They say blood is thicker than water. But for Teresa Giudice, that’s not the case.
The 44-year-old Turning Tables author has spent season 7 of The Real Housewives of New Jersey focused on redemption after her 11-month stay in prison – even repairing strained relationships with former best friend Jacqueline Laurita, her brother Joe Gorga and her sister-in-law Melissa Gorga. But on Sunday’s all-new episode, Giudice showed she wasn’t ready to forgive and forget with just anyone.
Meeting with estranged cousins Kathy Wakile and Rosie Pierri, Giudice closed the book on their relationship for good – telling them that she wanted to “cut the cancer out.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to be a family – you guys are always going to be my family. We have the same blood,” Giudice told them. “I just want to be left alone. I don’t want to be hurt anymore. I’m just tired. I’ve been through a lot.”
She explained to viewers: “There was a time when I had a relationship with Kathy and Rosie. They haven’t treated me well and I don’t want that around. I’m at the point in my life where I have to worry about Teresa Giudice, Joe Giudice, my four daughters, and my parents. I’m not ready right now.”
But the question remained – if Giudice was able to forgive and forget the hurtful things her brother and sister-in-law did in the past, why couldn’t she do the same for her cousins?
Well it appears for Giudice, insults exchanged by Wakile back at the season 4 reunion have left a lasting mark.
Then a full-time cast member on RHONJ, Wakile called Giudice’s father “a coward” and Giudice’s mother “a f—— liar” as the two cousins argued over family drama.
Wakile apologized for her words while still at the reunion – and Giudice accepted her apology. But Giudice still held on to the grudge all these years later. “Blood does not talk like that,” she argued. “I didn’t get deep with their dad like that. So why’d they get deep with my dad?”
In those words, Giudice appeared to forget that she too had said hurtful things to Wakile and Pierri, suggesting that her father “was there more for them than their own dad.”
As Jacqueline Laurita pointed out, “Teresa’s mad at Kathy for things that Teresa’s done herself to Kathy. They’ve both said things about each other’s parents.”
However, there was also the additional layer that Wakile and Pierri’s mother – and Giudice’s aunt – had appeared on RHONJ and spoken out about Giudice’s legal troubles. “I always told my children, you do something wrong – you always pay for it,” she said then. “You can never get away with it.”
And Wakile’s husband Richie has been a big problem for Giudice too. “Every time I’m around your husband, he’s always got something negative to say,” Giudice noted. “Rich threw my cookbook in the garbage. Doesn’t he feel anything?”
“I’m just over his f—— b——-,” she told her brother of Richie, after learning that Richie had hinted Giudice and her husband didn’t having a loving relationship. “He’s like a piece of s—, really. This is the typical Wakile drama that I don’t want in my life.”
Joe Gorga stated it frankly for viewers. “I know that Teresa’s done with Kathy and Rosie,” he said. “The things that Teresa felt from Kathy, Rosie and Richie – she just can’t forget. When you’re going down, family’s supposed to pick you up. They’re supposed to be behind you. They’re not supposed to agree, which they agreed. Done. You don’t do that.”
RELATED VIDEO: Teresa Giudice and Melissa Gorga Talk About Whether Their Family Drama is Really in the Past or Not
It was a sad scene to see, as Wakile and Pierri appeared desperate to mend fences and move forward throughout the episode – and both told Giudice they wanted to leave the past behind.
“Life is too short,” Wakile said. “We keep dwelling in the past and I don’t want to do that anymore. Our parents are getting older and it just puts things into perspective. We’re getting older. Our families didn’t come all the way from Italy to make a better life and then we’ve made a mess of it. We have the power to make things better – to rewrite the story.”
Feeling estranged from their cousin, the sisters revealed that they had tried to be in touch while Giudice was away but felt that she had shut them out.
“I didn’t shut nobody out,” Giudice responded – accusing them of trying to use her fame for their own self gain. “The whole year I was away, I didn’t get a card from you or you. I just want people that have been there for me while I went through this, during when I went through this and when I came home.”
“My heart got hardened – can you just respect that?” she added.
By the end, Wakile and Pierri both accepted the reality of the situation. “I’m not going to beg anymore Teresa,” Pierri told Giudice, as the cousins embraced and wished each other the best moving forward.
For Pierri and Wakile, the goodbye left them hopeful things would change in the future. “The stuff that happened in the last five years with my cousin and my family – I still love them,” Pierri confessed to viewers. “I want to fix all of it. But I can’t. I can only pray that everybody settles and lets it go.”
Giudice, on the other hand, saw it more as the final end to a long, treacherous relationship.
“I’m glad that we got closure,” she said. “And I was trying to be nice, I said ‘If you guys need anything the door’s always open.’ But they understand what I meant with the whole ‘cut the cancer out.’ I’m done. I’ve just reached my breaking point, I’ve had enough.”
The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo.
