Kim DePaola may not be the Gorgas’ biggest fan, but she doesn’t believe Melissa cheated on her husband, Joe.
“This is a hearsay thing,” the “Real Housewives of New Jersey” alum, 61, said on the “Behind the Velvet Rope with David Yontef” podcast over the weekend, claiming the infidelity allegation is “not true” and is just “a bunch of bull.”
The rumor – which was brought to the group via “RHONJ” star Margaret Josephs’ friend-turned-foe, Laura Marasca Jensen – claims Melissa, 43, allegedly made out with actor Nick Barrotta after a night out in New York a few years ago.
Sources close to the married “Tyler Perry’s The Oval” star “strongly denied” the allegation to the Daily Mail, while one of our insiders called the claim “ridiculous.”
“They’re laughing about it,” our source told us, adding that “[they’ve] all been friends for years.”
Then last week, Jensen admitted to us that she had heard the story from Josephs, “who was not even there [to witness the alleged cheating] herself.”
After the pair’s falling out, Jensen reached out to “RHONJ” star Teresa Giudice, 50, to meet with her and co-star Jennifer Aydin, both of whom have long butted heads with Melissa and Josephs, 55.
It was during the trio’s long conversation about “life” that Jensen said she brought up the cheating rumor.
An insider then told us that it was Aydin, 45, who brought up the rumor on camera while shooting Season 13, but DePaola still thinks “Teresa’s behind this.”
“Teresa uses all her soldiers to do her s–t,” she claimed. “She has everyone do her dirty work.”
Though the Gorgas are brushing off the allegation, they did choose to skip out on Giudice’s wedding to Luis “Louie” Ruelas.
“Sometimes when things are too toxic, and you try over and over and over again, and it just keeps coming back around to the same thing … even if it’s family, you have to let it go,” Melissa said on her podcast last week, alluding to issues with her sister-in-law’s new husband.
DePaola cautioned that fans likely won’t get Joe, 42, and Melissa’s full side of things until the forthcoming season airs on Bravo.
“No one’s hearing the whole story,” she alleged. “[Melissa] can’t reveal it because when you’re under contract, you cannot do that.”