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Caroline Manzo addressed Teresa Giudice’s issues with sister-in-law Melissa Gorga, if she’d ever return to Real Housewives of New Jersey, her regrets on the show, and if she blames RHONJ for her falling out with sister Dina.
The mother-of-three also claimed she hasn’t spoken to step-niece Danielle Cabral since her friendship with Teresa, and she revealed how she feels about Teresa’s reconciliation with Jacqueline Laurita.
Speaking on the Behind The Velvet Rope podcast, Caroline suggested RHONJ has “changed a lot” since social media’s influence on the entertainment industry, and she says she “stopped watching” the show after her exit. “But, you know, everybody loves to keep you informed,” she added.
Addressing Teresa and Melissa’s family problems, Caroline stated, “Sometimes you have to know when to just walk away and call it a day. Some things cannot be fixed, right? So you can try and try and try and if they don’t wanna be fixed, they’re not going to be fixed. So walk away, maybe come back to the table when you’re a little older and a little more mature, who knows? But sometimes you just need to walk away to save the situation.”
Caroline was then asked where she stands with Melissa and Joe Gorga. “When I see them, it’s like I’ve never lost an hour of time with them. We just go right back to where we were. We don’t hang in the same circles. Again, I’m a lot older,” she said. “We’re at different points in our world, but whenever I’m with him, I have a good time. I have no problems with any of them.”
She also addressed speculation that Melissa is sucking up to Caroline on social media to get in her good graces now that she’s feuding with Teresa.
“Nobody’s gotta stay in my good graces,” said Caroline. “It’s insanity to think that. And nobody’s gotta kiss up to me either, because I’ll see right through it. All right? So I do what I wanna do, when I wanna do it, how I wanna do it when it comes to this life with television and everything else. So there’s going to be no tipping point from anybody to make me decide whether I’m gonna stay or go whose friend I’m gonna be or not … We saw them at BravoCon, we had a great time, we had a lot of laughs. There’s no underlying anything.”
When asked about the rumor that Melissa won’t return for another season, Caroline expressed, “You are not gonna know what’s happening till the last … You don’t know what’s gonna happen till this show airs and how it’s received and what the people at Bravo are thinking when they sit around their table and discuss things. There’s so many moving parts to this. So I think anyone would be foolish to make a judgment call at this point in the game … It’s a fool’s game to suggest that at this point.”
Caroline also claimed she hasn’t spoken to step-niece Danielle since she became friends with Teresa.
“Interestingly enough, the last time I heard from her was when she was cast and of course I had spoken to Andy prior [to recommend her],” said the star. “And she was cast and then they, I think they introduced her to Teresa and she hit it off of Teresa. That’s the last time I heard from her.”
She expressed that Danielle’s “got a lot of Teresa in her.”
Regarding where she stands with Teresa, Caroline stated, “I don’t think either of us even think about each other. Again, it’s so far in my rearview mirror. I could sit in a room with her and have no problem. It’s not that I’m gonna be knocking on anybody’s door to do so, but I could do it … You gotta shake off the little things and just say, okay, I’m gonna leave you back there. So she is back there and I would assume that I am in the same place in her world.”
When the host claimed Teresa was bringing up Caroline’s name, the alum responded, “The same nonsense. It’s just like stop already, stop already. Stop with the allegations. None of it’s true. Just stop with the nonsense. It’s been a long time since I’ve been on there. I’m not going back.”
She again insisted she would not return to RHONJ — even if she had the same salary as Teresa.
“No. No. That ship has sailed,” she said, but she expressed she has had “many opportunities” to film in the “past season.”
Though Caroline would also say “no” to filming Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip again, she indicated she’d be open to a “conversation” about Manzo’d With Children.
How does Caroline feel about Teresa’s reconciliation with Caroline’s sister-in-law Jacqueline? “I think it’s wonderful,” she answered. “I really, really do. I was very happy to see it. I think that the show took the friendship and quite frankly ruined it. They were the best of friends, the truest of friends. And like I said, the show sometimes gets in the way of real relationships and I count that as one of them. The shots thrown across the years were born from a place of hurt. And I’m glad they’re talking together and I hope it remains that way and I’m happy for them. Truly … I think that [Jacqueline] will be fine … as long as Jacqueline’s not on the show.”
If stuck on a deserted island, Caroline would choose to live with Danielle Staub over Teresa, because Danielle is “a survivor. You can’t take it away from her.”
She also addressed her regrets on the show. “I regret a lot of things. I regret a lot of fashion choices. I regret a lot of makeup choices,” she said. “As far as behavior. Sure. There were times that I was short with people because I was aggravated, stuff like that. I don’t take anything back. If I ever said anything, I meant it. So sure, over five years on that, there’s plenty of moments that you kind of wanna take back.”
Does Caroline blame RHONJ for her falling out with sister Dina?
“You can’t blame it completely on RHONJ,” she explained. “There had to have been underlying issues before the show with any, with any problems that people are having. So I think it just gets piled onto and becomes a breaking point to some. You know, that’s all I could say about it.”
Caroline shared, however, that she wasn’t relieved to hear rumors of Dina and Teresa’s falling out.
“No. No,” she said. “You know, I don’t own people and I don’t direct them who to hang out with. So no.” When asked if she sees herself reconciling with Dina in the foreseeable future, Caroline answered, “Probably not.”
The Real Housewives of New Jersey season 13 airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on Bravo.