Margaret Josephs Says What Jackie Goldschneider Should Have Done During RHONJ Finale

Heavy/Peacock Jackie Goldschneider and Margaret Josephs of RHONJ.

Margaret Josephs thinks Jackie Goldschneider played things all wrong after she exposed her secret on “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” season 14 finale.

Josephs dropped a bomb about Goldschneider during a cast luncheon filmed at Rails Steakhouse. She stunned the rest of the cast by announcing that Goldschneider invited Louie Ruelas’ ex, Vanessa Reiser, to her house in 2021 to get dirt on him one year before he married Teresa Giudice. All along, Giudice had accused Josephs of being in cahoots with Reiser.

Goldschneider at first denied Josephs’ story, then finally admitted that she did talk to Reiser behind Giudice’s back. Giudice forgave her friend for the betrayal, but Goldschneider slinked out of the restaurant in the ultimate Housewives walk of shame.

Speaking on the “Reality Checked With Kiki Monique” podcast in August 2024, Josephs said Goldschneider blew it by sticking by Giudice’s side.

“Jackie played it all wrong,” Josephs said on the podcast. “If she had half a brain, Jackie should have said, ‘Yeah, Teresa, I wanted to stick it right up your [expletive] and I love Margaret, and you know what? I wanted to ruin you, and I did. I got ya back. Margaret, I’m so sorry. How could I have done this to you?’ And ran to my side of the table. That’s what Jackie should’ve done. She would’ve looked like a hero.”

Margaret Josephs Said She ‘Loved’ Jackie Goldschneider

BravoMargaret Josephs and Jackie Goldschneider.

Josephs’ issues with Ruelas and Giudice played out through the season. In a shocking scene in the finale episode, titled “After All Is Said and Done,” Ruelas told Giudice that he hoped Josephs would “suffer” after accusing him of harassing her son at work.

“You know, I hope her [expletive] son suffers the way I suffered, the way other people in our family have suffered with a woman like that,” Ruelas said. “She is a disgusting, vile human being. …She’s a real piece of garbage.”

Josephs told Monique, “I was threatened again in the finale, my entire family. I find it appalling, disgusting … No one says that. It’s horrifying.”

But she also alleged that Goldschneider was in the know about all of the things Ruelas and Giudice were doing to her and never said a word.

On the RHONJ season 14 episode, titled “Don’t Trial This At Home,” Giudice held a meeting with her lawyer, James Leonard, and several of her cast mates to allege that Josephs had been getting information about Ruelas from Reiser and spreading it online. Goldschneider was in attendance at the meeting.

“I was nothing but a champion for Jackie,” Josephs told Monique. “I loved her, I cared for her. And she watched them [Teresa and Luis] do all these horrible things to me and never spoke up. So I actually find it disgraceful.”

“Jackie knew about that, knows that side, and kept quiet,” she added. “She probably didn’t want that terror to come on herself and figured, ‘Let it come all on Margaret and no one will be the wiser.’ ….  Jackie has no loyalty to anybody but herself. She made that quite clear.”

Margaret Josephs Still Feels Vindicated

PeacockMargaret Josephs.

Giudice seemed unfazed by the revelation that her friend Goldschneider had a secret meeting with Ruelas’ ex. In an interview with BravoTV.com, Giudice claimed she “didn’t even flinch” over Josephs’ bombshell because she “already knew what they were gonna say.”

Giudice even threw her estranged sister-in-law Melissa Gorga into the mix.

“I think Margaret and Melissa were waiting to tell me that Jackie had Louie’s last two exes … at her house,” said in the Bravo TV interview. “I knew that they were all hanging out with [the exes], I think they were all talking to them. Jackie had them at her house because Margaret’s not gonna be that dumb and have them at her house. Or Melissa’s not gonna have them at her house because Melissa then is gonna look so bad [because] that’s my sister-in-law. And Margaret let Jackie do it because you know, at the time Jackie was Margaret’s puppet.”

But Josephs told Monique she didn’t find out about Goldschneider’s meeting with Reiser until one week before the finale was filmed at Rails. “I feel so vindicated, it’s absolutely insane,” she said on the podcast. “I mean it took the whole damn season for the truth to come out.”