'RHONJ' : Teresa Is Accused of 'Blaming' Niece Antonia for Feud with Gorgas Who Don't 'Belong' at Her Wedding
After learning about wife Melissa's conversation with his sister, Joe Gorga called Teresa Giudice a "hypocrite" whose goal was to "push us to not go [to her wedding], so we look bad"
Melissa Gorga went full mama bear in Tuesday night's episode of The Real Housewives of New Jersey after Teresa Giudice dragged her daughter's name into a conversation.
The women were still in Ireland on Teresa's pseudo-bachelorette trip when, on the bus ride into town, a discussion about marriage, divorce and family dynamics began.
"I never thought I'd get divorced either," Teresa offered up after Jennifer Fessler and Dolores Catania both shared their experiences with separation and divorce, respectively.
"I don't know if you know the whole story, we were going through legal problems," Teresa, 50, explained to the group. "I go to jail for 11 and a half months — that was devastating for my kids, for Joe, so then come home, three months later Joe goes to jail, five months after that my mother gets sick."
"When my mother passed, I was done with Joe," she said of her ex-husband, Joe Giudice.
In a confessional, Teresa admitted though she had such "resentment" for her ex after her mother died, she didn't stop "fighting" for him until "the end" for the sake of their four daughters — Audriana, 13, Milania, 17, Gabriela, 19, and Gia, 22.
Back on the bus, Teresa echoed a similar sentiment — one that her then-fiancé, Luis "Louie" Ruelas, also shared.
"Louie loves Joe," she said. "He wants to stay close because of the kids."
Following the through line of conversation, Rachel Fuda proceeded to ask Teresa if her kids and Melissa's kids were close.
"Well they were, and then Antonia didn't come to—" Teresa started to say, before Melissa, 44, jumped right in.
"Are you gonna blame Antonia for something right now?" she asked of her 17-year-old daughter.
"I'm not blaming—" Teresa began again before Melissa cut her off.
"Don't even say her name if you're gonna. Don't say her name," Melissa said.
Never one to back down, Teresa forged on.
"Well, Melania was so hurt that Antonia didn't go to her sweet 16," she said of her own daughter. "Melania said, 'Well I celebrated her. I wish she would've celebrated me.'"
Melissa was quick to explain her daughter's absence from the party. "She had a cheer competition she wasn't able to miss because she already missed one, and if you miss two, you're off the cheer team," she noted.
"Your daughter gets done with the competition, she could've made the Sweet 16 for one hour," Teresa pressed.
Melissa was nearly at a loss. "She could've, but she was in Pennsylvania," she said. "The same way when Gabriela has a soccer tournament, she can't make it to [my son] Gino's communion."
Related:RHONJ: Teresa Admits Excluding Melissa's Family from Her Wedding to Louie Was 'Not an Oversight'
"It's always tit for tat!" Teresa argued.
"No, it's not," Melissa reasoned, trying to remain calm. "I have to come back at you with facts."
In a confessional interview, Melissa was dumbfounded that Teresa would dare drag Antonia into the drama. "What do you want to prove that you'll go so low that you'll even say that your niece is doing something wrong now?" she asked.
Back on the bus, Teresa was getting angry.
"Girl! Am I saying Antonia's bad?" she yelled at Melissa.
Amid the escalating situation, Margaret Josephs stepped in, explaining that nobody was helping the Melissa-Teresa family strife with this conversation.
"I'm just not gonna ever," Melissa concluded. "You be that aunt, I'm not gonna be that aunt."
"I think I'm an amazing aunt because I want to keep the kids close," Teresa said.
Melissa then hit back: "Well, it would help if I was in your wedding, and you showed an example of what closeness is."
Related:RHONJ: Melissa Calls It 'Convenient' Teresa's Wedding 'Vision' Didn't Include Her as a Bridesmaid
"If I felt the love, I would've gave it right back to you," Teresa tossed back.
With that, the women arrived at their lunch location in Dublin, and Melissa refused to engage further in conversation about the fight because it involved Antonia.
"This is our life," she later told Jackie Goldschneider during lunch of the nearly "two decades" she and Teresa have been at odds. "Not because of me."
Then, following lunch and a day of shopping, the women returned to the castle they were staying at, and Melissa called Joe to fill him in on the events of the afternoon.
"She's a hypocrite," Joe said of his sister's behavior. "She doesn't know what the hell she's talking about."
"At this point, I just feel so far gone from her, Joe," Melissa admitted. "I swear, for the first time ever, it ran through my body that I'm like, I'm not sure we belong at the wedding."
But Joe didn't seem to have reached that conclusion just yet.
"You know what her goal is?" he asked Melissa. "To push us to not go, so we look bad. You know that, right?"
"I don't know," Melissa said.
"I don't know," Joe echoed. "I have one sister and this is where we're at right now, right? It's sad."
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The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.
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