Frankie Catania may have an enviable setup, but there's one reason he's thinking of moving out of his mom's updated home.
Gather the moving boxes. Frankie Catania is almost ready to move out of mom Dolores Catania’s New Jersey home.
As Dolores explained in a new preview clip for The Real Housewives of New Jersey Season 14, Episode 5, she moved out of the renovated property herself more than a year ago to live with her long-time beau Paulie Connell. Her two children, Gabby and Frankie — who she shares with ex-husband Frank Catania — have continued to live in the house together with their six dogs.
However, it seems the setup might not be working for everyone still.
Where does Frankie Catania live now?
Frankie and Gabby live in their mom's North Haledon, New Jersey home while she lives with Paulie, but Frankie is considering a move.
For Gabby, a veterinarian, the living arrangement is the perfect fit.
“I really love our setup right now,” she said at a family dinner with her parents.
But for Frankie, there’s one thing his mother’s house lacks: a more central location.
“I love our setup. I just feel, you know, within the next year or two I’m gonna have to look at moving out, moving closer to the city,” he admitted, referring to New York City, which is about an hour away depending on traffic.
“What the f-ck am I supposed to do?” Gabby jokingly retorted to her younger brother.
Where is Dolores Catania living now?
He isn’t the only one in the family looking to make a move. Dolores acknowledged that while she loves living in Paulie’s Edgewater, New Jersey townhouse, it hasn’t exactly felt like home.
“Paul and I have been living together for like a year in a half. The most beautiful townhouse I’ve ever been in, but it’s not mine,” she told producers.
It’s also lacking some of the things she loved about her house.
“I miss the house. I miss the yard. I put the pool in. I started all those renovations before I met Paul thinking that was my endgame and then God threw me a little curveball,” she continued.
Another thing she’s hoping for in a new abode? A location that’s closer to her children.
“I’m having separation anxiety,” she told Frank at dinner. “I don’t get to see them, but I don’t want to pull them from their one day off. Where can I live to make it easier to be closer?”
Frank asked his ex when she was thinking of buying a new house, but the answer was, well, a little complicated.
“Well, we’re always looking,” Dolores replied. “Right now, it’s very hard to find a house.”
And there’s another significant obstacle in their way. Although Paulie has been separated for 14 years, he is still married to his wife.
“I would like Paul to be divorced before we speak about where we live or are moving,” Dolores confided in her confessional. “It’s really hard to move past where we are now because his divorce isn’t final.”
Where was Frank Catania planning to propose?
Dolores may have been at a standstill in her relationship at the family dinner, but Frank was ready to put a ring on it with girlfriend Brittany Mattessich.
The former attorney happily shared his plans to propose during an upcoming vacation to Costa Rica.
“What I’m looking to do is have a lighted path with roses to a big sign that says, 'Will you marry me?' inside a heart on the beach,” he said.
“Oh, that’s so nice,” Gabby remarked approvingly.
Frank then pulled out the large glittery rock, showed it off, and jokingly practiced proposing using Dolores as a stand-in for Brittany.
“Will you marry me?” he asked as he dropped to one knee.
“Yeah!” Dolores exclaimed.
The restaurant erupted into cheers until the former couple explained they were merely “practicing” for Frank’s real proposal.
“He’s marrying someone else,” Dolores told the crowd. “I’m his ex-wife.”
“We’ve already been there, done it,” Frank added.
How did Frank Catania propose to Dolores Catania?
It turns out, the fake proposal may have had more fanfare than Frank’s actual proposal to Dolores decades earlier.
The Housewife shared the story in the clip of how she got engaged to Frank in the early ‘90s — and it wasn’t exactly a beachside proposal with candles.
“So, Frank, I guess, decided the day he was going to do it, he went to the mall at the kiosk and bought this, like, toy pig that walks you know, oink, oink, oink. And then he put a ribbon around his neck with the ring on it and I guess I had just made dinner and he had like, the thing walk in with the ring on it,” she shared, before adding, “A lot of thought there.”
The marriage may have ended 26 years ago, but the two have found a way to maintain a close friendship as they co-parent their children together.
To find out more about what the other Housewives are up to in Season 14, watch The Real Housewives of New Jersey Sundays at 8/7c on Bravo or available streaming the next day on Peacock.
