We. Are. Shook. We always thought Danielle Staub was a liar, who exaggerated or fabricated stories to create drama, but a wild new claim she made during the Feb. 19 episode of The Real Housewives of New Jersey was proven to be true, thanks to actual video footage. And unfortunately, the revelation could potentially break up the entire friend group.
It all started when Melissa Gorga confronted Danielle at the Jersey Shore. After Melissa heard that Danielle was going to be in town at the same time as everyone else (how convenient), she took it upon herself to sit Danielle down and tell her to stop coming around. To be honest, it was all very reminiscent of Caroline Manzo‘s infamous sit-down with Danielle at the end of Season 2 (“You are a clown.“), so we definitely felt some deja vu upon witnessing this new takedown. And just like the last time this happened, Danielle didn’t appreciate the fact that Melissa said she was supposedly speaking for everyone in the group when she told Danielle that they didn’t want her around anymore.
“All of the girls no longer want you around,” Melissa said, to which Danielle asked, “Does that include Teresa?” Melissa replied, “Teresa also knows that I’m here. [But] she does enjoy your company — I think you make her laugh, Danielle. But you know what, Danielle, I don’t think Teresa’s in her right mind right now — let’s be honest … You see what she’s going through with her husband, right? That family is suffering. And if you do something violent or vicious, you know that can affect her.”
“Are you really saying that to me?” Danielle asked in the most jersey way we could have ever imagined. (Her accent was thickkkkk this week, and we loved it.) And after Melissa asked Danielle if she felts she’s a good person for Teresa Giudice to be around, given the fact that she pulls people’s hair, Danielle dropped a major bomb. “I think we all had a lot to drink. I was also influenced,” she started.
“I was done [with the fight] when I dumped Margaret’s bag in the candle,” Danielle continued. “I was finished. But then Steven told me I should go pull her hair.”
“Steven, the owner of the boutique?” Melissa asked, to which Danielle replied, “Yeah.” But that wasn’t it. Danielle revealed someone else was also involved. “When Steven said, ‘Do it,’ I hesitated. And then, I looked at Teresa and she said, ‘Yeah, do it.'”
Melissa then tried clarifying and asked, “You’re saying Teresa told you to pull [Margaret’s] hair?” And Danielle said, “Yes.” Now, normally, we’d assume Danielle was lying, considering the fact that she’s done so many times in the past. But RHONJ producers caught the exact moment on camera, and showed footage that proves Teresa did, in fact, tell Danielle to pull Margaret’s hair. “Yeah, you should,” Teresa could be seen telling Danielle. And even after Danielle said she couldn’t, Teresa begged her to do so. “Do it,” Teresa said, EIGHT times in a row.
And just like us, Melissa was shook. “Wow,” she said in the final few seconds of this week’s episode, after hearing the troubling secret about her sister-in-law. At this point, it’s not yet clear what sort of ramifications this confession will cause, but we can’t imagine the end result will be very pretty.
Want more drama? New episodes of The Real Housewives of New Jersey air Wednesdays at 8pm on Bravo.