Teresa Giudice unpacks all the drama from season 14 of 'The Real Housewives of New Jersey' with ET.
Teresa Giudice ranks season 14 of The Real Housewives of New Jersey in her top five seasons of all time, and she says it's for one reason: "Because I'm not taking anyone's s**t anymore."
"I'm so over it, of the lies, the lies that people put out there," Teresa tells ET. "Everyone's trying to say that I'm using them as a storyline. It's the reverse."
Season 13 set the stage for this fresh batch of episodes, airing Sundays on Bravo, with Teresa and sister-in-law Melissa Gorga making it clear they were done attempting to have a relationship after a decade-plus of hashing out their family issues on TV. Teresa went so far as to predict at last year's reunion reunion that she would never see Melissa again, suggesting Melissa would be fired from the show. That didn't happen, though.
"It's Bravo's decision," she says. "You know, whatever they say goes."
That decision leads to a unique set-up for the cast, with the women essentially split in two, and it's sure to add fuel to the fire that is the social media conversation around RHONJ. Fans of The Real Housewives are known to pick "teams," but Jersey seems to take things to another level online, with entire fan pages dedicated to championing certain stars, others to attacking them.
Ahead of season 13's launch, one user came forward to claim Teresa and her closest ally on the show, Jennifer Aydin, routinely asked them to push forward negative narratives (about Melissa and others on the cast) on social media in exchange for gossip and early access to screeners of the show. The account shared screenshots of its alleged DMs, emails and texts with Jennifer, and later Teresa, which appeared to show a coordinated effort to expose information about John Fuda, the husband of season 13 newcomer Rachel Fuda, going into season 14.
"I don't do that," Teresa declares. "Everyone who knows me, I am so real. Like, what you see is what you get and I don't go digging up people's pasts."
Teresa says she's never pushed an agenda with any social media pages in order to secure storylines for the show. Jennifer has yet to publicly respond to the situation, and Teresa doesn't go so far as to clear her of the alleged behavior. Instead, she says Jennifer "is amazing. She's strong and she's good."
Teresa suspects the social media plot is actually the work of her longtime frenemy, Margaret Josephs, who she claims "is obsessed with me and my husband" and "puts out lies and plants stories." Margaret's repeatedly denied these allegations in the past, and the fan account making claims against Teresa and Jen predicted in a recent interview that Teresa would pin this so-called plot on Margaret.
"A lot of things are gonna come to light this season," Teresa teases, "and [my castmates] are all scared. So now, they're trying to put these other false narratives out there to try to make me look bad because a lot of other things are gonna come to light -- but I'm bringing facts to light."
Teresa points to the season 13 reunion as proof to back up her theory, noting Margaret organized a meeting of some cast members ahead of the taping, at which they discussed Teresa's husband, Louie Ruelas, allegedly hiring a private investigator to dig up dirt on the ensemble.
"See how powerful we are?" she laughs. "They have to meet together 'cause they have to come up with this plan because [Louie and I] are so powerful!"
The group asked Louie about that and more at the reunion; Margaret claimed he harassed her son with phone calls at work, while the Fudas said Louie contacted John's imprisoned ex. Louie denied it all.
"These are all lies that they are putting out there," Teresa reiterates. "They have nothing on me, so they're trying to hurt the closest person to me, which is my husband, and they think that's my 'weak link,' you know?"
"He's not my weak link," she says. "He's my rock."
Teresa claims Margaret "set up" John with the supposedly bad info about his ex and Louie, the same way Teresa believes Margaret set her up in season 10 to attack Jackie Goldschneider's marriage by a repeating a rumor that Jackie's husband, Evan, was unfaithful, which the couple repeatedly denied.
"I was set up because Margaret told my brother and my brother told me," she explains. "I repeated it, and my brother knows -- everyone knows -- how I feel about cheating, so I was only telling Jackie to protect her and to say, you know what? Shut this rumor down. It's out there, but you know it didn't go that well."
Margaret, again, has denied Teresa's accusation, but Teresa says "black and white facts" will come out this year to vindicate her and "Jackie understands [everything] now."
"There's a pattern with Margaret," Teresa observes, pointing to Margaret's friction with past co-stars Siggy Flicker and Danielle Staub, as well as Jennifer, some of which involved exposing shameful secrets on camera.
After years of feuding, Teresa and Jackie form a friendship this season, much to the surprise of Margaret and Melissa, who have called the alliance swap a "calculated" move by Jackie to secure screen time. Jackie -- who previously held a full-time spot on the show, but slid into a "friend of" role last year -- has scoffed at that theory, but even Teresa's close friend, Dolores Catania, remarked on the unexpected pairing on last Sunday's Watch What Happens Live, suggesting the two's bond was simply a mutual hatred of Margaret.
"Everyone's putting out this narrative out there that they think we're being fake friends, we're not," Teresa hits back. "We never had a chance for our friendship to blossom."
"Our husbands get along, our husbands like each other," she notes. "I feel like our friendship is gonna go forward because of that."
Louie's not finding a friend in the Fudas, though. Despite his and Teresa's denial of the claims brought against them at last season's reunion, the Fudas continue to hold the belief that Louie had something to do with John's ex sharing information about him with the public. Some of what she supposedly said came into play on the premiere, with gossip of John enjoying the use of double-sided sex toys and a former career as a drug dealer circulating within the group. After the episode aired, John sent out a press release that read in part, "While I am not proud of every aspect of my history, I have worked tirelessly to overcome challenges and strive for a better future. I refuse to be defined by my past mistakes."
Teresa says John's a hypocrite, seeing as he brings up her history and time in prison this season.
"His actions are pathetic," Teresa spouts, promising Louie's name will be cleared by the season's end. "[John] got played, and it's so obvious."
It would seem this all comes to a head at the finale dinner teased in the season premiere, with a glass-breaking fight exploding between the cast at the Bravo-famous steakhouse, Rails.
"I can't wait for you to see that," Teresa smiles, saying she comes out of the showdown "victorious." After years of feeling under attack, Teresa now laughs at the jabs thrown her and Louie's way.
"I'm so over it," she offers. "August is gonna be two years that Louie and I are married. It's like, I know they're obsessed with me. It's OK. I get it, you know, you're obsessed with the queen."
Teresa says appearances can be deceiving when it comes to the trailer, which seemed to show her marriage in crisis, Margaret claiming Louie "p**sed her money away."
"Louie doesn't even look, doesn't even touch my money," Teresa fires back. "If anything, I spend his money. ... Louie takes care of everything. He's that kind of husband, yes. I guess Margaret just wouldn't know that."
The supertease also featured what looked like a tense, fourth-wall breaking moment for the couple and producers. Teresa claims she doesn't even remember filming the dramatic exchange, but suspects it involved a legal issue that will be spelled out over the course of the season.
"There's no issues between us at all," she says. "I have nothing to lie about."
The other big drama of season 14 seems to surround Jennifer and season 13 newcomer Danielle Cabral. The once-close duo falls out hard this year; the women were both temporarily suspended from filming after a reported physical altercation between them. In one first look clip, Danielle calls Jennifer "dirty" and a "f**king dirtbag."
"She hasn't done anything to me, so I have to see how the season plays out," Teresa says of Danielle, admitting there's now a rift between them, too, due to her falling out with Jennifer. Teresa, however, shuts down the theory that Danielle turned on Jennifer as a result of Melissa and Margaret's suggestion that Teresa and Jennifer set up Danielle in season 13 by sharing an unsubstantiated cheating rumor about Melissa with her.
Danielle confronted Melissa about the rumor in the season 13 finale, which ultimately resulted in Melissa and her husband, Teresa's brother, Joe Gorga, deciding to skip her and Louie's wedding.
The ordeal does appear to put a temporary crack in the foundation of Teresa and Jennifer's friendship. In another sneak peek clip, Jennifer confides in Teresa that she feels as if the RHONJ OG doesn't ride for her the same way Jennifer does for Teresa.
"It was regarding Danielle, yeah," Teresa confirms. "[But] no, [Jennifer] knows I have her back no matter what. Jennifer and I have been friends since she came on the show, and our friendship has gotten stronger and stronger each year. ... I love and adore her."
The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo, with episodes streaming next day on Peacock. For more with Teresa -- including an update on her podcast, her feelings about being labeled a "villain" with season 2 of E!'s House of Villains and the story behind her Taylor Swift moment at Coachella -- check out the video and links below.
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