RHONJ Stars React to New Reunion Special Format

“The Real Housewives of New Jersey” season 14 is ending unlike any past season, as Bravo announced that they would be foregoing the typical reunion show, but instead the cast would sit down to watch the finale episode together at Rails Steakhouse in Towaco, New Jersey. What’s more, the cast will be split given the fractured cast relationships (including Teresa Giudice and Melissa Gorga, Giudice and Margaret Josephs, and Jennifer Aydin and Danielle Cabral).

Giudice, Aydin, and Dolores Catania opened up with their thoughts on the split reunion special in a red-carpet interview with People during a July 20 Mend Skincare Presents: Jill Zarin’s Luxury Luncheon by Laifen & Ticket2events benefitting the Bobby Zarin Memorial Trust event in the Hamptons.

“I was happy with it,” Giudice told the outlet about the new reunion format. “The viewers are going to have to see how it plays out, I can’t give it away, but I feel good with it.”

Does Jennifer Aydin Expect Resolution Within the RHOC Cast?

Catania and Aydin shared their thoughts on the new format as well, with Catania adding, “We were all happy with it. To be honest, we were all okay and left saying … well, I don’t want to ruin it for the fans. But it’s worth the wait.”

Aydin told the outlet “I didn’t have to see anybody I didn’t like or that I’m not getting along with. It was quiet pleasant! Amongst ourselves, we all aired our grievances and our gripes and we all communicated. It wasn’t the fighting that you usually see. And the fans are as sick of the fighting as I am, so I think they’re going to love it.”

The cast split saw Aydin, Catania, and Giudice watching the finale with Jackie Goldschneider, while Gorga, Josephs, Cabral, Rachel Fuda, and Jenn Fessler watched in another room at Rails. According to initial reports, there was a possibility of Catania and Fessler, who remain on good terms with most of their castmates, floating between the two rooms.

People then asked Aydin if she felt there was room for resolution within the RHONJ cast, to which the reality star replied, “Sometimes you don’t resolutions to move on. You can decide that somebody is not right for you and some people are not right for you. You don’t need resolution to move on, you can be indifferent and that’s where I am with some of these girls. I’m neither here or there.”

Andy Cohen Said the RHONJ Finale Serves as a Reunion

Regular reunion host Andy Cohen, who was not absent at the Rails Steakhouse proceedings, called into the SiriusXM RadioAndy show “Reality Checked with Kiki Monique” in June 2023 to give some context on the RHONJ reunion, saying that the finale, “is one of those classic ‘Jersey’ finales that people will be talking about for a long time to come. And when all of us producers saw the last cut of the finale, we all came to the decision separately, and then we talked. We all had the same thought, which is the finale is kind of the finale and the reunion all in one. It’s in the great tradition of absolute, shocking, dramatic ‘Jersey’ finales. And they have this final, epic group encounter, which feels like the Last Supper.”

Addressing RHONJ fans who may have felt slighted about missing out on the regular reunion show, Cohen added, “I’m telling you, when you see it, I think you’ll feel complete.”

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