Tag: Joe Benigno

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Margaret Josephs opened up about her communication with Luis Ruelas‘ ex-girlfriend, Vanessa Reiser, while appearing on Tamra Judge and Teddi Mellencamp‘s podcast on Wednesday.

While also explaining why she’ll never show proof of Teresa Giudice‘s husband contacting her son and reacting to Luis, 50, wishing suffering upon him, the 57-year-old Real Housewives of New Jersey star addressed claims of hypocrisy, shared her thoughts on Danielle Cabral, 38, doubling down against Jennifer Aydin, 47, and confirmed her husband Joe Benigno‘s cancer diagnosis.

After being asked if she ever met with Vanessa on the August 14 episode of Two Ts in a Pod, Margaret revealed, “No.”

“But I got Vanessa’s phone number. Her attorney asked her to reach out to all of us after the Bo Dietl thing. She had a very big thing happening there. I then called her when I found out about that burn party. I was like, ‘I want to talk to your attorney. Is there something I should know about that came up in the case?’” she explained, noting that she wasn’t named in the case but received a subpoena in 2021.

Because Margaret has claimed to have proof that Luis reached out to her son at work, many have wondered why she won’t share it.

“He is a private citizen. He wants nothing to do with this show. I am very protective of my children. They’ve never been on the show. I don’t call them by name,” Margaret shared, adding that Bravo wouldn’t let her talk about the issue as a fact if they hadn’t seen the proof themselves.

“They saw the proof of it. They know it to be true. They know everything to be factual. I don’t need to prove it to the rest of the world what it is. I’m not gonna do that. It would be inappropriate,” she reasoned. “I think what validates it [even more] to be true is his behavior when he would even mention my child.”

“It’s horrible,” she continued. “For someone who has never mentioned their children … would I ever bring this up and make up a story like this when I’ve been so protective for, at that point, six years, never have even said that I have a biological child? Does that make any sense?”

Although some have said that it was hypocritical for Margaret to take offense to Luis’ actions against her son when she told Jennifer that children are “resilient” after exposing Bill Aydin‘s affair, she pointed out that Bill’s infidelity wasn’t going to ruin Jennifer’s kids lives.

“They’ve come together. They’re a wonderful couple. I don’t even get along with Jennifer anymore because of other things that have since happened but Bill’s a wonderful father, they know their father’s loving. They’ve seen their parents work it out and that’s why I said they’re resilient,” she explained. “[Luis is] actually wishing harm on my family. It’s actually dangerous. Because unfortunately, he is igniting, you know, there are sick people in this world and they can have fans that are… and that can be igniting people to do very harmful things.”

“Why even bring that up? Why even bring up my child?” she wondered.

Looking back at filming on the RHONJ finale watch party, which aired as an alternative to the canceled reunion, Margaret said she and her castmates filmed for “most of the day.”

“I wish you would’ve seen more confessional because we all had much longer confessionals,” she shared.

As for the future of the show, Margaret admitted she doesn’t know where the series goes from here.

“It changes every day. I feel like I don’t know. I really don’t know. Sometimes I think, the bonds, you saw our room was so happy. We don’t need all happy but we can argue and make up,” she noted.

Then, when asked about Danielle doubling down against Jennifer, stating that her only regret about their fight was “not killing” her, Margaret admitted she wished Danielle “didn’t say that.”

“I was like, ‘Danielle, that’s Staten Island,’ cuz I really love Danielle but I think she realized so many things when she was so upset … I think it all came into her head that Jennifer was the one putting those things out online about her. Everything became a reality to her. Like, ’They were never my friends. They were doing these horrible things.’ I think it just like, overwhelmed her,” Margaret explained.

Also, on the podcast, Margaret confirmed her husband Joe has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, sharing that because his cancer is in the “very early stages,” he only has to get checked every four or five months.

“[They] do genomic testing now and his is very slow growing, like 97%. So they treat it now with active surveillance,” she revealed. “They don’t do any treatment unless it changes and his has not changed at all so we’re lucky.”