Gia Giudice Explains Why She Feels the Need to Defend Mom Teresa on RHONJ, Addresses Why She Was Often “Agitated” on Show & Dishes on Her Career Goal

Gia Giudice isn’t backing down when it comes to defending her family.

Amid ongoing reports regarding the $3 million in tax debt of her mother, Teresa Giudice, 52, and stepfather, Luis Ruelas, 50, the 24-year-old Real Housewives of New Jersey star is explaining why she will always have her mom’s back as she fights back against assumptions fans have of her due to what they’ve seen on Bravo.

“A lot of people always say that I’m assertive or that I involve myself in adult conversations, but at the end of the day, I am defending my family and I will do that all day every day,” Gia declared during an April 15 interview with PopCulture.

According to Gia, the oldest of Teresa’s four children, who also includes Gabriella Giudice, 21, Milania Giudice, 19, and Audriana Giudice, 15, she “will always defend” her family.

“My mom also didn’t have my dad for quite some time on [RHONJ], so I was her person,” Gia explained. “When you always have people constantly going after you, you want somebody in your … corner — and that was me. And I would do that any day for my mom.”

“So people could be mad at me for being so assertive and inserting myself into things, but I’ll never be mad at that because I was defending my mom when she needed me,” she added.

Since 2009, Gia and her family have opened up their lives to the cameras of RHONJ, even their lowest moments, including Teresa and Joe Giudice‘s prison sentences and Joe’s deportation.

“All of these emotions [and] events that took place, they were very real,” Gia recalled. “So it kind of left me no choice but to be serious and upset or agitated or things like that, because that was what was happening at the time.”

Now that she is set to star in Next Gen NYC and is hosting her own podcast, Casual Chaos, Gia looks forward to showcasing a “fun, light-hearted side” of herself.

“I really wanted to show my audience more of the fun, light-hearted side of me — not as serious and tense [as] what they see on [RHONJ],” she explained. “I wanted them to really just see me for me and really just get to know my authentic self outside of the Real Housewives.”

Gia also hopes to take her podcast on the road.

“I would love to go on tour with this podcast,” Gia declared. “I have put a lot of effort into this podcast and I hope my fans see that just with the efforts … that I put in to really show that this podcast is going to be amazing. So I hope my audience thinks the same.”

Next Gen NYC season one premieres on Tuesday, June 3, at 9/8c on Bravo.