The reality TV star, 33, shared that she was expecting with her husband John, in the season 14 special “Off The Rails” episode of the Bravo show, which aired Sunday, August 11.
Rachel made the surprise announcement during a toast with the rest of her RHONJ co-stars, after Melissa Gorga began, “There’s a lot of life to be had…”
Interrupting Gorga, 45, to reveal her happy news, Rachel said, “Considering I’m pregnant!”
Rachel and John already share three children, son Jaiden, 17, and daughters Gianella, 4, and Giuliana, 2. Rachel legally adopted Jaiden, while Gianella and Giuliana were both born via IVF. The baby on the way was also conceived via IVF.
In season 13, Rachel opened up about her fertility journey on-screen. She spoke to John about wanting to go through IVF again to add to their family with the five viable embryos they had remaining.
“The clock is ticking,” she told him at the time. “I just feel like, four kids, that’s a good number. The time is now. This is, like, a year process. I want to do this and be done.”
As well as enduring the IVF journey, the Bravo personality has managed to juggle motherhood with her filming commitments on the reality show.
Back in 2022, she gave birth to daughter Giuliana just seven weeks before commencing filming on the show’s 13th season.
“It was tough. You don’t feel like yourself,” Rachel exclusively told Us Weekly at the time. “You’re uncomfortable. Your body isn’t really yours yet. It was definitely tough. It was mentally very trying, but I feel like I handled it really well.”
The entrepreneur added that she was lucky to have “an amazing support system” as she leaned on her family to help get her through filming.
“I’m so grateful for that,” Rachel gushed to Us. “Without my parents, my husband, my brother and sister-in-law, I would not be able to have done any of this.”
Rachel also bonded at the time with RHONJ producer Maggie Langtry over their shared experience with the grueling process of IVF.
Many of Rachel’s confessionals with Langtry detailed her fertility struggles, stories of which the producer could easily relate to as she was embarking on a similar journey herself.
“I hadn’t told a lot of my family, a lot of my friends that I was going through IVF, and I just word-vomited at you,” Langrty told Rachel in an episode of the show that aired in June.
In response, the RHONJ star told Lantry just how meaningful their shared experience was to her.
“That to me, means the world,” Rachel replied. “That you felt comfortable enough to come to me. And that just immediately bonded us. Because I feel like when that honesty and that conversation goes, it’s like, we’re friends now. We’re IVF buddies.”
