Melissa Gorga Details Joe's Approach to Teresa Giudice Drama in the Early Days of Their Relationship

It's been quite the journey for Melissa Gorga and Teresa Giudice to get to a good place as sisters-in-law, as we've seen on The Real Housewives of New Jersey over the years. In fact, past family drama sometimes still comes to the surface every now and again, as we witnessed earlier in Season 11.

So, after Melissa and her husband, Joe Gorga, took a trip down memory lane during a dinner date in the April 14 episode of RHONJ in an effort to get their marriage back on track, Andy Cohen wanted to dive deeper into the early days of their relationship, including how drama with Teresa affected the couple back then. 

When Melissa appeared on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen after the latest episode of RHONJ, the titular host asked her how Joe would handle tense moments between his wife and his sister back in the day. "I think he would see it a lot, especially in the younger years when I first started coming around. And he would agree with me," Melissa shared. "But I knew that like, he would try to play it cool, definitely. He didn't want the drama."

Melissa Gorga Dishes on Joe Gorga & Their Marriage

At the heart of Melissa and Joe's issues this season of RHONJ is a struggle to find common ground as things have changed in their relationship since they first met. Melissa noted on RHONJ that if Joe didn't want her to go to bachelorette parties, she obliged. But now, Melissa has decided to go out and socialize whenever she wants. "I'm about to go to my niece's bachelorette party this summer," she said on WWHL. "I told Joe, 'I'm going. I'm making up for lost time.' And he has no choice, and he said OK."

However, Joe has changed too, according to Melissa, who shared on WWHL that he no longer talks about exactly how many times a week he would like to have sex. "I think that was when we were younger, he would say more about that," Melissa explained. "Now he knows that doesn't fly anymore. So not as much as he used to."

Melissa also revealed on WWHL that Joe "never" seemed to care how much she spent on shopping. "He knows that I'm pretty reasonable in that area," she said, noting, "Back then, I used to spend on the AmEx probably 20, 30 grand a month or something, and he never said anything."

Melissa also provided some insight into how Joe earned money before becoming the successful real estate developer he is today. "He was a landscaper before anything, before he started doing the development deals," Melissa revealed after her fellow WWHL guest Willie Geist shared that he once worked in landscaping before becoming a news anchor.

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Melissa also shared some of the, shall we say, interesting behavior from some of Joe's clients during that early job, which you can hear more about in the above video.

The Envy boutique owner opened up more about why it was so vital for her and Joe to re-examine their marriage at this time during The Real Housewives of New Jersey After Show. "I think it was very real for us at that point that we needed to sit down. Like, this is not funny, this is not a joke. We need to get ourselves together and get on the same page," she said. "And I think that's what we were trying to do with that dinner. We were trying to just get on the same page. And I feel like even there, we struggled a little bit. Actually, it all coming to a head also in front of our friends that night."

Joe also explained what he saw as the root of his tension with Melissa in the RHONJ After Show. "When you're just focused too much on work, you just become different. You become hardcore, because everything is work and business and hard. You're just too focused, and you forget about normal life," he shared. "And that's what I was feeling. I'm not used to that."

Melissa said that she knew that it was important for her and Joe to take the time out to work on their relationship at this point. "Like, this is serious. This is getting very real. It started off bickering a year ago," she said. "It's escalating, and we're really coming to some type of breaking point here, and let's make sure we turn the corner together and don't go separate ways."

Thankfully, it sounds like Melissa and Joe are working things out. "I have learned that he's missing me doing those little things, and that's where he's feeling lost," Melissa shared. "So I'm trying."

Want more RHONJ? New episodes air every Wednesday at 9/8c or catch up on the Bravo app.

Watch a preview, below.

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