Gorga and Giudice Head to Therapy on Real Housewives

This week’s “Real Housewives of New Jersey” episode featured the long-awaited therapy session between Teresa Giudice and her brother, Joe Gorga.

Early in the episode, Gorga revealed to his family that his sister had agreed to go to therapy with him. While Giudice has repeatedly said in the past couple of episodes that she thinks therapy will make her brother realize he has a problem, Gorga revealed he has similar beliefs about her.

“Go in with an open mind and use that therapy to help yourself as well,” Gorga's cousin, Rosie Pierri, said, revealing that therapy helped her when she was going through a very angry period of self hatred before coming out as a lesbian.

Both Giudice and Gorga managed to make it to the therapy session. Each of them discussed the root of the issue, in their own opinions, with Dr. Michael Sweeney before coming together for a discussion. This marked the first time in two seasons of explosive fighting that the audience actually finds out what happened between them.

“Growing up, my sister and I were always close,” Gorga said. “I get married and my wife comes into the picture, I expected my sister to love my daughter the way I love her daughters. [Instead], my sister became competitive with my wife. I feel if I accepted her husband, with all the things he’s done to me, she should have done the same. She attacked my wife like she was her worst enemy. I never attacked her husband; I allowed him to belittle me.”

Giudice told a similar story, but said when Gorga's wife, Melissa, was pregnant with Antonia, she was pregnant with Milania, her third daughter, leaving her with much less time to spend with her brother and his new family. Both siblings lamented that they have spent so little time together lately, even ending their Sunday dinner traditions.

When he brought them together, Dr. Sweeney told them that they both clearly want the same thing. He suggested that they not discuss old grievances, although they may be able to in the future. He also suggested they resurrect the Sunday night tradition, saying it will be easier to be nicer to each other if they start getting along better.

Giudice suggested that they share an RV on the way to Napa Valley, and insisted, despite Sweeney saying it is a bad idea.

After agreeing to leave the past in the past, the siblings got up to leave. But immediately outside the office, Gorga brought up a story he read in the tabloids about him stealing from his parents and them moving into Giudice’s garage. Giudice insisted that she did not put the story out there, and Gorga accused her of lying. Out of sight of the cameras, the two argued about it for some time.

“Supposedly Teresa and Joe are broke. How can they build an apartment for my parents?” Gorga said in an off-scene interview. “It paints the picture that they’re the perfect children. Meanwhile, I’ve been paying the bill for 12 years. And I’m still paying the bill.”

Still, they left the therapy session agreeing to move forward.

Also in this week's episode, Kathy Wakile accompanied her sister, Pierri, to a gay bar, and proceeded to pick up girls for her.

“I gotta keep it to a two drink minimum…maximum, I should say,” Wakile said. “It was just too much to handle in one night.”

Still, Pierri left the bar with the phone number of a girl Wakile picked out for her, and next week’s preview promises that more will develop from there.

Meanwhile, at the Manzo/Laurita family dinner, the families discussed whether to uninvite the Giudices from the upcoming RV trip to the Napa Valley.

“How do you uninvite Teresa and Jacqueline and bring their family? …I’ll just be an adult and stay out of the way,” Jacqueline Laurita said, despite not wanting to spend time with the Giudices.

The show airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on Bravo.

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