Getty Images Jennifer Aydin's daughter found out about Bill's affair on TikTok.
On the season premiere of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey,” Jennifer Aydin confirmed that her husband Bill Aydin had an affair. The reveal came out at the end of the episode when Jennifer was having a bit of a back-and-forth with her RHONJ co-star, Margaret Josephs.
Although Jennifer didn’t supply too many details — such as, when the affair happened or how long it went on — she did share that Bill cheated on her with a pharmaceutical rep from work.
“I had no idea that I thought nobody would ever find out. … I never told anybody. Nobody knew — [not] my mother, my sister, my best friend, my cousin. Like, when I say I was taking it to the grave, I kept that secret inside. And it was very hard for me to do, and I was able to do it for the greater good of my family,” Jennifer told Us Weekly.
There was one person, whoever, who found out about the affair in a non-conventional way. Jennifer and Bill’s youngest daughter, Olivia, 9, learned about it on TikTok.
Here’s what you need to know:
Olivia Was Drawn to a TikTok That Promised a ‘Big Secret’ About Her Parents
Months before the premiere of RHONJ, Olivia Aydin was scrolling TikTok when she saw something that promised a “big secret” about her parents. As a curious child, she clicked in — and was shocked at what she learned.
“We had a blogger leak this awful storyline and somebody made a TikTok on it,” Jennifer told Page Six. “My sweet little Olivia — who threw a beautiful anniversary party for us [on ‘RHONJ’ Season 11] to show how her parents are still in love — saw a TikTok that said ‘the big secret,'” the reality star added.
From there, Olivia decided to defend her parents. She took to the comments section on the TikTok video and wrote, “This is my mommy and daddy and this is not true!” She then showed her mom the video and was so proud of herself for speaking up, according to Jennifer.
“I said, ‘It’s for the show and it’s not good if we release things, so maybe we shouldn’t draw attention.’ I had her take it down that way,” Jennifer explained.
Jennifer & Bill Told Their Kids About the Affair Ahead of the RHONJ Season
Jennifer and Bill sat down with each of their kids to tell them the truth about Bill’s past.
“I sat [Olivia] down and I kept my composure because I realized [my kids] will react to however Mommy’s acting. I put on a brave face and said, ‘Listen, Daddy did a bad thing. But that doesn’t mean that he’s a bad person. And when we love people, we forgive them when they make mistakes. And I’ve forgiven him and I’m OK.’ She wasn’t upset because I wasn’t upset,” Jennifer told Page Six.
“My husband told Justin. I was in the room, and Justin kind of was almost irritated, like, ‘I don’t ever want to talk about this ever again.’ He’s not watching this season. My Gabriella, she was more crushed. She felt very betrayed and was angry for a bit but we got through that. And my two [younger] boys, they’re neither here or there,” Jennifer continued.
Meanwhile, in her interview with Us Weekly, Jennifer shared how she found out about Bill’s affair, which happened a decade ago, based on the timeline she provided.
“I found out [about the affair] pretty much 10 days before I [gave birth to] Christian. So, you know, I was going through the process of letting it sink in while having to have a baby and wanting my baby to have all of the blessings that a normal child would, like having his mommy and his daddy in the delivery room. So I wanted to go through the motions of playing this game of life, so to speak, to try to put on a brave face for my children,” Jennifer told the outlet.