The 10 Biggest, Wildest Fights from 'The Real Housewives of New Jersey'
The Real Housewives brand is as as famous for its messy meltdowns as it is for its McMansions. But none of the franchise's installments have brawls and blow-ups quite as explosive as The Real Housewives of New Jersey, a show marked by heated family dynamics, big personalities and good old-fashioned Garden State attitude.
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In the 15 years since the likes of Teresa Giudice, Caroline Manzo, Melissa Gorga and Danielle Staub entered the Bravo reality universe, RHONJ viewers have had a ringside seat to fiery exchanges, fierce squabbles and physical fights. And it doesn’t look like that’s going to change anytime soon: Season 14 hasn’t even aired yet—it’s set to debut on Bravo on Sunday, May 5—but already production reports note that a physical altercation occurred between cast members Danielle Cabral and Jennifer Aydin during filming. When it comes to these hot-headed Jersey girls, we’d expect nothing less. Here are the 10 best fights in The Real Housewives of New Jersey history.
Best fights from The Real Housewives of New Jersey
10. The Posche Fashion Show Fight (Season 8)
The annual Posche Fashion Show has served as the setting of many fights and feuds over the course of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, with Posche boutique owner Kim DePaola (known to RHONJ fans as “Kim D.”) getting frequently pulled into the wives’ drama. The Season 8 edition of the charity event wasn’t without its own expletive-filled encounter. After Teresa caught wind that Kim D. was spreading rumors about her fidelity to her then-husband Joe Giudice, who was in prison for fraud, she declared that she wanted “to f--king straighten [her] out right away.” However, Giudice might just have met her match, as DePaola gave as good as she got. (“You’re the one that was in f--king jail, not me, b---h!”)
9. The Livid Lunch (Season 2)
Not every RHONJ fight requires yelling to be intense: case in point, Caroline Manzo’s chilling lunch with Danielle Staub on RHONJ's second season. After many episodes of Danielle quarreling with Caroline’s sister Dina Manzo, her sister-in-law Jacqueline Laurita and her niece Ashlee Holmes, Caroline took it upon herself as the family matriarch to set Danielle straight over appetizers. And unlike louder altercations in the series, Caroline kept it cool and cutting: "You know what you are? You're a clown. Your whole life is a joke…When I called you garbage, I meant you were garbage.” Danielle was practically rendered speechless, and so were fans.
8. Amber and the Twins (Season 6)
With all of those skimpy firemen costumes, it’s only fitting that things quickly heated up at Bobby Ciasulli’s first responders’ party in the show’s sixth season. After hearing that Amber Marchese was spreading rumors that Nicole Napolitano was responsible for breaking up a marriage, the latter confronted Amber during the themed shindig. Nicole snapping in Amber’s face swiftly segued into Nicole grabbing Amber’s hair. Nicole’s twin sister Teresa Aprea then got involved by throwing a drink, and several men had to step in and restrain the warring women. If you needed physical proof of the severity of the scuffle, a giant clump of hair ripped straight out of Amber’s head was more than enough.
7. The Pool Push (Season 9)
The Real Housewives of New Jersey has gifted TV fans with countless quotable moments and Margaret Joseph’s hilariously unbothered “Your husband’s in the pool” is one for the ages. In the Season 9 finale, the self-professed “powerhouse in pigtails” and her hubby Joe Benigno derailed Jennifer Aydin’s anniversary party by pushing Danielle’s then-husband Marty Caffrey into the pool during an argument. Equally funny was Margaret’s didn’t-miss-a-beat response to Danielle’s confusion over who threw her husband in the pool: “Me and my husband!”
6. The Reunion Shove (Season 2)
Reunions usually are times to reflect, reminisce and reconcile. Not on RHONJ. On the show, they’re yet another opportunity to throw down, as was the case during the Season 2 reunion. A rage-filled Teresa got in Danielle’s face after the latter made a disparaging remark about Teresa's family. And while a screaming match between Teresa Giudice and Danielle Staub isn’t all that surprising, it was a shock when Teresa involved reunion host Andy Cohen in the messy mix. Teresa shoved the Bravo producer down into his seat when he tried to get between the two feuding women. Knowing good TV when he saw it, Cohen handled it like a pro, even jokingly commending Giudice: “I gotta tell you, you are strong. You threw me off! You don’t work out at all?!”
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5. The Cabo Dinner (Season 9)
"There's an unwritten law in this group: you do not talk about somebody's children," Dolores Catania declared during the women’s wild Cabo San Lucas vacation in Season 9. But, of course, rules are made to be broken. During the final meal of the trip, Danielle spitefully brought up Margaret’s relationship with her children and received a glass of red wine to the face in return. Then dinnertime hell broke loose (even after Margaret swiftly exited the table). The yelling and glass-throwing continued between the remaining women, ending in an intense stand-off between Jennifer Aydin and Dolores. “If I didn’t walk away, I would have done something I may have regretted,” Catania declared.
4. The Ponytail Pull (Season 10)
From baptisms to backyard barbecues, no get-together is safe from a RHONJ fight. In the middle of an otherwise lovely ladies’ shopping event during the 10th season, tensions quickly escalated between Danielle and Margaret, resulting in the latter pouring an entire glass of water over Staub’s head, much to the shock of their fellow shoppers. Danielle retaliated by flinging the contents of Marge’s purse all around the shop, but that seemingly wasn’t enough for the housewife. ”I just can’t help myself anymore!” she villainously cried before yanking Marge’s ponytail. Things got even more wild when it was later revealed that the real villain all along was Teresa, who was allegedly the mastermind behind the hair-pulling moment.
3. The Battle of the Joes (Season 5)
"One day it's gonna happen: he's gonna get me f---ing mad, I'm gonna f---ing flip," Joe Giudice sagely prophesied about his brother-in-law Joe Gorga during the show’s fifth season. And his prediction came true mere moments later, after Teresa revealed that Gorga had just called her “scum” during a sibling argument, despite onlookers trying to defuse the bomb that was about to go off. "Relax, I'm gonna tell him to apologize!” Giudice hilariously declared as he charged towards the other Joe G. The full-body skirmish between the two men was an especially brutal one, with Gorga losing his shirt and Giudice nearly losing his, ahem, manhood.
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2. The Christening Fight (Season 3)
Teresa and her brother Joe weren’t always estranged, as RHONJ fans could see in the earlier episodes of the Bravo show. But even back then, there was clearly animosity between the siblings, as well as between Teresa and her sister-in-law Melissa Gorga. Care for the Gorgas’ elderly parents, jealousy between the sisters-in-law and, weirdly, sprinkle cookies were just a few of the issues fueling the bad blood between the respective parties going into a lavish baptism for Joe’s infant son (also named Joe, natch.) But the blessed day got unholy real quick: a verbal fight between Teresa and Joe turned physical when Teresa’s then-husband Joe Giudice joined in. If you’ve ever wanted to see a christening become a concert mosh-pit, look no further.
1. The Table Flip (Season 1)
In the Season 1 finale, a mere six episodes into the burgeoning franchise, Teresa Giudice furiously unleashed both a furniture upturning and a few memorable insults (“Prostitution whore!” “Engaged 19 times!”) after she was told to “Pay attention, puh-lease” during a dinner-party argument with Danielle Staub. In that moment, Teresa’s escalation changed the reality TV game and cemented RHONJ’s place in genre history. "That moment gave anybody else coming after us license to go all out," RHONJ alum Caroline Manzo said of the historic moment to People. "It became the benchmark. 'What could my table flip be?'" The Real Housewives of New Jersey was never the same again, and we kept watching.
Next, The Bickering Is Back! The Scoop on Who's Returning to 'The Real Housewives of New Jersey' Season 14
