YouTube/Bravo Dolores Catania on RHONJ.
Dolores Catania is revealing her true feelings about not being invited to “Real Housewives of New Jersey” costar and longtime friend, Teresa Giudice’s, engagement party.
In December 2021, Giudice and her new fiancé, Luis Ruelas, threw an engagement party for their friends and family in New Jersey, but Catania didn’t make the guest list. During the season 12 “Real Housewives of New Jersey” reunion, Giudice explained that it was because Catania had never been on a double date with her and Ruelas and that her fiancé only wanted to invite couples they both knew to the party. However, some fans later speculated that it was because Dina Manzo was also invited, and Manzo and Catania don’t get along with each other.
“I would be lying to say it didn’t [hurt] on some level,” Catania told Page Six in an interview published on May 10. “Not being invited to somewhere shouldn’t hurt me, OK? So I’m going to remind myself of that when these things happen. I am human, but I shake it off and I’m, like, OK.”
Catania continued, “I spoke to Teresa about it and she was like, ‘You know, I don’t why I said that.’ Whatever the reason is, should there be a reason? No. To me, there was no good reason — whether it was Dina or whether it was we didn’t go out for couples.”
Viewers can catch the final part of the “Real Housewives of New Jersey” season 12 reunion on Tuesday, May 17 at 8 p.m. Eastern time on Bravo.
Catania Maintains That She and Giudice Are ‘in a Good Place’
During an appearance on the May 10 episode of Us Weekly’s Getting Real with the Housewives podcast, Catania maintained that she and Giudice are in a good place right now, and she’s not looking to mess with the star’s happiness.
“I spoke to her, and she said it was a small affair,” Catania said during the podcast episode about Giudice. “She said it was because her and I didn’t go out as couples. The engagement party was based on people that they interacted with as couples, you know. It wasn’t my fault that we didn’t go out as couples. Of course, I did say I would like to have been invited, it would’ve been nice, but I’m not gonna take away from her happiness by fighting with her over her party that she didn’t invite me to.”
Catania added, “Of course, if I wasn’t invited to the wedding, that’s a different story and I’m sure Dina will be at the wedding. Again, I’m not someone who wouldn’t invite someone because they didn’t get along with someone. It’s their choice to come if they want to. Honestly, I’m okay with it. We’re in a good place, Teresa’s the happiest. She’s been through so much in her life and I don’t wanna fight with her about it.”
Melissa Gorga Will Not Be a Bridesmaid at Giudice’s Wedding
While Catania wasn’t invited to Giudice’s engagement party, her sister-in-law, Melissa Gorga, isn’t even going to be included in Giudice’s bridal party. Giudice talked about this during the first part of the season 12 “Real Housewives of New Jersey” reunion, where she explained that she isn’t having Gorga be a bridesmaid because the two aren’t close with each other.
However, Giudice will be including Ruelas’ sisters and her brother, Joe Gorga, in the wedding party.
“I didn’t think I would be upset about it, to be honest, until I heard that it was all of her new sister-in-laws plus their husbands, and then she was going to ask Joe and it was like, just me,” Gorga told Extra TV in an interview published on May 3.
Gorga continued, “I would never have every one of my sisters and like all of their family and just leave out one part. Like, I just wouldn’t do it. So I think it also really insulted Joe because Joe thought, like, ‘Listen, if you can’t stand my wife, which we all, like, have, you know, just to respect him and, and the mother of his children for all these years, and it’s not like there’s like some tumultuous, like, relationship between Joe and I, like, I was a bad wife all these years or something, you know… So he’s a little, he’s like, ‘I would never do that to Luis.’”