The Feb. 14 episode of The Real Housewives of New Jersey started on a light note with Teresa Giudice kicking her wedding planning into high gear and getting her invitations out the door. But that also instigated an awkward conversation about the wedding’s seating arrangement, which led to a fight between Teresa and Melissa Gorga over the seating arrangement at Teresa’s bridal party — and yes, they already fought about this during the Season 12 reunion. But before we get to that, we have to discuss Teresa and Melissa’s run-in in Los Angeles while attending the 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards.
The Jersey girls have a mozzarella making party on a brand new episode of #RHONJ TONIGHT! 📸: @daniellecabralofficial pic.twitter.com/fweMhy1m3c
— Bravo (@BravoTV) February 14, 2023
Teresa and Melissa were invited to present an award together, so they each flew to LA with their significant others — Luis Ruelas and Joe Gorga — but since Melissa had recently learned Luis called her “insecure“, things were pretty awkward and “weird”, according to her. However, when Teresa was later asked about their time in California together, she told a few of the ladies that she and Melissa had a “great time” together. Clearly, one of them was lying.
Anyway, it was at Danielle Cabral’s mozzarella-making party that Teresa said that, and it was before Melissa arrived at the event. But once everyone was together, things took a turn for the worse. First, Margaret Josephs confronted Jennifer Aydin about talking to her ex-BFF and “digging” for information on her. Then, Dolores Catania got dragged into the fight, and since she and Jennifer already had beef, the fight got even worse and nothing was truly resolved.
#RHONJ Season 13, Episode 2 SNEAK PEEK 2. All new, Tonight 9/8c on @Bravotv. (Source @Bravotv @NBCUniversal) pic.twitter.com/r3Q1duLHnE
— OMFGRealityTV (@OMFGRealityTV) February 14, 2023
So Teresa pulled Jennifer aside and tried calming her down. Jennifer said she couldn’t believe that she’d have to sit near these ladies at Teresa’s wedding, and that got Teresa thinking about her seating arrangement in general. So she stepped back towards the group and asked the ladies how they felt about there not being a seating arrangement at the wedding. She thought it might be fun to let everyone sit where they want to sit, and Margaret said that’d be a good idea since the last time there was a seating arrangement, things went left. She was obviously referencing Teresa’s bridal shower, where Melissa allegedly got bumped to another table while RHONJ alum Dina Manzo and Luis’ family got prime spots next to Teresa.
This was an issue they dealt with during last season’s reunion, but after Teresa — once again — said Melissa chose not to sit near her, all hell broke loose. Melissa said she was assigned her seat and never chose to sit at the second table. Teresa said that wasn’t true, and Melissa was meant to sit near her all along, so Melissa called her a liar. Teresa then swore on her dead parents and living children, insisting she was telling the truth. “Why would I lie?” Teresa asked.
The argument then escalated and they ended up fighting over why Melissa and Joe weren’t asked to be in the wedding party. Teresa said it was because they didn’t stick up for her when Margaret was spreading rumors about Luis, but Melissa said she did try to shut it down. Still, Teresa wouldn’t stop blaming Melissa because for her “family is everything” and she was more hurt by Melissa not stopping the talk than she was with Margaret for starting it. Melissa couldn’t believe what she was hearing so she told Teresa to stop talking about how much she values “family” because it’s not true and never was.
Want more? New episodes of The Real Housewives of New Jersey air Tuesdays at 9pm on Bravo.