Heavy/Getty/NBCUniversal A former RHONJ star is speaking out.
A former “Real Housewives of New Jersey” star is speaking out about her experience on the show and is spilling information about the production staff behind the franchise.
On the June 26, 2023, episode of the “AllAboutTRH” podcast, Siggy Flicker provided her take on what happens behind-the-scenes, and called production “toxic.” Flicker says that when she first joined the show, they wanted her to “hate this girl,” meaning Teresa Giudice.
“When I talk about ‘they,’ I’m talking about the toxic production team that handled — I know some of them got fired — that plays favorites,” she said. “And I’m going to reveal a lot of things that people don’t know. They play favorites and they protect, especially, Margaret,” Flicker continued, explaining that Josephs doesn’t have a storyline of her own and that she is willing to dig deep and go to “dark places” with the cast.
Here’s what you need to know:
Siggy Flicker Says RHONJ Is ‘Not Real’
From her experience on seasons 7 and 8, Flicker says that production was involved to the point where the show couldn’t even be considered “reality” television.
“Why are they calling it reality? It’s not real. It’s not real when producers are stopping everything and whispering in certain ears,” Flicker said.
“So what people need to understand is when you’re filming a five hour scene, you see two minutes of it. But within that five hour or three hour scene, they’re constantly stopping and whispering,” she added.
Despite how production may go about filming, executive producer Andy Cohen has always maintained that the women on the show are as real as they seem. “Everything is very real and all you would have to do is to meet a housewife to see that they are as they appear,” he said in an interview with Elle in February 2023.
Other ‘Real Housewives’ Stars Have Hinted That Production Gets Involved in Filming
In January 2023, a fan asked full-time cast member Jennifer Aydin if the show was “scripted” in any way during a Q&A she did on her Instagram Stories.
“Just the restaurants and shops we go into are all pre-approved, but the content???? That’s us. #the drama is real,” Aydin responded, according to Reality Blurb.
But Flicker was quick to address comments like this, too. She alluded to the cast not being able to out production for fear of being removed from the show — which is one of the reasons she has distanced herself. She says she didn’t want anyone losing their jobs because they were associated with someone who was spilling production secrets, so to speak.
In 2021, former full-time star Caroline Manzo was also asked if the show was scripted and seemed to have a similar response to what Flicker claims. “It’s never scripted, but they try to push you. ‘Hey, by the way, did you hear this?’ and if you’re dumb enough to believe it, you’re going to give them what they want,” Manzo told Us Weekly.
“It’s like playing in the schoolyard and you see the bully grabbing the quarter out of the kid’s pocket. It’s [up to] you to decide whether or not you’re going to help the bully or the kid,” she added.
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