Gia Giudice’s favorite part about her mom Teresa Giudice’s wedding to Luis “Louie” Ruelas was the “strength” the “Real Housewives of New Jersey” star showed walking down the aisle “alone.”
In an exclusive interview with Page Six, the eldest of the Bravolebrity’s four daughters shares that she will never forget the moment “the church doors opened and [Teresa] walked out.”
“There’s not many women that could say they walked down the aisle alone,” the Rutgers University senior, 22, tells us. “And also, the nerves of walking down the aisle alone, like, I would’ve been freaking out!”
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Though fans had speculated that Joe Gorga was supposed to accompany his only sister to the altar, the real estate developer — who, along with his wife, Melissa Gorga, ultimately chose to skip the lavish affair in August 2022 — has claimed he was “never asked.”
And since the siblings’ father, Giacinto Gorga, died in April 2020, Gia says she had “offered” to take on the special role.
“I was like, ‘Mom, I’ll walk you down,’” she recalls, noting that she already held the title of maid of honor. “But she was like, ‘I think I could do it. I think I got it.’”
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Gia says she commended “the strength that it took for [Teresa] to walk down that aisle alone” and that her mom “looked so beautiful and so seamless doing it.”
“That was the best part,” she gushes. “And then, of course, [the fact] that I was able to help her with her dress … was really, really beautiful, too.”
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At the last minute, the Gorgas bailed on attending Teresa and Ruelas’ big day at East Brunswick’s Park Chateau Estate & Garden after they got into a blowout fight while filming their reality show’s Season 13 finale.
Though the spat in question has not yet aired, insiders previously told Page Six exclusively that it had to do with rumors Melissa cheated on Joe, which the longtime couple were said to have laughed off.
However, the bad blood may have been brewing for a while since Teresa, 50, announced on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen” last March that her sister-in-law, 43, would not be one of her bridesmaids — information that the Envy boutique owner claimed she learned along with the rest of the world.
Despite the realty stars’ years-long beef, Gia tells us that the Giudice-Gorga children — Gabriella Giudice, 18, Milania Giudice, 17, Audriana Giudice, 13, Antonia Gorga, 17, Gino Gorga, 15, and Joey Gorga, 12 — “never” let their parents’ issues “affect” their rapport as cousins.
She admits the family dynamic used to be harder to navigate when the kids were “younger” and less independent, but she has “hope” the next generation will bring everyone “back together.”
As for what viewers can expect to see as Season 13 airs, Gia shares that cameras captured her “immediate family” coming to several realizations.
“Me, my sisters and my mom, we definitely evolved more this season,” she explains. “We all wanted to take a more mature route and just really evaluate what was going on instead of [reacting] because we also felt like this whole ‘Teresa and her brother’ saga is just so old.”
Gia believes the feud “went on for so long” because the Giudices “were holding on” to the potential for genuine reconciliation.
“But I think in general, we realized — especially around the time of my mom’s wedding — we were just like, ‘I think it’s time to just let bygones be bygones, put it in the past and just focus on our family and focus on us.’”
“The Real Housewives of New Jersey” airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.