If there’s anything more Jersey than a Gorga family fight, it’s them fighting over a shore house.
Earlier this week, Bravo fans were outraged after Teresa Giudice claimed on Tuesday’s episode of RHONJ that her sister-in-law Melissa Gorga once refused to let her niece Gia Giudice stay at the Gorgas’ beach house.
The issue came up while Teresa and her husband, Luis “Louie” Ruelas, were staying at co-star Jennifer Aydin’s Jersey Shore vacation home.
When Jennifer asked whether Teresa had ever stayed at the Gorgas’ shore house, she replied, “No, never.”
“Gia asked to stay there once, and Melissa said no,” Teresa added, drawing shocked reactions from her co-stars and viewers alike.
But, as an anonymous insider close to the Gorga family told Page Six this week, it seems there might be more to the story.
The real reason Melissa Gorga didn’t want Gia Giudice at her beach house
Speaking with the outlet, the insider revealed the real reason why Melissa had said no.
Gia’s request, the source explained, had come “on a weekend where Joe and Melissa were not going to be at the house.”
The insider claimed that Gia, now 22, wanted to stay at the house with “a couple of friends” back when she was “underage.”
But without “adult supervision,” the source said the Gorgas “didn’t feel comfortable” letting Gia use their home.
The Gorgas “obviously love Gia,” the insider continued. “If Joe or Melissa – just one adult – was at their house, they would have let her stay.”
Family drama is heating up on RHONJ
Teresa and Melissa’s years-long bitter feud has been a major plotline on RHONJ since the Gorgas first joined the show in Season 3.
Melissa is married to Teresa’s younger brother Joe Gorga, and tensions between the two siblings have continued to escalate.
The shore house dispute came just a few episodes after Joe bailed on Teresa and Louie’s housewarming party in the wake of yet another blow-out screaming fight.
Melissa went solo anyway, but the night still ended in tears after Teresa made a point of calling those in attendance – namely, not Joe – her “chosen family.”
The family drama will continue to unfold on The Real Housewives of New Jersey’s currently airing Season 13.
The season will culminate in the Gorgas’ decision, in August of 2022, to skip out on Teresa and Louie’s wedding celebration – but it remains to be seen just how exactly things got to that point.
The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on Bravo.