Margaret Josephs doesn’t understand the logic behind Teresa Giudice‘s decision against inviting Melissa Gorga‘s family, including mom Donna Marco, to her and Luis Ruelas‘ August 2022 wedding.
After Teresa confirmed on Tuesday’s episode of the Real Housewives of New Jersey that the snub was not an oversight, Margaret weighed in on her claims of having a “past” with Donna as Teresa explained their troubled history and Jackie Goldschneider suspected her decision was meant to be a “smack in the face.”
“I was like, ‘Please don’t say that.’ I was like, ‘What past could you possibly have with Donna Marco? All she does is giggle, laugh, have a good time,'” Margaret recalled on the March 21 episode of the RHONJ: After Show. “Every time I’ve seen her, she was spending time with your father. I was like, ‘Why are you saying this?’”
Even newbie Danielle Cabral, who appears to be much more Team Teresa than Team Melissa, admitted that Teresa “is terrible with delivery.”
“The way she asked Melissa to be in the wedding, horrible. You know in her truth she wanted to say, ‘I want this sh-t to end Melissa, just be in my wedding.’ But when she says, ‘Do you want to be in the wedding?’ It’s like, no Tre, don’t say it like that,” Danielle advised.
Then, as Rachel Fuda wondered what Melissa’s mother could’ve possibly done, noting that she’s “sweet as sugar,” Danielle argued that Teresa is doing things “based on how she feels.”
“She’s inviting people she just meets that make her happy. It’s her truth in that moment. Donna Marco, she probably had a certain way she felt about her,” she explained.
Meanwhile, Melissa said that what Donna did to Teresa was “birth [her].”
As for Teresa, she said she didn’t invite Donna to her wedding because they’re not close and noted that Donna and her father, the late Giacinto Gorga, were not “close.”
“The reason I didn’t invite Donna Marco, I’m not that close with them. I’m not close with Melissa so I’m not really close with the family,” she explained. “When I see them, am I respectful? Yes. When my father went to my brother’s house, they were cordial with each other. That’s all it was.”
“And when Melissa came on the show,” Teresa continued, “her family was writing stuff about me on Twitter and Instagram and Facebook and they were trashing me so I’ve always kept them an arm’s length away.”
That said, when Dolores Catania mentioned a possible grudge, Teresa shut down the idea, saying, “[It’s] not that I’m holding a grudge. I don’t want to associate with people like that. It has been forgotten because I’m around them and I’m social with them, but do I want them to come to my wedding and celebrate me? We’re not close like that.”
Then, after Jennifer Fessler admitted she doesn’t blame “Melissa for being pissed,” Jackie said that, in her opinion, the snub was meant to make a statement.
“Anybody can invite whoever they want to their wedding but I think it was meant to be a smack in the face, even if she wants to swing it,” she said. “And I have no issue with Teresa right now. We’re fine. So this isn’t meant to start a fight or anything but there’s no way to swing that. That was meant to be a smack in the face. It was.”
Also on the RHONJ: After Show, Melissa said, point blank, “[Teresa] didn’t want to invite her.”
“Another line drawn in the sand. She’s drawing every possible line and then you wanna know why Joe’s upset? It’s like, he’s just trying to take it all in right now because it’s a lot to take in,” she noted.
The Real Housewives of New Jersey season 13 airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on Bravo.