Caroline Manzo Talks Rifts With Teresa Giudice, Sister Dina Manzo

HollywoodReporter.com:

Since Bravo shot the third and fourth seasons of The Real Housewives of New Jersey back-to-back, it basically picks up where the last season left off when the series returns on Sunday. For original cast member Caroline Manzo, that means revisiting some difficult shifts in her relations
hips at the time.


Most prominently on the next season, her relationship with Teresa Giudice is vastly different than the days when they had the common foe of Danielle Staub. But now, many fans wonder if Giudice has stepped into the role Danielle left behind, and the other women are ganging up on her. Manzo doesn’t take kindly to the accusation.


“Listen, I have no patience for that to be quite honest with you,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I am a fiercely moral person. I like to think that I am a good person and I don't gang up on anybody.”


“There is only so many times where you can get slapped in the face and not answer it,” she continues. “I am merely answering a multitude of situations and even in my answer, I am very clipped and I am very short and I have been accused of being very cold. Well, it is black and white. It is not gray.”


Manzo says she has ignored things that bothered her about Giudice in the past. But when her cookbook came out and she saw that her cast mate not only mocked her Italian heritage but also writes about her kids, that was the moment it all made sense to her.


“You hear so many things and there's so much hearsay and so many stories and remarks, but you kind of brushed them under the rug,” she says. “But when something is in black and white, there's no denying that. To me that was just validation of all the things that I had been hearing up until that point. So, it wasn't about what she said [in the cookbook], it was about that was my aha moment, if you will.”


Giudice isn’t the only person Manzo has fallen out with from the show and definitely not the most painful relationship to have fallen apart since its first season. Currently, she’s estranged from her sister and former cast mate Dina Manzo, who makes an appearance on the upcoming season.


“There are no scenes with me and Dina,” Manzo tells THR. “It is a very painful thing for me and not only me but the rest of my siblings, those that don't talk to her, my kids and nieces and nephew, so I am not alone here. But again, I will say that I remember the day that my mother told me that she was pregnant with Dina. I decorated Dina's cradle. I took her to school. When she was divorced, she lived with me for years. She is my baby sister. I don't know what she filmed and I don't know what was said in that scene and I don't care to know."


Last season, Dina sided with Giudice in the feud with her sister and the other women. So, there’s definitely a chance that she won’t have kind things to say about her sister. But, Manzo says she’s willing to take whatever Dina dishes out.


“It is just something that is going on in our lives right now and she has to go through what she is going through, whatever it is,” she says. “And again if I have to take the beating in the court of public opinion, I will. It's fine. That is my baby sister. I will not hit back.” The fourth season of The Real Housewives of New Jersey premieres Sunday at 10 p.m. on Bravo.  

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