Credit: Bravo
Caroline Manzo and her daughter, Lauren Manzo, attended an event last Thursday, where they took aim at Teresa Giudice and addressed rumors of turning her and her husband, Joe Giudice, over to the feds for fraud crimes.
As the Real Housewives of New Jersey alum claimed “fame” has gone to Teresa’s head and denied calling the feds on the Giudices, Lauren slammed Teresa as a “monster” and insisted she never implied that Melissa and Joe Gorga were the ones who turned them in.
“I know who did,” Caroline confirmed at Page Six’s “Reali-Tea” Live event on May 18. “PS, I was there.”
“But we’ll never say who it was,” Lauren added.
According to Caroline, she “took the fall” because she’s not a rat and “to protect people that didn’t deserve the collateral damage and the fallout once it comes out.”
“[But] it’s not even about being a rat,” she explained. “There’s this thing called collateral damage. So, when you say something, who’s going to hurt? Who is this going to hurt by saying this truth? You can believe whatever you like about me. I know I never did — I could never do that. But if blaming me makes you feel better, OK, then your reality. It’s not going to change my day.”
That said, Caroline did acknowledge that it was “hurtful” that the “responsibility” was pinned on her.
“I’ve got my baby [Albert Manzo], I’ve got my children, we’re all healthy. I have a healthy marriage … I don’t give a f-ck what you think about me because the fact remains the same,” she added.
After Teresa and Joe were found guilty of fraud in 2015, Teresa served an 11-month sentence, and Joe spent over three years behind bars before being deported.
“How could she predict that? Could she have anything to do with what happened to Joe and I? Is she a rat?” Teresa asked Andy Cohen on a 2019 episode of Watch What Happens Live. “It’s just so sad, I guess, because she’s lived that crooked life. Like, I’ve never lived that crooked life and I guess she has and who she comes from, and where she came from.”
Also regarding Teresa and Joe’s indictment, Lauren said on social media that despite rumors, she never suggested the Gorgas were involved.
“Love the Gorgas,” she wrote in a comment shared by the #NoFilter With Zack podcast on Instagram. “Never once even implied it was them.”
Caroline also spoke of the Gorgas.
“Joe and Melissa [have never been] anything but supportive and kind and fun. I saw them at BravoCon [in October 2022] after seven years … We literally live within two miles of each other,” she said on stage. “We don’t see each other, but when we do, it’s like we saw each other the day before. They have nothing but kind words to say about me, my kids, our family, everything, and our time on Bravo. I have no malice towards her at all.”
Also during the Page Six event, Caroline said Teresa has been impacted by “fame.”
“I miss the days of [season one] Teresa. I do … that’s what makes me so sad because we had belly laughs,” Caroline said. “We were there for each other. We were on this journey.”
“Fame is a very, very dangerous thing, and if you are not completely grounded in who you are, you believe the bullsh-t,” she continued. “The fame got to her head, and I will stand here to this day — to this moment — in the fact that I have always defended her.”
At that point, Lauren added that Teresa is a “monster” who would “step on anybody to get ahead.”
The three-part Real Housewives of New Jersey season 13 reunion begins airing on Tuesday, May 30, at 8/7c on Bravo.
