Melissa Gorga Responds to Kathy Wakile’s ‘Petty’ Comments: ‘Stay On Your Side of the Street!’

Heavy/Getty/Bravo Melissa Gorga; Kathy and Richie Wakile

Melissa Gorga issued a response to Kathy Wakile’s comments about her on “Watch What Happens Live.”

On July 19, 2024,  “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” star spoke out on her  “On Display With Melissa Gorga” podcast after Wakile dissed her suggestion of a reconciliation with her estranged cousin Joe Gorga once they become neighbors.

On her podcast, Melissa Gorga said Wakile’s negative reaction was “weird” after she “extended an olive branch” by suggesting the cousins could work things out.

“Your loss,” Gorga said of Wakile, “Stay on your side of the street! All good. I tried.”

Kathy Wakile appeared on RHONJ from seasons 3 to 7 but became embroiled in a family feud with her cousins Joe Gorga and Teresa Giudice.

Melissa Gorga Said She Was Stunned By Kathy Wakile’s Response

PeacockKathy Wakile on WWHL.

In June, Melissa Gorga appeared on “Jeff Lewis Live” where she revealed that Wakile and her husband Richie “just bought the lot” across the street from her Franklin Lakes, NJ mansion. “They are building a house diagonal from me across the street on my street, literally,” Gorga told Lewis, adding, “It’s funny, everyone moves to my street.”

Gorga also said she hoped her husband Joe would bump into his cousin sometime on their shared street after years of estrangement. Gorga described Wakile as “a good person” and “good cousin” to her husband before their falling out when they were all cast members on RHONJ.

Soon after, Wakile was a surprise guest on WWHL, where she shaded Gorga by calling the street she lives on “Melissa Way.” “Apparently, she owns the street,” Wakile cracked.

Wakile also described the suggestion of the family reconciling as “very convenient” for Gorga. “Not to be boastful but each property is at least an acre to two acres. So, you don’t see each other,” Wakile added.

On her podcast episode, Gorga said Wakile had “a little negative flare” when asked about her new house build. “She mentioned something like, ‘Well, there’s acres, and these houses are on acres, so, we probably won’t see them anyway.’ I was a little taken back by that,” Gorga said. “What I said on Jeff Lewis I thought was very nice and very in a way of moving forward in some which way.”

“It wasn’t like a, ‘hey, I want you on the show, or like, I want you back in our lives,’” the RHONJ star added. “That wasn’t really what I was saying. I was saying like, well it would be nice if we live on the same street and there are two cousins living on the same street and they bumped into each other. It would be really nice to have them talk and work it out and talk it out.”

“I don’t think I liked the attitude,” Gorga added. “I’m like it’s weird. We haven’t seen her in a very long time, so I just thought it was a little petty.”

Joe Gorga Had a Run-In With Richie Wakile & It Did Not Go Well

GettyKathy and Richie Wakile: Melissa and Joe Gorga

Gorga’s husband then recounted a story of running into his cousin’s husband, Richie, after he found out the Wakiles were building a house in their neighborhood.

“I ran into Richie,” Joe Gorga recalled on the podcast. “We were at a plumbing supply place, and I was up on the on the dock and he was down on the bottom. I didn’t realize that he was down there, and I was loading my plumbing material and I trip over to forklift.  So this guy goes ‘Hey you all right?’ I look up and it’s Richie.”

“And this was the time they bought the property, and they were gonna move into the neighborhood,” Joe continued. “I was being nice. I go, ‘Hey, what’s up Richie? What’s up Wakile?… Welcome to the neighborhood!’ And you know what he said to me? He goes, ‘Hey, that’s Mr. Wakile to you!’ And he gets in his car and he takes off. Like, really rude and nasty.”

Joe Gorga speculated that Richie Wakile is still “bitter” because he “got kicked off” of RHONJ.

Melissa ended the discussion with, “It is what it is. If I see you across the street maybe I won’t [say hi] maybe I will. Whatever at this point. Because it is what it is.”