Melissa Gorga offered an update on the casting of the upcoming 15th season of The Real Housewives of New Jersey during a podcast appearance on Wednesday, revealing if she’ll really quit the show if Teresa Giudice returns, as she previously suggested.
As she also spoke of the cast’s leaks to bloggers, Caroline Manzo, 63, and her Real Housewives: Ultimate Girls Trip drama with Brandi Glanville, 51, the 45-year-old mother-of-three shared her thoughts on Kathy Wakile, 58, potentially returning to the show, and more.
“Whenever you see, like, these little comments, or it’s gonna be these three or these two — nothing is true. They are casting right now is what I believe,” Melissa revealed on the September 11 episode of No Filter with Zack Peter. “I’m hearing little tidbits of this one interviewed and that one interviewed, and who did whose make up for this and that. So, I think they’re very much still figuring it all out.”
Although Melissa previously suggested that she wouldn’t return to the show if Teresa is brought back due to the toxicity that she comes with, she clarified to Zack that she simply doesn’t want to rejoin a “toxic” show and what it was last season.
“It was getting really dark and something that I wasn’t proud to even be on. I feel like that part of the show I grew out of, almost. I feel like what I was trying to say was that I want to be on The Real Housewives of New Jersey, but I want it to be a Housewives show,” she explained. “That was a very toxic, dirty, like, way more work than it’s worth, like, outside of the show with how our castmates were talking to bloggers and giving them screeners so that they had like one up — I mean, if you think about this, it’s pretty crazy and genius. I mean, giving them the opportunity to watch the episode so that their tweets were ready so they were the first ones out there with the highest engagement of tweets, okay? That is pretty — that is some, like, mastermind, like, someone sitting back there really trying to win.”
Although Melissa gave credit to the leakers, who reportedly included Teresa and Jennifer Aydin, 47, she noted that their behavior was “unfair” to the rest of the cast.
“We don’t get paid for all that extra work. And so yeah, for that, I don’t want to be a part of that. I feel like there’s lots going on out there and there’s other things to do. But do I love being on the Housewives franchise? Do I love working with Bravo? Absolutely! You know, we just have to see what that turns into,” she shared.
Moving on to her relationship with Caroline, Melissa confirmed the two of them spoke before she was allegedly sexually assaulted by Brandi amid production on RHUGT season four.
“I actually did speak to her right before all of that drama went down; before she went and filmed the Girls Trip. I had a whole conversation with her,” she revealed. “We were talking about her grandchild and just, like, catching up. And you know, she had said the whole thing about Brandi [Glanville] and how, you know, she was nervous to meet everybody. And I thought I gave great advice to Brandi and to Caroline! And then when I heard the news, just like everyone else, I was like, I couldn’t believe it.”
Melissa hasn’t spoken to Caroline since her encounter with Brandi, and she admitted to being “surprised” by the claims against the former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cast member — and by Caroline’s decision to participate in the Peacock series to begin with.
“I was like in shock that, at first that she even wanted to do [RHUGT], but I think she had went to BravoCon that year, and she felt very embraced by everyone and she felt like, you know, she felt warm and fuzzy at BravoCon, I know that. And so then she thought, ‘Okay, maybe I’ll do this.’ And it’s unfortunate what went down,” Melissa continued.
Addressing a recent rumor that suggested she and Teresa were planning to mend their feud to save the show, Melissa confirmed it was “completely untrue.”
“I would love to know, like, who started that or how that came out, but that is completely untrue and fabricated,” she stated.
As for Kathy returning, Melissa admitted to thinking it could “be interesting,”
“You know this show loves family drama, so bring it on,” she declared.
Also on the podcast, Melissa shared her thoughts on the alternative reunion, which saw her and her castmates at a watch party for the finale, rather than a traditional reunion.
“It didn’t give us much… I don’t think it was the best episode that came out of it,” she shared.