The 'Real Housewives of New Jersey' star breaks down the show's changing dynamics after going no contact with Teresa Giudice.
"It's hard not to burn bridges when you're on fire."
Melissa Gorga's tagline for the new season of The Real Housewives of New Jersey pretty much says it all when it comes to her relationship, or lack thereof, with sister-in-law Teresa Giudice. The two cut ties for good after taping the season 13 reunion, going no contact while filming season 14. Viewers will see the two attend the same events, but according to Melissa, they didn't interact once -- and Melissa doesn't see that ever changing.
"Unfortunately," she remarks to ET over video chat. "I finally accepted that. I fought for so many years for other people. I, honestly -- more than even myself -- I fought for the family and for my husband and my kids, and I realized that it's not worth fighting for, and I'm actually not doing them any favors."
For those who need a refresher, season 13 ended with newbie Housewife Danielle Cabral questioning Melissa about an alleged affair, gossip of which was circulating amongst the women; Danielle learned of the rumor -- which Melissa has repeatedly denied -- from Jennifer Aydin, Teresa's closest ally on the cast. Jennifer and Teresa's alleged intel came from a former friend of castmate Margaret Josephs, whom Margaret described as vindictive after they fell out when the woman failed to get cast on RHONJ, despite auditioning multiple times.
Putting the pieces together, Melissa and Margaret surmised Teresa and Jennifer set up Danielle to take down Melissa. The women denied doing that, but Melissa's mind was made up and she and her husband, Teresa's brother Joe Gorga, opted out of attending Teresa's wedding to her now-husband, Louie Ruelas. That decision sealed the deal for this years-long family feud and, Melissa says, season 14 "puts a cork in" whatever hope remained for reconciliation.
"I think the finale is so dirty and just not good," she teases. "It's just a big no-no what happened."
Fans will have to wait a few months to see what exactly unfolds during the finale, but there's plenty to unpack in Sunday's premiere alone. Picking up not long after reunion, tensions remain high for the women and Teresa is throwing around theories of her own. In a sneak peek released by Bravo, Teresa claims Dolores Catania's ex-husband, Frank Catania, confessed that Margaret organized a pre-reunion game planning session to "go after" Louie. Much of the reunion focused on Louie's alleged wrongdoings, with allegations of hiring private investigators to dig up dirt on the cast and harassing phone calls thrown around; Louie denied everything.
Melissa confirms there was a pre-reunion gathering, but writes it off as "no big deal."
"It's totally normal," she explains. "We had investigators investigating us! Of course, we're gonna sit around and be like, 'What are we doing with this guy?'"
"It's actually extremely normal for Housewives ... to get together with a couple of girls that you're close to, just on a Friday night, and be like, 'So what about this reunion?'" she continues. "It wasn't such, like, a planned event. Like, it's just so crazy, you know, for her to make it sound that way. It's just another one of those not-so-true things that she just spits out into the world to try to make it look like something it's not."
Melissa alleges Teresa is actually the one to organize similar sessions and plot.
"[She's] asked me to join!" Melissa claims. "They've literally called me to ask me to turn on Margaret at a reunion to keep the show about family. They are the biggest mechanical thing going on behind the scenes, and I was never a part of it. I said, 'Absolutely not.'"
All this aside, Melissa says the focus is finally off the family drama for the first time in RHONJ's history in season 14. With everyone operating under the knowledge that Teresa and Melissa won't be reconciling, she says space opened up for new relationships to form. She got closer to Dolores, whom she's known since her early 20s -- years before becoming a Housewife -- and strengthened her bonds with Margaret and Rachel Fuda.
"Being on these shows, you need to trust your friends," she declares. "It's huge that I trust them."
She tried to trust Teresa's so-called "solider," Jennifer, too, but Melissa says recent online drama has her taking a step back from that would-be friendship. At least one fan account has come forward to claim Jennifer 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, which have since recirculated on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and TiKTok. Jennifer's yet to publicly address any of this.
"I'm embarrassed for some people right now, what's going on with social media," Melissa offers. "It's getting pretty embarrassing out there. They're getting called out a lot, on a lot of stuff. They tried to hurt us, and ... they were really down and dirty behind the scenes."
"So, throughout this season, I think her and I did make steps forward," she adds. "We truly did, and I was really trying to just move forward and separate her relationship with Teresa, and just have a relationship between her and I. But now, I'm reading all these things on social that are coming out, and I'm like, wow. Like, oh my God! Like, let me just protect myself here and just stand back, because no one in their right mind would be like, 'Oh, that's cool that you wrote that and told them to do that. That's cool.' Like, come on."
There's speculation out there that Melissa's done similar things, but Melissa says that's not her MO.
"I just feel like it's never a good thing to go down the path," she says. "I do want to give a message to the fans to keep it light, right? To just enjoy. I feel like, praise the ones you love, but let's not bash the ones you hate. I have always kept that mentality with any fan account that has embraced me or embraced my family."
The online hate Melissa receives typically falls into one of two buckets: one, calling her out for having "no storyline," which she's previously hit back at, or two, attacking her husband, Joe, and his business dealings and behavior.
"Listen, we're far from perfect," Melissa admits. "We have plenty of things, we have temper tantrums, we do all the things, right? But I feel like we're a happy couple. We're the longest standing Housewives couple on Bravo, Joe and I. So, they wanna tear you down, unfortunately ... and I feel like the way that they can kind of compensate for, like, 'these two suck,' they try to dig into things that have zero to do with the show, or that they don't even understand. Like, they're talking about financial things that they don't even understand."
"So, it's just it got to the point now, thank God, that we laugh at it," she adds.
Melissa's not laughing at the current state of her relationship with longtime friend Jackie Goldschneider, though. Fans will watch the two drift apart over the course of season 14 as Jackie explores a friendship with Teresa, a move that has Margaret calling Jackie RHONJ's version of Judas.
"Listen, Margaret, she does her little play on words; she can be a little harsh at times," Melissa muses of the nickname. "I think it's Jackie's choice, but I do think it's weak. I think it's weak. I think it's doesn't make a lot of sense."
"If you watch like the beginning of the season to the end of the season, it's just random," she says, hinting that Jackie only switched "teams" in order to secure more screen time now that she's a "friend of" rather than a full-time Housewife. Jackie's previously scoffed at that suggestion.
"I just always thought so much of her," Melissa shares. "I really liked her, and I really, like, kinda grabbed her when she came in, agreed with the things she said. She always had my back, because she agreed with me -- not to be any type of soldier, because she truly agreed with everything that I said and did -- and so, her and I had a great relationship. And this is just so out of character for her, and just feels a little forced."
The season 14 trailer also teases friendship swaps for Jackie's podcasting partner, Jenn Fessler, with scenes of her bonding with bestie Margaret's mortal enemies Teresa and Jennifer. Melissa says, looks can be deceiving.
"Fessler is very tight with Margaret," she clarifies. "Very, very tight with Margaret. I think that she was hearing the other side out, and she doesn't have any hate for them, and she talks to them, but I think her and Margaret are the best of friends."
No longer the best of friends would be Danielle and Jennifer; while Danielle never seemed to buy into the idea that Jennifer and Teresa set her up last season, something goes down between the once close trio this year. A physical altercation between Danielle and Jennifer earned both women a temporary suspension from filming.
"I mean, that's Danielle's story to tell, but I do think that she saw a lot of down, dirty -- as she would call it -- dirrrrrty," Melissa imitates Danielle, "and she hits the nail on the head with that, and I think it was very uncomfortable for her. She started to feel the ick with things they would say to her, and do and demand, and ... she was like, 'These people are so dirty.' Like, 'I literally can't do it.'"
With a cast potentially even more divided by season's end, where RHONJ goes after season 14 remains a question mark. Housewives executive producer Andy Cohen previously told ET the way Bravo shot this season of New Jersey was "probably not" sustainable, a sentiment to which Melissa agrees.
"Whatever Bravo decides to do is fine with me," she replies when asked what might happen in season 15. "I don't make demands. I come to work. I have a very strong relationship with the show ... so, I feel like whoever they decide to cast -- or not cast -- I'm fine, in my own lane with my own family and my own kids, and I'll deal with it when I have to deal with it."
"I'm confident enough to say, whoever you have in the room, I'm good with that," she says. "Why should I stress over things I can't control?"
The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT starting May 5 on Bravo. Episodes stream next day on Peacock.
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