun things like that,” the star explained. “If I was around Jennifer when Bill was cheating on her, I would have built her up, too. And now, I’m going to build Bill up, because he doesn’t need that headache.”
Margaret denied having an “arsenal” of dirt on cast members, which she uses when it suits her.
“I have an arsenal,” said Margaret sarcastically, making light of the accusation. “I think that’s very funny. She thinks I have an arsenal to break things out? There’s nothing to break out.”
“I don’t have to collect information on anybody, that’s not the way I operate,” she insisted. “I say things when they happen, I’ve never held anything– Jennifer is so upset still about what everybody knew about Bill, which is unfortunate. We all knew it before, people; everyone’s not admitting it, but it’s common knowledge. She can think what she wants. Everybody knew.”
She then hinted at a “very big twist ending” with Teresa’s drama with Melissa and Joe. “When they see that, they’ll understand why Melissa and Joe didn’t go,” Margaret teased.
Margaret also shaded newcomer Danielle’s friendship with Jennifer and Teresa.
“[Danielle] came on, I was very open, gracious with her; she’s a young woman, I got a kick out of her,” she said. “I wanted to help her with her business, I gave her some solid advice. I worked on her logo for her. I really wanted good things for her. She flipped on me like a pancake in two seconds, for no reason, hearsay. It’s unfortunate. I think she’s great for the show; I think she’s funny. I think when she sees everything play out and realizes that she’s being used as a patsy, I hope she can see through it.”
Regarding her castmates, Margaret expressed, “These girls think they’re playing chess; well, guess what? You’re never going to be one step ahead of me.”
The Real Housewives of New Jersey season 13 airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on Bravo.