Margaret Josephs On How Joining The Real Housewives Changes Your Life

EOnline.com:

Margaret Josephs almost stepped into the spotlight on The Real Housewives of New Jersey a whole lot earlier in the Bravo hit's run than its current eighth season.

A fan of the show since its inception, in part, because it was highlighting women from her neck of the woods, the franchise's newest addition told E! News that she was contacted by producers about joining the fray way back when Caroline Manzo was spinning off onto her own series after season five. "[They] actually approached me in 2013, we were discussing it last night at dinner, and I couldn't do it that year," she revealed. "It just wasn't great timing." Considering that was the year she divorced first husband Jan Josephs for current hubby Joe Benigno, the hesitation is understandable. After all, allowing Bravo's cameras to capture your life, warts and all, for the world to see is one heck of a commitment. 

But 2017 felt like the perfect time for the pigtail enthusiast to convince her family to let her document her life on national television, she told us. "Well, A. I've led many lives by the age of 50, and, at 50, I thought it was a great turning point. I've already had a business for a long time, all my kids are up and out of the house, and I thought this would just be a great opportunity to do something different," she explained. "The truth is, my whole life has been a reality series since birth, legit. You've seen Marge Sr. I thought it was just the next step in my career. I thought it would be fun. I thought it was great to show people that women could be entrepreneurial. I didn't come from the Lucky Sperm Club. I pulled myself up by the boot straps, I've taken a lot of hits, so I thought I was also very relatable. And Jersey could definitely use a blonde, so I thought it was a good idea."

With her mind made up, it was time to get her family on board, something she wasn't able to do with everyone in her life. "Because I'm so out there, and they call me TMI Marge, my whole family knows everything's out there. My husband Joe is very funny. Everybody just acts like themselves, the girls in my office, Marge Sr. They were super excited. Of course, my children, who are not on the show, were not excited," she said. (Margaret has one son, as well as three step-children whom she helped raise, from her first marriage.)

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