Doesn't sound like the hatchet's completely buried between the Giudices and the Gorgas. Grim-faced and dressed in conservative business attire, Teresa Giudice and Joe Giudice sat down with Andy Cohen for a special episode of Watch What Happens Live for a serious, cocktail-free chat about facing 50 years in prison on 39 counts of fraud. The Real Housewives of New Jersey stars both claim innocence — but if worse came to worse, and they forced to go behind bars, Teresa's brother and sister-in-law, Joe and Melissa Gorga, will not be the ones taking care of their four young daughters.
"They wouldn't want to go there [to the Gorgas' home]," Joe, 43, said of Gia, 12, Gabriella, 10, Milania, 7, and Audriana, 3. "Because of all the things they say on television about their mom. It wouldn't be Melissa and Joe. It would be my sister and brother." Joe added that Joe and Melissa have "not really" been supportive.
Denying any wrongdoing — the specific charges against them include conspiracy to commit mail, wire, bank and bankruptcy fraud, and for lying on loan applications — the Bergen County natives insisted that they never lived beyond their means. "Whatever I could afford to buy I would buy," Joe insisted. "We work hard, so what, we are allowed to make money. It's part of that's what we do, I'm a business man and I make money."
Fighting back tears throughout the sitdown, Teresa, 41, said it's been a "devastating" ordeal. "I have anxiety and sleepless nights . . . . I'm trying to do the best I can. I can’t fall apart, Andy. I have my daughters. They mean the world to me."
As far as jail time? "I don't even think about that," Teresa said. "Because I haven't done anything.'
Joe, for one, said that their reality TV fame was a contributing factor in the charges being brought against them. "Absolutely," he said. "Because if I wasn't on the show, nobody would care."
