The Real Housewives of New Jersey’s Dolores Catania is coming to Teresa Giudice’s defense regarding her comments about her daughter Milania Giudice’s weight.
“I do remember Milania had gone through something and she was gaining weight,” Catania, 52, told the U.S. Sun in an interview published Thursday, July 13. “You know what? Sometimes as an adolescent, you get into an unhealthy lifestyle- you’re eating junk with your friends all the time. … It’s good for a mom to monitor and to be conscious of their child’s weight and to get on them about it before it gets out of hand. Obesity is very unhealthy.”
Milania, 17, revealed on a recent episode of her mom’s “Namaste Bitches” podcast that she lost over 40 pounds after Teresa, 51, and her sisters — Gia, 22, Gabriella, 18, and Audriana, 13 — made “jabs” about her weight. (Teresa shares her four daughters with her ex-husband, Joe Giudice.)
“[Teresa] would never say anything [bad] to me, but she’d be like, ‘Oh, you’re gonna have another ice cream?” Milania recalled. “I’d be like, ‘I don’t care if I’m fat. … If I’m gonna have another ice cream, I’m gonna have another ice cream!’”
Teresa explained that she never wanted to “force” Milania to lose weight or develop “a complex” about her body image. “I thought she looked adorable. She was just a little thicker,” the Bravo personality said.
The podcast episode sparked backlash as some fans voiced their disapproval of Teresa’s parenting via social media. “That’s awful. Taking jabs at someone’s weight is awful … especially from a sister and a mom!!!” one user wrote via Twitter Tuesday, July 11. Another Twitter user commented, “She wasn’t even close to being overweight, so the fact that her own mom said something … Teresa is something, man.”
Milania, however, credited her mom for getting her a nutritionist. “I ate three meals a day — they were literally the healthiest meals, like, I would never eat those meals that I ate,” she said. “I woke up before school and I worked out [for] 30 minutes … and then after school, I would work out again.”
Milania continued: “I weighed so much. My heaviest was like 150, and then when I was done, I was like 110. I was so skinny after that, like, I was literally like a stick … but I felt good. And then I gained it back.”
During the episode, Milania — who described herself as a “pumpkin” — noted that her body “was starting to look a little not right” upon starting middle school. Teresa was sure to praise her daughter by saying she has always been “adorable” in her eyes.
