Jennifer Aydin revealed that her 2022 BravoCon altercation with Melissa and Joe Gorga was addressed during filming for “The Real Housewives of New Jersey,” but that the conversation did not air on TV.
In a September 2024 interview with the “AllAboutTRH” podcast, Aydin answered questions about the ugly incident that took place in the lobby of the Gansevoort Meatpacking Hotel in October 2022 when the group was in New York City for BravoCon. The public argument reportedly ended with Aydin throwing a drink at Joe Gorga.
“So I will say we did bring it up this season,” Aydin told podcast hosts Roxanne Bahri and Shantel Butras. “We did speak about it, but we knew that it wasn’t going to air. Like, this is not something that happened on the show. And obviously, they’re not happy about it, you know. It’s not a good look for the network, especially like in this very sensitive time that we’re living in.”
At the time, “Real Housewives” producer Andy Cohen told E! News he thought the BravoCon incident was “gross.”
Aydin elaborated on the podcast. “I think they just wanted it to go away, you know,” she said. “They wanted us to squash it, which we did. And they really just wanted us to move on. And it was really a matter of like agree to disagree, you know.”
“You remember that me and Melissa sat down for lunch, and we just had a lunch of water,” Aydin said in reference to a season 14 sitdown she had with her co-star. “We were talking in circles about BravoCon. And it was like ‘Well you did this.’ And I’m like, ‘But you did this.’ And I acknowledged what I did.”
Aydin explained that Melissa Gorga accused her of giving her a dirty look when she saw her at the hotel. Aydin said she did not intentionally give a dirty look, but apologized if it was taken that way. “I said I’m sorry. And then it was like, you know, she wasn’t taking accountability. So whatever, I said, ‘You know what, we’re not going to get anywhere,’” Aydin recalled. “We squashed it.”
Jennifer Aydin Had 1 Condition For Going to the Gorgas’ Housewarming Party
Bravoennifer Aydin, Dolores Catania, Danielle Cabral, Rachel Fuda, and Melissa Gorga.
Rumors about the BravoCon incident were rampant in 2022. According to Page Six, Aydin’s social media assistant, Erica Madelyn posted a now-deleted TikTok and claimed Melissa Gorga called Aydin a “loser” and a “wannabe” and that Joe Gorga inserted himself into the shouting match.
Soon after, Joe Gorga shared his side of the story on the November 11, 2022, episode of the “Chicks in the Office” podcast. He claimed Aydin’s camp’s story about the incident was a lie. “The story is out there that she threw a drink at me, and I was saying these vulgar things to her — no,” Gorga said. “First of all, I was 50 feet away with my wife.”
He also called Aydin “crazy” and a “maniac” and said her behavior at BravoCon was “embarrassing.”
After squashing her beef with Aydin, Melissa Gorga invited her to a housewarming party that was featured in the RHONJ episode “Gifts and Receipts.” On the podcast, Aydin admitted that at first she told Gorga she had to think about accepting the invite.
“And then I sent her a text. And I don’t know if this made it to final cut… but basically, I texted her and I said, ‘I think I could be okay with going to your house for your housewarming party. But I need something from Joe. Not necessarily an apology because it doesn’t look like I’m going to get one, but I need some kind of acknowledgment,’” she said.
Aydin explained that it would have been “overwhelming” to walk into Gorga’s home as a guest feeling like she was “not wanted.”
“If I’m going to walk in there with my husband and hold my head up high and swallow the pill that it is so that we can move forward I need something from him,” Aydin explained. “And [Melissa] said, ‘You know what, I hear that, let me get back to you.’ So, Joe Gorga then sent a group text to me, Bill, Melissa and myself saying, ‘Hey you know we both have different accounts on what happened that night. Life’s too short, you know hope to see at my house.’ And I was, ‘Good, perfect, fine. Let’s move on, let’s move on.’”
Jennifer Aydin Explained Why She Tried to Have a Friendship With Melissa Gorga
PeacockJennifer Aydin and Melissa Gorga.
While Aydin is close friends with Melissa Gorga’s estranged sister-in-law Teresa Giudice, she admitted that she also wanted to be friends with Gorga because they work together.
“I was genuinely trying to be her friend. Because we were in an environment together that we had to be together,” she explained on the podcast. “I don’t want to be in an environment with somebody that I’m really not getting along with. It’s like so awkward, it’s so tense. I did genuinely want to get along with Melissa and Joe. Just like for the sake of being copasetic in the same environment we’re filming. And I do believe we make great TV when we’re all getting along, I do.”
