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Dolores Catania threw some shade at The Real Housewives of New Jersey while promoting the debut season of The Real Housewives of Rhode Island on Sunday.
As she also spoke of her friendship with Liz McGraw, praised the RHORI cast as “relatable,” and revealed the advice she gave them ahead of tonight’s premiere, Dolores, 55, said that while she was “loyal” to New Jersey, heading to Rhode Island for her “friend” role on the show offered her a much-needed calm.
“Jersey is always in my heart, and comes first, and, you know, I’m loyal. I will never disparage Jersey in any way. Do not talk sh*t about Jersey,” Dolores declared during an interview with Bravo’s The Daily Dish on March 29. “But it was nice to get away from the scene of Jersey.”
According to Dolores, New Jersey is “more of a fast hustle and bustle” than Rhode Island.
“It was much more calm here,” she explained.
Additionally, taking on a “friend” role allowed her to have more “fun.”
“I wasn’t involved in a lot of the visceral drama and the hard stuff,” she noted. “I actually really got to enjoy it, instead of being sometimes stressed. I was also the wellness team behind the scenes.”
“I was able to really speak to them like friends. And they listened — unlike Jersey,” she continued. “I also felt like a friend to them in a way where I can like teach them or help them calm down.”
Speaking of the group of women who fans will soon meet on Bravo, Dolores said they were “relatable,” comparing the series to her original show.
“The cast is relatable, and I think that was a love that people also had for Jersey,” she stated. “In a really crazy way, I felt like I knew them forever. They’re all very relatable to me.”
In addition to a long-standing friendship with Liz, with whom she got “very close, very fast,” Dolores said she “felt that [she] fit in” with the rest of the group and understood each cast member.
“But because we have a lot of similarities, there is a certain loyalty I see in Liz that I really appreciate,” she explained.
As for the advice she gave her new castmates, Dolores recalled telling them not to look at social media.
“Don’t respond to negativity. Don’t give it light. And try as hard as you can not to get into the habit of reading every bad thing,” she shared. “I’m not gonna sit there and read stupid sh*t comments by somebody I don’t know. I don’t really care.”
“You’re putting your life out there. You don’t know what to expect. You don’t know what’s coming. There’s a lot of self-doubt. You have to be thick-skinned,” she added.
The Real Housewives of Rhode Island season one premieres tonight, April 2, at 9/8c and moves to its normal night, on Sundays, on April 5 at the same time.