Melissa Gorga and her husband Joe will get into an explosive fight as their marriage troubles come to a head during the latest episode of The Real Housewives of New Jersey.
In a midseason trailer for the series, Melissa and Joe scream at one another as they tried to come to terms about their changing relationship.
Joe reportedly could not accept Melissa’s growing independence in their relationship and they get into an explosive argument.
Melissa admits the couple is growing apart, but revealed she will continue to explore the many new professional options that have opened up for her.
She tells Joe, “I’m not going to give up what I want to do in life. You’re holding me back.”
Joe angrily responded to his shocked wife, “Listen, go be whatever you want to be in life. We’re done.”
Melissa reveals her true feelings
In the trailer, Melissa is seen defending her husband to Margaret Josephs, who claimed that Joe was acting in a chauvinistic manner. This exchange occurred during a Halloween party the cast attended.
Melissa confronted her fellow costumed castmates, including Margaret, Teresa Giudice, Dolores Catania, Jennifer Aydin, and Jackie Goldschneider.
“I don’t need anyone calling my husband chauvinistic. Whatever you think I’m dealing with, its probably more,” Melissa yelled.
Melissa admitted in an earlier episode of the series that Joe “put the fear of God in her” when she went out without him.
“He’s like, ‘Oh, you’re gonna go with your friend?’ . . . ‘K, I’m going to go out too.’ And it makes it so uneasy for me,” she said to her castmates during a girls’ trip to Lake George, New York.
Where does the RHONJ couple stand today?
Melissa shared in an interview with Page Six that she and Joe were “in a good place” after going through this very public rough patch in their 16-year marriage.
“Listen, I’m not gonna deny that we went through a rough, like year-and-a-half, and I would say it started right before the pandemic,” Melissa said of their difficulties.
“I feel like as I become more and more independent in certain ways, it really is a struggle for him. I hate that. It shouldn’t be a struggle and it really is. And we really go through it and we’re very raw and real and honest with it. So you’re going to have to see how that all unfolds. But it’s very real for us,” she continued.
The couple wed in 2004. They have three children: Antonia, 15, Gino, 13, and Joey, 10.
The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.