A tough talk. Melissa Gorga and Joe Gorga’s 15-year-old daughter, Antonia, approached them after hearing about their marriage issues playing out on The Real Housewives of New Jersey.
“She would be like, ‘Why are [magazines and social media users] saying you’re getting a divorce? Why are they saying you’re fighting? What is this?’” the reality star, 42, exclusively told Us Weekly on Monday, July 12, while promoting her Bikini Zone partnership. “I had to explain to her, ‘Antonia, we’re on reality TV. … It’s the littlest thing, and they make it a big thing. So everything is not what it seems.’”
The Love Italian Style author reminded the teenager that she and Joe, 41, had “chosen” to share their lives with Bravo viewers.
“She understood … but I think it was startling,” the businesswoman told Us, noting that Antonia saw more online than her siblings, Gino, 13, and Joey, 11, did. “She was like, ‘Wait, is everything OK?’ And that broke my heart.”
During the show’s May finale, Melissa said in a confessional that she didn’t want to “die unhappy” while married to Joe.
The designer explained at the time: “I wanna feel fulfilled. Not just as a mom. And I’ve never seen Joe fight so hard against something that I want. So I am feeling really scared about our relationship because I’ve never felt this exhaustion and feeling of giving up.”
The couple got married in 2004, and they have “been there” for Joe’s sister Teresa Giudice’s four daughters since the Celebrity Apprentice alum’s own divorce from Joe Giudice.
“We have always lived in the same town,” Melissa told Us on Monday of maintaining a strong relationship with her nieces — Gia, 20, Gabrielle, 16, Milania, 15, and Audriana, 11. “It’s just the way it goes. We’ll always be [around].”
She noted that Antonia and Milania “get along the best,” adding, “They just love each other the most. It’s so cute because my boys are the only little boys around, so [the girls] love them so much.”
With the little ones officially out of school, the “On Display” singer is focusing on summer, maintaining her bikini line with Bikini Zone’s help.
“The little red bumps were always, always a thing for me,” Melissa explained to Us. “They really were always around my bikini line, and they were so irritable. It was a really huge problem for me, and it is for my daughter as well. … This really truly was the only product that [has] worked for me.”
With reporting by Mandie DeCamp
