The Real Housewives of New Jersey star Jennifer Aydin is clarifying her recent social media beef with Jersey Mike’s.
“Hindsight is 20/20, but I did not think it was going to go that way,” Aydin, 47, exclusively told Us Weekly on Wednesday, January 8. “Not at all.”
Earlier this month, Aydin claimed in a social media video that she waited for “what felt like forever” to receive service from an airport Jersey Mike’s. One of the employees then shared her response in a TikTok video, referring to Aydin as a “stupid bitch” and alleging that the reality TV star backed up the entire line of customers.
While speaking with Us, Aydin asserted that she “was not rude” to any of the food chain’s staff.
Jennifer and her husband, Bill Aydin, had been traveling with their five kids for the holidays.
“We’re a big group. I’m a family of seven,” Jennifer recalled. “I have a sister with my goddaughter. She’s a widow [and] her and my goddaughter come with us everywhere we go. So, we travel [with] nine people or a lot of people. We met up with my cousin who’s another family of six. … We’re 15 people, not to mention the other two families that were meeting up with us at the airport.”
After Jennifer and Bill, 51, corralled their crew through TSA security, they decided to separate in order to quickly get their children food before boarding a four-hour flight.
“He took all the kids, went to another stand that had a table, ordered food. It was about 5:30 in the morning,” she said. “Jersey Mike’s did not open until 5:30 and my cousin and I got on the line pretty much around 5:45 a.m. and there were not that many people on the line. Again, it was a little slow moving, but we weren’t going to complain.”
Jennifer and her cousin, Susie, got in the line at the same time, but Susie eventually stepped out to check out a neighboring kiosk.
“She didn’t come back on the line with me because it already started accumulating. So, she decided to wait for me at the front of the register until it was my turn,” Jennifer told Us. “When it got to be my turn, obviously, I let her go in front of me and I think that people thought I was letting her cut. I didn’t let her cut and she ordered four sandwiches. I only ordered one. I only had one that my kids wanted to split. That was my task. I’m in mom mode trying to just get my kids food.”
After Susie ordered, Jennifer and the woman standing behind her also placed their respective orders. The other woman was allegedly helped before Jennifer, despite the Bravo personality saying she arrived at the line first.
“We’ve already been waiting. We’re at an airport, we have a flight to catch. We’ve already been through TSA, I’m a big group, everything took [time], so, obviously, tensions are high,” she stressed. “Again, I don’t want to complain. I get it. Everybody’s like, ‘It’s New Year’s, whatever.’ They fulfilled the woman behind me’s sandwich [order] first, and I reminded the employee. I’m like, ‘Hey, did you do my Italian?’ And she was like, ‘You have to wait your turn.’ I said, ‘Oh, but you did hers before mine and I was before her.’ So, obviously she realized that [and] ignored me. I didn’t want to make a big thing about it.”
By the time the employees were working on Jennifer’s sandwich, Bill arrived to add to the order.
“They’re working on my one sandwich that I ordered. It’s a foot-long Italian and Bill said one of our kids wanted a plain tuna mini with nothing on it,” Jennifer said. “So I said to the employee, ‘OK, sweetie, I’m going to need another mini tuna.’ She goes, ‘Oh no, you have to get to the back of the line.’ And I said, but you just fulfilled that woman’s sandwich before me and I didn’t even say anything and none of this is on camera — by the way. So she looks up and I guess she realized I was right and she goes, ‘Well, then the guy behind you has to say it’s OK.’”
Jennifer hadn’t noticed the man who was now waiting behind her, who apparently said, “I mean, it’s kind of ridiculous … that [she was] adding another sandwich.”
“Tensions are high. I know I’m going to get blamed for something and I’m going to keep my cool,” Jennifer stressed. “The whole point of me recording — I know it backfired — was to show that I was not snapping. I’m just recording the window. At that point, the guy is not even in my thing.”
The man then claimed to be a law professor and allegedly threatened to sue Jennifer for “all [her] fake diamonds” if she posted the video of him.
“I am literally so shocked and disgusted by this man’s behavior,” Jennifer said, noting that she gets “triggered by bad behavior.”
She continued, “I realize that I did not tackle this correctly, but, in the moment, I was just so shocked and appalled by this really unwarranted, aggressive behavior. Then, I put the camera on him.”
She added, “In my angst, I was telling him because I wanted him to know that you just can’t be rude to people like that. You don’t know who you’re being rude to and I’m going to put you on blast. … I was just, like, livid that this person [was] talking to me that way. I want you to know that in the moment, I was not rude to the Jersey Mike’s staff at all. I was trying to be polite.”
