Credit: Charles Sykes/Bravo
Danielle Cabral revealed if she has any regrets about sharing the Melissa Gorga cheating rumor on the Real Housewives of New Jersey finale during an interview last week.
In addition to clapping back at claims of doing Teresa Giudice‘s dirty work and sharing her thoughts on whether or not her estranged brother with join the show, Danielle admitted the reunion was “a doozy” as she offered updates on where she stands with Margaret Josephs and Rachel Fuda.
“Let me tell ya, it’s a doozy,” Danielle admitted of the reunion on the May 24 episode of Access Hollywood‘s Housewives Nightcap. “My glam started at 4 am and we left the set at 9 at night. It was a long day.”
According to Danielle, filming her debut season was such a whirlwind that she didn’t have a real chance to get things off her chest until the reunion.
“I had a year-long wait,” she stated. “I didn’t get to say the things I wanted to Margaret or Rachel. Those things affected me. They really hurt my feelings, and at the reunion was my chance where I can say it in a.. It was a setting that was organized in a way, wasn’t gonna be chaotic. I mean, I thought so.”
Looking back, Danielle said it felt good to share her thoughts.
“I felt that was my moment to tell them how they made me feel. I let them know how I feel, we talked it out… I feel good about it. Who wants to carry that?” she wondered.
Although fans will have to continue to watch the reunion to find out exactly where Danielle stands with Margaret and Rachel, she confirmed she’s moving “in the right direction” with both women.
As for the dynamic between Teresa and Melissa, the same can’t be said — at least not at this point in time.
“Maybe if this show disappears and they do their own thing, maybe they’ll find a way back to each other,” Danielle noted. “I just know from my friend, hearing her speak, she’s done, rightfully so. She’s come to a point in her life where she wants to enjoy her marriage [to husband Luis Ruelas], her children, [and] her new blended family.”
“I can’t even tell you what it’s like to be on the show and deal with the friendship stuff but then to have your real family involved, it’s not easy. And mine wasn’t even on the show, and I went through hell. So to have that is not healthy,” she continued.
As RHONJ fans well know, Danielle revealed that she and her brother are no longer speaking at the start of the season. And, months later, their relationship remains broken.
After confirming she and brother Thomas DiPetro are still not in touch, Danielle said that if things were reversed, she would handle their feud much differently.
“If it was the other way around and I saw my brother like that, it would drive me mad. It would drive me insane, actually, that this is going on, knowing what his emotion is,” she noted. “The last I heard he was very upset, he was very angry, and he was very mad. Anger is a totally different emotion than where I’m at right now. So I think it’s best if we just kind of go our separate ways. [I] can’t think about it too much. I have a niece I don’t know. That hurts to think about.”
Then, after insisting she “did not dig at his wife or dig at him,” even though it was portrayed in such a way, Danielle revealed if she thinks Thomas would ever join RHONJ.
“I don’t. And the only reason why is because his wife wants nothing to do with it,” she explained. “I know my brother is very much like me, we’re very animated. He’s the life of the party. If he walked into a room, you’re just, you fall in love with him. But she wants no part of it and this is where it all stemmed from why we stopped talking, because of my Instagram, she really didn’t want to be involved in it before I was a housewife so this is just not her thing and I think he’s respecting her and they don’t need it.”
“They don’t really want it so I don’t think so. I would be shocked,” Danielle added.
Danielle was then asked if she believes the rest of the RHONJ cast will return for season 14.
“I don’t think so,” she replied. “Because nobody wants to see the same show we filmed, and that’s what would happen. We’d fall right back into that… I think there’s massive changes that have to happen. I know a lot of us can get into the room right now and go but I can’t go back into that same environment. It sucks the life out the room.”
On the finale, as she went to Melissa with the cheating rumor she and the cast had been discussing in previous weeks, Danielle was accused of doing Teresa’s dirty work. But, according to Danielle, there’s no truth to the claims.
“It makes me crazy to read that cuz I am my own person,” she stated. “I found out about this in Ireland I was like, ‘I’m not gonna do it. There’s no way. It’s my friend.’ And then the more I thought about it, I’m like, ‘Wait a second. It came out on camera. We talked about it in Ireland so let me give her a chance to say [it’s] not true.’ I make my decisions. [Jennifer Aydin] and Teresa, I love them but they don’t put any influence on me to do anything I don’t wanna do.”
And because of that, she has no regrets.
“I’ve questioned it but I don’t regret it because I genuinely did not know it was gonna go down the way that it did,” Danielle explained. “In all honesty, no matter what people wanna say, I really wanted to tell my friend because I’m friends with Melissa and Teresa was not involved in it.”
Prior to filming the finale episode, Danielle ran through the scene with her husband, Nate Cabral, “like 10 times.”
“Every worst-case scenario was never the scenario that happened. I would never think that to happen, where Teresa would get involved, at all, so I don’t regret it,” she shared. “I think I might have done everybody a favor in a way. I didn’t think they really wanted to go [to the wedding] and it turned out to be a beautiful wedding with no [anger] or anxiety. It was a beautiful day for them so I might’ve helped them all.”
As for where she stands with Melissa, Danielle said she touched base with her castmate after filming the dramatic finale.
“The day after we filmed the finale, I called Melissa because I just had to tell her, like, ‘I did not know that was gonna happen,’” she revealed.
The three-part Real Housewives of New Jersey season 13 reunion continues on, June, 6 at 8/7c on Bravo.