For the first time ever, Margaret Josephs revealed where her friendship with Jackie Goldschneider took a turn and the real cause of their feud while appearing on Wednesday’s episode of Tamra Judge and Teddi Mellencamp‘s podcast.
As she targeted Jackie’s selfish antics and suspected her friendship with Teresa Giudice, 52, won’t last, the Real Housewives of New Jersey star, 57, revealed the screenshot she wanted to show Dolores Catania, 53, at the finale watch party, shared how she reacted to Jackie, 47, calling Dolores a “slob,” and praised Dolores for calling out Luis Ruelas, 50.
“She had an undercurrent with me which I have since found out,” Margaret began on the August 14 episode of Two Ts in a Pod.
According to Margaret, it was an incident in late 2023 that led to the demise of their relationship.
“I complimented the other ladies,” Margaret revealed. “I was told what she had told other castmates, that she was very upset that we were at BravoCon and one of my network executives had seen me and said, how do you think of the new cast,’ meaning [Danielle Cabral], [Jennifer Fessler], and Rachel Fuda, and I said, ‘They’re fantastic. I love them. What a great addition to the show.’ Jackie was standing next to me. She said, ‘How could you say that in front of me?’ I go, ‘It’s not about you.’ I go, ‘That doesn’t diminish your shine. You’re still amazing. Two things can be true.’”
“At that moment, she was like, ‘I have it in for Margaret,’” Margaret recalled. “Jackie is only for herself. I have found that out. She only cares about herself. She will do anything to elevate herself and ruin anybody else. I’ve witnessed it firsthand.”
“I’m actually in shock,” she added.
Looking back at their years of friendship, Margaret said she championed Jackie, loved her, and wanted the best for her.
She then noted that after Jackie got dumped by her first book agent, she set her up with a new one.
“[Jackie] called me crying. I felt sick because she’s a talented writer, brilliant, inspiring story … I said ‘Please speak to Anthony, who I work with. He knows a lot of people, you’re gonna land a deal. You’re bigger than this. You’re gonna go further than the show.’ I say everything to build her up and I meant it,” she revealed. “And I wish she had authentically lived what she has written because everything she wrote in the book, she’s behaving the exact opposite way.”
As for the screenshot she wanted to show Dolores at the finale watch party, Margaret said she hoped to show proof that Jackie had reached out to Luis’ ex, Vanessa Reiser.
“It was just showing the actual fact that Jackie, there were a few screenshots I wanted to show, February 25, 2021, Jackie actually did reach out to the ex,” she shared. “I have the screenshot of that. Of her saying, ‘Let’s talk off social media. My social media manager could read it. I don’t want to ruin anybody’s life but she’s so stupid,’ talking about Teresa. She wanted to get dirt. She didn’t have one Vanessa over. She had two Vanessa’s over. She had them both at her house. They cut that. They had to blank out the names.”
During RHONJ season 14, Margaret made waves between Jackie and Dolores when she showed Dolores a message Jackie had sent her in which she called Dolores a “slob” for failing to tag her in a group photo.
“I was pissed off. She wasn’t being genuine,” Margaret reasoned.
Then, when Tamra, 56, and Teddi, 43, wanted to know how Margaret responded to Jackie’s message, she revealed, “I go, ‘I don’t think it was intentionally she didn’t tag you. Call her. It was an oversight.’”
“I do everything to deflate whatever mood she was in, and that was my job with Jackie,” Margaret noted. “Whatever hysteria she would get in, I would try and deflate her mood because she would go from 0 to 100 in about 2 seconds. Everything was a personal attack. She wasn’t invited to Gigi Fuda’s third birthday party. It wasn’t filmed. It wasn’t anything like that. All hell broke loose. She’s excluded. She wasn’t invited.”
According to Margaret, she believes Jackie’s issues with being left out stem from a “childhood wound.”
“I don’t know what it is. But the whole point is everything’s not a personal attack but she takes everything as a personal front and then she’s gonna ruin your life,” Margaret stated. “She told me her goal was to get back at Teresa, stick it right up her a**, and she will do it if the last thing she does and guess what? She did it. It’s like, keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
While Jackie and Teresa forged a friendship during season 14, many doubted that the partnership was genuine and Margaret isn’t convinced it will last beyond the show.
“No, I mean, come on. It’s frenemies. It’s an alliance,” she stated. “Jackie’s a smart girl. Do you think she really likes her? Jackie’s afraid Teresa’s gonna do something, God knows, do what else to her.”
Now that the season has wrapped, Margaret says she feels “vindicated.”
“I love that everybody sees what I’ve seen all along and I’m happy the truth has come out. Though, I really didn’t find out the real, hard truth til the week before we filmed that finale,” she explained. “[But that] was like a gift from God. It was so serendipitous the way everything happened. The truth is, if they didn’t have that burn party about me I would’ve never really found out what Jackie had done.”
After mentioning Jackie’s communication with Luis’ ex, she explained what made her reach out to Vanessa.
“I called the attorney at first. I was trying to get in touch with that attorney. So I was like, ‘What could been these law documents?’ I was trying to get in touch with him and I was like, ‘Can I reach out to your attorney? What could be in these court documents? Is this even legal?’” she recalled. “I was like, ‘What would they be saying about me? Why would I be involved in this? I was never involved in this court case.’”
Margaret then reacted to Dolores calling out Luis to Teresa for wishing harm on her son after she attempted to defend him.
“She called it out and I was very, very happy about that. It made me very very happy,” Margaret concluded.
