Turning the Tables: From Housewife to Inmate and Back Again (9 page)

After I signed the contract, we met with the producers, who gave us a rundown about how everything would work, and then a few weeks later, we started filming. Just like that. I was nervous that first day. After a while, though, I forgot the cameras were even there, which, as you can imagine was good and, sometimes, as I later found out, not so good. In one of my first scenes, Gia, Gabriella, Milania, and I visited Joe at his office, which was his first time on TV. He did great. He just goes with the flow. When we were doing the show, he didn’t feel the need to be on camera all the time. It just wasn’t his thing. He was busy running his businesses and respected the fact that the show was my thing. He was fine not being involved in every scene.

W
hile we were filming the show, which they later renamed
The Real Housewives of New Jersey
, we had no idea what would appear in the actual episodes, because they would always film so much more than what you saw on TV. The episodes also aired long after we finished shooting. Of course, this was all new to me. The producers would ask us what we were up to, and if they were interested, they would come along and film us. They liked when we did things together, so we could be filmed talking about the drama of the day while we were out and about somewhere.

When I joined the show, Joe’s businesses were doing well and we definitely lived comfortably, but it wasn’t like we had cash growing on the fruit trees in our backyard—though some people told me that’s what it looked like. When Joe and I moved into the Montville house, we used the furniture Joe had in his apartment and the baby furniture we had for Gia. I never splurged on big things for the house because we wanted to wait until after the remodel was done to redo everything. Joe worked on the house for a long time. Although we added on to the house, it
looked
like we built it from ground up, but we didn’t. I tried to be smart about what we bought and to not spend money frivolously.

W
hile I was close friends with Dina and Jacqueline, I didn’t know Caroline that well. I only knew her as Dina’s older sister. I thought she was nice and a good mother and respected her because she was one of my best friend’s sisters.

I met Caroline when Dina was living with her after Dina’s first divorce and would invite me over. Caroline started inviting me to her yearly all-girl Christmas party (one year they had male strippers there, dressed in Santa hats . . . it was hilarious). I would see Caroline at meetings and fund-raisers for Project Ladybug. When we started working together on the show, we became closer.

I didn’t know Danielle at all. When I first met her, I liked her, too. She was the first to speak her mind when the going got tough. She was so open and honest from the get-go that I thought I could trust her. That said, I’ve definitely learned my lesson: meeting new people is exciting in the beginning, so I let my guard down much too early—before I get a chance to see their true colors.

Things between Danielle and me were fine at first. I stood back and watched as she and Dina started getting into it. Danielle was upset, too, accusing Dina of spreading rumors about her past by sharing
Cop Without a Badge
, Danielle’s ex-husband’s book, with people in town. Then of course, Caroline started questioning Jacqueline’s friendship with Danielle. Let’s just say there was
lots
of drama! But at this point, I was still on the periphery—an outsider watching it all unfold.

As the season wore on, Danielle found herself in the hot seat again and again with Dina and Caroline. It all came to a head in the season finale, when we got together at a dinner I hosted. There we were, chatting away, when Danielle decided to pull out a copy of
Cop Without a Badge
. She went on to tell us that while two facts in the book were correct—that she did change her name and that she was arrested—the rest of it was filled with lies, and that she wasn’t happy that certain people were spreading those lies around town. By certain people, she meant Dina. Danielle said she was miffed because she had heard that Dina had shown the book to people at the Chateau. I was just sitting there listening, but was thinking,
This dinner is getting real tense, real quick.

I was starting to get mad. I had had a few cocktails and wasn’t happy that Danielle kept going after Dina, who is not a fighter. I felt bad for her. I was upset that Danielle was going after someone who she knew wouldn’t fight back. All of this was racing through my head like a runaway freight train.

You have to understand, loyalty is
the
most important thing to me—and when I see someone attacking somebody I care about, I get worked up beyond belief. Admittedly, it’s a fault of mine—but it’s a fault that stems from love.

Danielle said she wanted to clarify things in the book and wished certain people hadn’t brought the past into the present by showing the book to people in Franklin Lakes. Dina said she didn’t show the book to anyone. I tried to deflect attention from Dina and defend her when I asked—on camera, no less—“So why did your ex-husband write that friggin’ book?” Then I said, “Obviously
something
in that book has to be true.”

Danielle swiveled her head around at me and, with eyes blazing, ripped my head off, saying, “Two things are written that are true: Name change. I got arrested. Pay attention—
puh-leeze
!”

Oh boy. Anyone who knows me well knows I do
not
like when people talk down to me, and in such a harsh tone. Danielle
drop-kicked
me over the edge by disrespecting me in front of my family and friends—and the cameras.

I exploded.

“I am paying attention!” I screamed. “Obviously there has to be something else! It’s just not name change and arrested!”

My blood was boiling. All I could see was red. I started shaking the table. And then came those now-infamous words: “Prostitution whore! You were fucking engaged nineteen times?!”

And then, as you all know, I flipped the table. Wine-filled glasses, silverware, napkins, and plates went flying. Caroline said she started laughing because she was so nervous and in total disbelief. Joe pulled me out of the room as I continued to shriek. He calmed me down, because he knows as well as I do that whenever I get that mad, I’m literally in another zone. But I rarely, if ever, get that angry, though it may not appear so on TV. Dina and Jacqueline told me later—and also said on camera—that in all the years they had known me, they had never even seen me get mad. That was true. I do have a long fuse, but once in a while, someone lights it with a blowtorch. (And that, of course, is what they always seem to capture while filming . . .)

When I came back into the dining room and sat back down again, I was still pissed. How dare she insult me like that, after she had pounded poor Dina into the ground.

Truth be told, I was mortified. This was not my proudest moment—and I did it while cameras were rolling.
OMG
. I just remember saying to myself, over and over after it happened,
I cannot believe I did that.

I cringed when that episode aired. I think I watched it with one eye open. I was hoping that people would watch the table-flip scene and forget all about it. It ended up making headlines around the world.
Madonna mia!

So many people called the house that night, saying, “Oh my God, Teresa!” Some were laughing their heads off while others were asking what the heck happened because they had never seen me like that. But then, people started coming up to me left and right when I was out, telling me how much they loved that scene! I can’t tell you how many people told me they wished they could do the same thing. They even showed a clip of that scene at the Grammy Awards that year. I almost fell off the couch.

I regretted flipping the table at first. I couldn’t believe I let my temper get the best of me like that. I went way too far, even for me. But at the same time, I felt like I was defending myself, even if I didn’t do it in the best way possible. (But I did get my point across . . .) I was relieved to find out that some people out there—especially my fans—understood that I reacted that way because I was pushed beyond the limit. I remember thinking,
They get it. They get me.
I am feisty. I can be fiery. But my temper has caused me problems since then, which is why, when I got to prison and had time to really think about how I react when I’m angry, I set out to try to change that.

While I was mortified at my “I-can’t-believe-I-did-that” table-flipping moment, what I didn’t realize at the time was that it’s actually what helped put me on the road to stardom. When the season aired, people kept saying I stole the show with my funny antics, my unending love for “Juicy Joe,” the way I doted on my adorable girls, my over-the-top lifestyle, and my carefree attitude toward life. But this put me in a whole new stratosphere. It’s just not the way I had ever wanted to get there.

W
hen we finished shooting and the show first aired, we had no idea that the first season would become as popular as it did. As I said, I just did it for fun and didn’t give much thought to what was going to come after people started seeing us on TV.

Right before the first episode aired, we went to New York City to meet with Bravo executives, who prepped us for the publicity we would be doing, like going on talk shows and appearing at events. This sounded so exciting, so I thought,
This is going to be a blast!
And it was.

But at the same time, doing publicity was a lot of work. This was all new to me, too. You needed to prep before you went on TV, especially because you were judged by whatever came out of your mouth during an interview. I found it very stressful. Sometimes after an interview, I would go over it again and again in my head and ask myself if I answered the right way, wondering if it came off the way I wanted it to. That happened while we were filming the show. I would lose sleep over something I said or did and would get mad at myself sometimes for reacting a certain way.

While we were filming the first season, before it aired, no one paid attention to me when I was out shopping or taking the girls somewhere. Why would they? To them, I was just another harried mom with three young, energetic kids. Once in a while I would run into someone who had heard I was doing the show, and I would just say, “It’s been a lot of fun! I hope you tune in!” and leave it at that. I didn’t say too much about it because I figured,
OK. Maybe a few people will watch it.
I mean, it was a reality TV show about a bunch of moms. I had never seen the other
Housewives
shows or read about how wildly successful they were. So I thought,
How many people will
really
care?
I truly had no idea the craziness this show would bring. After all, I was just a normal wife and mom who was thrust into the limelight with little preparation for what was to come.

After the Season 1 finale aired, life as I knew it began to change. I would be walking somewhere, thinking of what I had to do next or trying to keep track of the girls, and would hear people calling my name. Sometimes I didn’t even hear them because I wasn’t used to it. Then there were the people who got
really
excited when they saw me. I was talking on the phone in the grocery store once, when a woman in the next aisle overheard me and yelled, “Teresa! Is that you?” She came running and, when she saw that it really was me, shrieked, “I
knew
it was you from your voice!” I laughed because I didn’t understand what all the fuss was about, but she was sweet and I enjoyed meeting her. While all of this was flattering, I never let it go to my head. I honestly still felt like the same person I always was.

One of the biggest pluses about doing the show was that I started to work again. I’d always enjoyed working, and this job was perfect for me, since the filming schedule was conducive to having kids, and I could bring them with me most of the time. After the first season, all I was thinking about was making money to save for college for the girls. I wanted to help provide for my daughters and give them the best life possible. So I was happy to be contributing to the household. It is a pretty fun job, too. I love working on the show. I love the producers and the folks at Bravo. Andy Cohen, who is an executive producer of
The Real Housewives
franchise, and of course, the host and executive producer of Bravo’s late night talk show,
Watch What Happens: Live,
is the best. And the show is what I’ve come to know. The show has become a part of my life now. A big part, and I would never, ever go back.

Other than being stopped by people for pictures and going back to work, my life pretty much stayed the same after the first season aired. Since I had such young children, I didn’t go to parties or red carpet events in the city that much, if at all. I still took care of the girls, went to all their school events, drove them everywhere, cooked and cleaned my own house (later on, when things got a lot busier, I had a cleaning lady come in once a week to help me). Joe and I continued hanging out with our friends and family. At this point, I was happy with my decision to join the show. Everything was working out well.

O
f course, nothing stays the same. During Season 2, I ended up getting into it again with Danielle when I chased after her at a country club to find out
who
had told her my house was in foreclosure, when it wasn’t. We had another tussle at the reunion, with me jumping off the couch to confront her, pushing Andy back in his seat when he tried to stop me. He later said, “You’re strong!” I didn’t mean to push him, but he was in my way and my fiery Italian temper came out in full force. (If you’re Italian, you know exactly what I’m talking about . . .) Andy and I laughed about it later and have since become close. But he wasn’t laughing about it that night.

People ask me whatever happened with me and Danielle and if I’ve seen her over the years. I really haven’t and was surprised when she wrote on Twitter after my sentencing in 2014, “dontcha frigin LOVE karma baby!!!!!!! Yup . . .”