Rosie Pierri: I Had 'Breakdown' Telling Mom I Was Gay

If you've watched this season of Real Housewives of New Jersey at all, chances are you've fallen head-over-heels for Rosie Pierri, Kathy Wakile's sister who has become a bit of a fixture among the ladies thanks to her personality and charm. In this week's episode, Rosie churns up some old emotions and memories as she talks with Kathy about the process of coming out, and even explains it to Kathy's kids.

Rosie recently spoke with Huffington Post (who also have an exclusive clip of Kathy and Rosie's talk) about the episode and her life in general, saying that while nowadays most people know she's gay, it wasn't always that way. "I went through 10 years when I realized who I was. In my 20s, I never thought of anything. I had tons of friends and was all about being involved with activities, sports. I was the editor-in-chief of my yearbook. I was always busy, and I worked when I was in high school also so I had no time to think about boys or girls or anything. My mind didn't go there," Rosie said in the interview.

She goes on to say that she "never really had a crush until later in life," describing herself as "a little bit of a late bloomer ... I was really scared and I hid it in my 20s. Like, maybe 22 or something like that. I struggled a lot with it, and it was hard for me to talk to my family about it. I had to come to terms with myself ... Before I could actually ask somebody else to accept me, I had to accept myself and I wasn't ready to do that. I was struggling. Like, this is not what I'm supposed to be? Why is this happening to me? I was kind of upset about it."


Rosie talks about it all, from her "crazy" job that keeps her busy when she's not on Housewives to living with her mother to being called "Butchie Boy" boy Joe Giudice. Find out what she said at HuffPo and check out a preview clip from this week's episode below!