Gia Giudice on Her Upcoming Drama with Joe Gorga: "I Was a Little Surprised"

The Real Housewives of New Jersey Season 12 premiere was full of conflict, and there's only going to be more drama, as we saw in just the first few minutes of the episode, which aired on February 1.

The premiere kicked things off with a little taste of what we can expect as Season 12 continues, which, SPOILER ALERT, will include more drama among the Garden State gals. However, we weren't quite expecting to see Teresa Giudice's eldest daughter, Gia, 21, at odds with her uncle, Joe Gorga, especially since the two have been so close in the past.

The sneak peek showed Gia's sister, Milania, 16, talking to her mom and sharing that her "brother's saying things about dad." On a different occasion, we see Joe expressing that Gia "looks at me like I'm the devil" before we get a glimpse of the two seemingly having a disagreement of some sort. "That's when I walk away from you," Gia told Joe in the clip.

Gia shared what we can expect from her upcoming confrontation with Joe when she appeared as the guest bartender on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen on February 1. "You'll see it next week, his reaction. I kind of just stay calm, because if I reacted, it wouldn't have really done much," she said during the WWHL After Show (clip above). "So, I mean, I was a little surprised by the way he reacted towards me and how defensive he was, because [bottom line], it is my father. So have a little respect, just a little."

In the RHONJ Season 12 premiere, we learned that there was lingering tension between Joe and his nieces following negative comments he made about their father, Joe Giudice, last season. "It's like, I'm still mad at him," Gia told her family, with her sisters chiming in that their group texts "didn't solve anything."

Gia and Gabriella, 17, shared that they didn't get the kind of apology they were hoping for from their uncle. "My brother and I, we made peace with it," Teresa said in an interview during the episode. "But my daughters are still upset because basically, they want him to take back, you know, what he said about their dad."

Milania said that she also wasn't happy that Joe didn't seem to be proactive in trying to repair his relationship with his nieces, saying that her uncle has only texted them but not called or invited them to get together in person. Joe brought up this criticism from his family to his wife, Melissa Gorga, later in the episode. "I hear stuff from the girls. Gia's saying this, the girls are saying, 'You haven't come around. You haven't called,'" he said. "Nobody calls me."

Melissa consoled her husband, telling him, "I'm sick of you stressing out over this."

So, Joe resolved to continue to give his nieces some space at that time. "I don't want to talk about it because I'm fed up," he said. "The best thing I have to do is stay away."

Before we see what future drama transpires on RHONJ, Gia also looked back on some of her mom's buzziest moments during her visit to WWHL on Tuesday night. She revealed which of Teresa's past actions she could and could not defend, including one instance in which Gia said she would have done "the same thing." Check it out, below.

Can Gia Giudice Defend Teresa Giudice?

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