'The Real Housewives' star Teresa Giudice: I was not picking a fight

Although she appeared to be the instigator of last fall's New Jersey country club altercation with The Real Housewives of New Jersey co-star Danielle Staub, Teresa Giudice insists she wasn't picking a fight.


"I wasn't picking a fight, I wanted to speak to her face to face," Giudice said during a live interview on Bravo's Watch What Happens: Live, which aired immediately after the network's broadcast of The Real Housewives of New Jersey episode that covered the incident.

"I didn't go there for any of [what you saw] to happen.  You saw us, we were having a great time, Danielle was right around from us... like we were just having a great time.  Drinking.  Watching a fashion show."

The Real Housewives of New Jersey's footage of the incident -- which occurred after Giudice, Staub and fellow Housewives Jacqueline Laurita attended a fashion show at the club -- appeared largely consistent with what Staub had alleged in her subsequent criminal complaint against Giudice, Laurita and Laurita's 19-year-old daughter Ashley Holmes.

Giudice was shown approaching Staub -- against Laurita's advice -- and chiding her for not making an attempt to repair their estranged relationship following last season's table-flipping incident in which Giudice called Staub, a convicted extortionist and alleged former escort, a "prostitution whore." 


However the conversation quickly escalated into a loud argument after Giudice condescendingly called Staub "honey" and Staub alleged Giudice's self-proclaimed "$5 million home" was in foreclosure -- leading to Giudice and Laurita chasing an increasingly hysterical Staub through the club's hallways and into the parking lot, where Holmes ended up pulling Staub's hair before her bodyguard carried her to the car of friend Kim Granatell and the police were summoned.

"Danielle said my house was going into foreclosure, it's none of her business what's going on in my life," Giudice said afterwards.  "I was trying to be nice and Danielle started."

Staub later dropped her complaint against Giudice and Laurita but proceeded with charges against Holmes, who told police she pulled Staub's hair because she incorrectly thought Staub had hit her mother.  Holmes was subsequently found guilty of assault and ordered to pay a $189 fine.

According to Giudice, she only wanted to confront Staub about false rumors Staub had allegedly been spreading about her.

"I'd heard there was rumors going around that she was spreading so that was my opportunity.  I never see the bitch, so that was my opportunity to speak to her woman to woman, face to face.  Get it?" Giudice told Watch What Happens: Live host Andy Cohen.  "I was waiting for her outside because I wanted to speak to her like woman to woman, face to face, and she's the one that had an entourage.  I was all by myself, I didn't even tell Jacqueline that I was going to talk to her.


"We're dealing with a psycho-maniac," Giudice said of Staub.  "Everyone isn't seeing what goes on on the scenes and behind the scenes.  Like you just can't go around spreading rumors and saying whatever you feel like saying."

Later in the Watch What Happens: Live interview, Giudice -- who filed for bankruptcy with her husband in October -- acknowledged that the rumors Staub had allegedly been spreading were about the foreclosure of her custom-built, 12,000-square-foot home, which was briefly listed for sale for $3.99 million last month.

"I'd heard there were rumors going around that she's spreading and... when I heard her say 'foreclosure,' right there confirmed to me that the rumors that were going around were true," she said.

During her Watch What Happens: Live appearance, Giudice also said the home is not in foreclosure despite the couple's Chapter 7 filing, which requires liquidation of assets in order to pay creditors and reportedly listed of liabilities of $8,709,831 and assets of only $2,261,150 for the couple.  

"My house is not under foreclosure and it's never been.  My house has never been in foreclosure, never," she said.


However Giudice failed to note that the foreclosure "rumors" -- which had already been widely reported in the press in October, well before the November fashion show -- were actually largely true and Staub and some media outlets had just incorrectly confused the couple's lavish home with another home a lender had begun foreclosure proceedings on in August 2009.

In addition, Giudice, who has regularly boasted about her family's lavish lifestyle and claimed her family had to build a new home because previously-owned homes are unclean, denied any personal responsibility for her debt.

"Well, not me," she replied when Cohen said she was "in quite a bit of debt."

"My husband and his ex-partner, with real estate.  Trump's also in a lot of debt, he just filed in February.  We're taking care of it, it's business matters, and we're doing the best we can.  We're not moving."






About The Author: Steven Rogers