The 'Real Housewives of New Jersey' star opens up to ET about the disastrous dinner that will surely go down in ‘Housewives’ history.
Margaret Josephs has earned a coveted Housewives merit badge: the wine toss.
The Real Housewives of New Jersey star crosses that reality TV milestone on Wednesday’s all-new episode, when a heated debate with friend-turned-enemy Danielle Staub reaches a breaking point mid-dinner. Literally. Glass is smashed -- just not by Margaret.
“It felt so good,” Margaret admits to ET. “It felt so good. I didn't break glass! But I threw a drink.”
“I didn’t even want to engage with Danielle, but she was pushing, pushing,” Margaret says. “She was telling me what a bad mother I am, 'Your children don't want to be around you.' People don't realize I have more than two children. I have endless children. [My husband, Joe Benigno] has two kids that I'm stepmother to, that I'm very close with. I have a natural born child that I don't speak about, which Danielle knows about. I have another stepson that's been on the show with me this year. So, there's, like, six in total.”
“She knows that I'm around my kids,” she continues. “So, to make up lies and make it out like I'm a horrible mother … I was like, 'You know what? You need to cool off. You're just being an a**. You're saying something purposely to hurt me. I'm gonna have to put you in your place.'"
“It was such an artful way, ‘cause, you know, I don't drink alcohol, so I had to take Dolores [Catania's] drink,” Margaret recalls of the moment. “I had to take her red wine and it just went across the table so effortlessly and Teresa [Giudice] was wearing white and I didn't even get it on her, it only got on Danielle. It was just so artfully done. I was so proud of myself at the end of it.”
Margaret says after the wine toss, RHONJ turns into a “scene out of The Godfather.”
“[Danielle] tried to break a glass on my head!” Margaret claims. “I just, like, leave. I go up this big marble staircase with my flowing dress. [Danielle’s] like a lobster in a pot, arms flailing. Security comes, the glasses start breaking, screaming. It was insane.”
According to Margaret, her wine toss is just the start of the dinner debacle, as Danielle’s smashed glass, apparently, creates a disastrous domino effect.
“‘Cause, you know, a glass breaks, Melissa’s like, 'Who broke the glass? Who broke the glass?'” Margaret shares. “She's like, 'Jennifer [Aydin], did you throw a glass and almost cut me?' And Jennifer cracks a glass and says to Melissa, 'You know, if I broke a glass… you know, if I was gonna cut you...' Like what is that about? That was, like, a threat...Melissa's like, 'Oh no! You didn't do that to me!'”
Judging from the season’s many teasers, this pushes Melissa to unleash, screaming out “You got the wrong f**king girl,” seemingly at Jennifer, before rushing off and telling the group, “Now I’m going the f**k home.”
“We left that trip, we weren't talking, we were on different flights,” Margaret reveals, referencing the entire group. “We didn't want to speak to each other. Everybody was like, 'I'm outta here.'”
Margaret describes the rest of the season as “explosive,” saying fans should buckle up for the final few episodes, which will see Margaret push Danielle’s soon-to-be ex-husband, Marty Caffrey, in a pool.
“He needed to cool off, like his wife did earlier [with the wine],” Margaret teases. “It just gets very heated with [my husband] Joe, with Marty, Joe Gorga is trying to get us to make amends.”
“And I do want to defend Marty to the point that he was never a bad guy,” she adds. “But I think certain people get in your head. Marty, his behavior really went downhill the longer he stayed with Danielle. But we know that’s gone at this point.”
Speaking of Marty, Margaret took a second to shut down a rumor floating around, that she and Joe took in the former MLB player when he and Danielle split.
“I can totally clear that up: it is not true, not even close to true,” she declares. “He was not at my house, he was not staying at my house, he has not showed up at my house. Joe and Marty are friends, they always got along. Has Marty called Joe? Absolutely. Has he been at my house once? No, not at all. He's actually still living with Danielle.”
The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.
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