Caroline Manzo may have gotten her niece, Danielle Cabral, cast on The Real Housewives of New Jersey, but she didn’t get a thank you. In fact, what she got was unfollowed on Instagram.
While appearing on Jeff Lewis‘ SiriusXM radio show on Thursday, Caroline, 61, opened up about her relationship with Danielle, 37, who was added to the Bravo reality series in 2022 for season 13, detailing their last interaction, and explaining why Danielle may not have been forthcoming with their connection.
“Danielle Cabral is kind of like a half-a** relation,” Caroline revealed on the August 10 episode of Jeff Lewis Live. “She is my brother’s daughter. Okay? My niece. My brother and his wife divorced many years ago and his wife remarried. Got it? The gentleman she remarried had two kids, one of those being Danielle Cabral.”
Although Caroline has known Danielle for “about 20 plus years,” she confirmed they are not close.
“It’s like, ‘Hey, hey, nice to see you. Merry Christmas. Oh, Happy Easter.’ You know, one of those things. I only see her at family events and stuff,” she explained. “I see her at a christening or a graduation party. Nothing else beyond that.”
But that said, Caroline did refer Danielle for RHONJ.
“I’m one of the reasons Danielle’s on that show… [Andy Cohen] had a conversation with me about her when they were considering her. [But] I don’t think she realized that until Andy said it,” Caroline shared.
And while Danielle did reach out to Caroline for advice when she was first considered for the show, calling both Caroline and her daughter, Lauren Manzo, she ultimately chose to unfollow the family.
“She called both myself and my daughter Lauren and, you know, ‘What do you expect?’ and I was brutally honest with her. So was Lauren and then, you know, I guess she got the gig, whatever, and then strangely, she unfollowed all of us including my niece and everything and never thanked anybody,” Caroline revealed, adding that Danielle behavior was a “little strange.”
When Jeff, 53, then suggested that Danielle cut ties and kept quiet about her relation to Caroline because she was afraid of how her co-stars would react (Teresa Giudice, 51, has been feuding with Caroline for years), and suggested she was trying to avoid preconceived notions, Caroline confessed she wasn’t sure.
“Maybe she doesn’t like the, you know, the reference with her name and my name attached, and maybe she wants to forge her own way. I have no idea. We don’t have that relationship that I could even figure it out,” she noted. “It could be, I don’t know, and again, I’m not throwing shade or anything. I’m just telling you facts. You know, facts are facts, so, I don’t know what her thought process is and like I said, I’m a pretty big reason why she’s on the show and Andy said it, you know, to her in front of all the other ladies.”
While they no longer have a relationship, Caroline said she’s “glad” Danielle landed a role on the show.
“She always wanted to, you know, be in the public eye and stuff like that, so I’m glad she finally has the opportunity to do that and, you know, carry on,” she stated.
The Real Housewives of New Jersey season 14 is currently in production and expected to begin airing on Bravo sometime in early 2024.