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‘Real Housewives of New Jersey’ Recap: Teresa Giudice and Jacqueline Laurita’s Friendship Implodes (Again)

What goes up must come down — and in the case of Teresa Giudice‘s friendship with Jacqueline Laurita it came down faster than expected. Before that relationship imploded, however, the Sunday, August 14, episode of The Real Housewives of New Jersey opened on a high note, with Melissa Gorga inviting her sister-in-law to watch her kids walk in a runway show at New York Fashion Week in an effort to move their relationship forward.

Real Housewives of New Jersey
‘The Real Housewives of New Jersey’ Bravo

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“I’ll feel like we’re superclose when I can start telling her I don’t agree with everything she says,” Melissa explained to Joe Gorga. “If she’s a pain in the a–, you need to tell her that. I tell her all the time,” he quipped. Melissa brushed it off saying that he could do that because he was Teresa’s brother. She sort of had a point.

Both Melissa and Joe were thrilled when Teresa and her daughter Milania showed up to the event, and the two families enjoyed a friendly dinner afterward. “I’m so glad you came,” Joe said to Teresa. “I know that Teresa and I have made up many times before, and it was very surface-y. This was not that. This was the two of us going out of our way to support each other,” Melissa said to the camera. It wasn’t perfect, but it was progress.

Siggy Leans on Jacqueline for Parenting Advice

Meanwhile, Siggy Flicker was battling with her 13-year-old daughter, Sophie, about her excessive phone and social-media use. When Sophie landed in detention (again) for being on her phone during class, Siggy called Jacqueline for advice. Having been through her own struggles with a teenage daughter, Jacqueline told Siggy she had no choice but to take the phone away.

Later, Siggy was brought to tears when Sophie and her brother told her that she never listened to them. (The way they went about it wasn’t the most sensitive, though, and it essentially amounted to their saying that they liked hanging out with their father more.) Siggy vowed to talk less and make an effort to really hear what they were saying.

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Things weren’t going much better for Dolores Catania, whose 12-year-old dog, Boo, was suffering from kidney failure. On top of that stress, she was in the process of opening her first gym without the help of her ex-husband (the pair had co-owned three gyms together already), and her business partner wasn’t pleased with her lack of commitment leading up to the opening. He scolded her for not being around more, and she insisted that since her kids were getting older and needing her less, this gym was her new child. Only time will tell whether she gives it the attention it deserves.

Teresa and Jacqueline Try to Mend Their Friendship — and Fail (Miserably)

Chris Laurita and Jacqueline had invited Teresa and Joe Giudice over for a home-cooked meal and as everyone prepared, both women told their husbands they just wanted to have fun. Well, they had fun for maybe the first 10 minutes. Jacqueline had her kids came in to say hi to the Giudices, and Jacqueline seemed genuinely touched by how good Teresa was with her son Nicholas, who has autism and doesn’t engage in full conversations yet. After the kids had exited and the husbands peeled off on their own, however, things took a nosedive.

It began when Teresa said she just wanted to “keep any toxic people away.” Jacqueline nodded and Teresa then brought up how she felt that back in 2011 Melissa, Caroline Manzo and Jacqueline had ganged up on her. Jacqueline’s face fell as Teresa said she’d felt “ambushed” and then reminded Teresa that all she had done was ask if there was any truth to an article she had read in a magazine claiming Teresa was going to jail. “You told me I was crazy, and it wasn’t true and clearly it was true!” Jacqueline said. Teresa’s defense was she genuinely didn’t know it was true at the time the article was published. (It could be possible, but seems rather unlikely.)

“She has not changed,” Jacqueline said to the camera. “You had all this time to sit in a f–king cell and think — you’re still sitting there thinking what a victim you are?”

Teresa said there was “obviously a disconnect” between them because her real friends had known what was actually going on at the time. Then she added that her brother had told her she shouldn’t trust Jacqueline. Jacqueline didn’t believe Joe would say something like that and called him in front of Teresa to find out.

Joe seemed rather blindsided by the call, but when Jacqueline asked if he’d said that, he mumbled that he “probably told her not to trust anybody.” He also added that if he had said it, it was probably because he and Teresa had been in a very bad place in their own relationship.

Teresa then argued that she would never ask Jacqueline about her personal business. That’s when it got really ugly.

Teresa and Jacqueline Fight It Out

“You put it in a tabloid!” Jacqueline screamed in her defense. Teresa argued that even if she got paid for sharing a story about herself it was nobody’s business. (Huh?) “You shouldn’t give a s–t what I get paid for,” Teresa added. “You were going through legal issues! I never asked you a question!”

Jacqueline screamed, “Mine was not a criminal case. We didn’t file fraudulent bankruptcy like you did!” That shut Teresa up. Sort of.

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Teresa called it a “low blow” and summoned her husband to leave. Chris and Joe were bummed because they had been having a good time, but when they heard their wives going at it, they knew there was no hope to salvage the evening.

“You’re the one who brought it up and when I called it for what it was, you didn’t want to hear that!” Jacqueline shouted at Teresa. “I’m just stating the facts.”

Teresa said she owned her mistakes and did her time. “You’re not owning it! You’re blaming everybody else!” Jacqueline snapped back. When Teresa asked her what she meant, Jacqueline said she heard Teresa had blamed her brother and Melissa for her legal woes. Teresa called Jacqueline “crazy” and stormed out.

In the car ride on the way home, Joe tried to get the full story, but Teresa was too angry to give an unbiased or complete account — but as she reported what Jacqueline had said, Joe got angrier and angrier until he decided Teresa had been in the right and Jacqueline was a “bitch.” As they pulled into their garage, Joe reiterated, “She’s a bitch. Forget about it.” Teresa said she needed to do some yoga and “be Zen.” Good luck with that.

Tell Us: Do you think Jacqueline hit below the belt?

The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs on Bravo Sunday at 8 p.m. ET.

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