Jacqueline Laurita opened up about the inner workings of production on The Real Housewives of New Jersey while appearing on a podcast last week.
As she admitted the show has gotten “toxic,” shared who she believes should return for season 15, and explained why she believes Teresa Giudice, 52, and Kathy Wakile, 58, haven’t yet reconciled, Jacqueline, 54, looked back on Melissa Gorga‘s text leak, revealed her biggest regret, and answered a question about how involved Andy Cohen, 56, is with filming.
“He’s not involved at all,” Jacqueline shared on the September 10 episode of the AllAboutTRH podcast.
That said, Jacqueline noted that people can reach out to production, and vice versa.
“He’ll get involved when the producers can’t handle you. Or if someone’s really having an issue, they can reach out to him … I remember I got a call one time because I wasn’t doing what they wanted me to do and I think it was when Nick was regressing and they wanted Nick to do a playdate with Audriana,” she recalled of an incident with her son, who has since been diagnosed with autism. “He was doing funny things on camera that I was trying to hide and I didn’t feel comfortable … I yelled at everyone. I had all the executives on the phone, Andy, I was telling them to go f*ck themselves. I was so mad.”
Although Jacqueline hasn’t been seen on the series since its seventh season, she was a hot topic at the season 13 reunion, when Melissa, 45, leaked a text she sent to Jackie Goldschneider, 47. As fans will recall, Jacqueline had spoken negatively about Teresa in the message, calling her a “low life trash bucket.” However, looking back at the incident, Jacqueline said she thought it was “funny” since it didn’t actually impact her friendship with Teresa.
“I thought the text was funny because I thought it was irrelevant because those texts were written two years prior to Teresa and I making up, when we hated each other, so I didn’t get the importance of it,” she explained. “At the time, I was always saying things publicly, privately, on Instagram, on my podcast, I was saying stuff like that because we didn’t like each other.”
“Melissa lied and said they were more recent but there was a timestamp on them from two years prior to my making up with Teresa,” Jacqueline continued. “I’m like, ‘What’s your point? Why are you bringing up a text when we didn’t like each other? You have texts like that to me too.’”
After confirming that Teresa “didn’t care” about the text message, Jacqueline shared what happened when she confronted Melissa about it.
“I’m like, ‘Why would you do that? I’m just wondering why you would do that. Luckily it didn’t cause a problem with Teresa and I but I just don’t understand what was your purpose in doing that,’” she revealed. “And then she tried to act like in writing, I don’t know if she was sitting or whatever, she was like, ‘You’re the one that unsolicitedly texted me.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh really? Did you forget you were texting and calling me?’ I think she didn’t realize I’m the type of person to save my text messages so I started sending her text messages where she was talking about Teresa, [Dolores Catania], and whatever, and her saying she was calling me and all this stuff. And her response was like, ‘Leave me alone.’ [So] I just left her alone cuz I don’t care. Whatever she was trying to do didn’t work.”
Also, looking back at her time on the show, Jacqueline said her biggest regret was “trusting the wrong people” and “taking things so personally.”
“I should’ve kept it like some of the other girls do on the show: They come on, and they entertain, and then they don’t bring it home. I think I took everything very personally … So I would seriously get hurt by things that would happen and things people would say and do. I took everything to heart when I should’ve treated it like a business,” she reasoned.
While Jacqueline said RHONJ was “toxic” when she was on it years ago, she also said she felt like it’s “gotten worse” in the years since.
“And now there’s the definite teams,” she noted. “We didn’t even get to see who Rachel Fuda was because she spent the whole season being angry at Teresa and refused to film with her.
According to Jacqueline, she believes Melissa and those close to her were trying to “ice” Teresa out amid season 14.
“I think what their plan was, ‘Let’s all stick together and ice Teresa out and show them how great we are over here as a team so you’ll get rid of Teresa.’ They were doing that but it might backfire on them,” she warned. “I think if they were to remove Teresa from the show, they really couldn’t keep anyone from the cast either. I think they would have to rehire an entirely new cast.”
As producers reportedly put the series on hold until 2025, Jacqueline hopes Bravo realizes that Teresa deserves the title of longest-standing RHONJ housewife
“I think she’s earned it. Nobody else deserves that thought, especially not Melissa, with her stale storylines,” Jacqueline stated. “I don’t think she deserves that title over Teresa. The show is centered around Teresa since the beginning, she’s always been the face of the show. She’s the network’s moneymaker. There will never be anyone else like Teresa. She’s one of a kind. She’s always active in her life, so she always brings new, authentic storylines to every season. She’s unpredictable, she’s reactive, and she shows many aspects of her personality and her struggles.”
After praising Teresa for all that she’s given to the show over the years, Jacqueline said she’d like to see some new faces on season 15.
“I would probably be looking to cast new younger faces with young families, maybe someone with a big following who already has experienced some fame or notoriety,” she shared. “I would obviously keep Teresa and maybe I would keep a couple of the new familiar faces on the show like [Danielle Cabral] and Rachel because I think they have more story to tell that we haven’t seen yet and they can be funny. I think Dolores is a good narrator and gives us good insight into the inner workings of the group and she has this ability to remain neutral so I think she’s good for the show at least in some capacity, where maybe her storyline isn’t as strong but the way she can navigate the group and tell how the group thinks I think keeps her strong. And she’s very likable … and then maybe a sidebar where Kathy and [Rosie Pierri] come in to reconnect with Teresa. That might be fun to see.”
Of Teresa’s potential reconciliation with Kathy, Jacqueline said it was something she’d like to see before explaining Teresa’s hesitancy.
“I think it’s really hard for Teresa to get over her coming on the show and I think she gets offended by the way — [Richie Wakile]’s sense of humor, he likes to poke and take jabs, and I think she gets offended by it,” she noted. “She said she would say ‘hello’ to her so maybe that’s the first step.”
“Kathy to me is way more sincere and she honestly didn’t go on the show to go after Teresa. I didn’t get that vibe from her. I think she reacted out of frustration to some of the things that would go on between them,” she continued.
As for Melissa’s role in Teresa’s falling out with Kathy, Jacqueline said Melissa was “absolutely” in Kathy’s ear.
“And then she just flipped on her and totally ignored her. Just like she did with me when I left,” Jacqueline shared. “Melissa didn’t even call me. She didn’t keep in touch with me at all until she heard I was coming back on the show.”
