Joe Gorga is finally shedding light on exactly what happened between him and sister Teresa Giudice's fiancé, Luis "Louie" Ruelas.
Joe has been vocal about his disdain for Louie throughout season 13 of The Real Housewives of New Jersey — doing everything from calling him a "bad seed" behind his back to exploding at him during "Guy's Night" after learning his mother-in-law had not been invited to the wedding.
But, on Tuesday night's episode — which was filmed before Louie and Teresa tied the knot — Joe, 43, revealed the business deal gone wrong that ultimately soured him to Louie.
"I don't wanna bury my sister, but if she's talking about it, I can't lie," Joe said in a confessional before getting into the details of the situation.
"I told [Louie], 'It's my idea, it's me and my sister, and we'll honor my father, we'll call it Nonno's Pizza.' He loved it," Joe explained of his pizza oven concept, meant to honor his and Teresa's late father, Giacinto Gorga.
Giacinto died in April 2020, three years after his wife Antonia Gorga died at age 66 following a battle with pneumonia.
But, the business partnership never truly came to fruition.
"[Louie] screwed me in a second," Joe told Jackie Goldschneider and her husband Evan, Jennifer Fessler, and Margaret Josephs and her husband Joe Benigno during breakfast.
In a confessional, Joe explained: "My nephew, got him involved. Ordered these ovens, Louie puts the money in... I'm figuring I'm giving 50 percent to my sister, he was getting 50 percent. And then my nephew comes over to my house and goes, 'Did you see the boxes were ordered?' I go, 'What boxes?' He goes, 'Your sister had a photoshoot with her and the girls, and they called it Skinny Pizza or something like that.'"
"When I find out, I call him and then Louie starts giving me some lip," Joe continued. "My sister, out of nowhere goes, 'Did you put the f---ing money up?' I go, 'What? You think I couldn't put $200,000 up?' I go, 'It was my f---ing idea!'"
"It got very ugly," added Joe, as Melissa Gorga started to cry at the table. "My sister was saying, 'This is why you don't do business with family!' Bulls---. You can do business with anyone if you go in with the trust and you're not looking to cheat somebody."
Melissa, 44, then told the group of her sister-in-law, "I think she's so selfish that she doesn't wanna share. That's what it comes down to. It's the whole thing, I feel bad for [Joe]. I feel bad for everybody that it got to this point."
In a confessional, Melissa added: "We were like, so hopeful for this new beginning with them. He was like, 'They stole it from me.' It was very sad because I feel like this guy has no one."
Meanwhile, Teresa, 50, made sure to tell her side of the story — which sounded nothing like Joe's recollection.
"My brother came up with this idea for this pizza oven, he was like, 'I want to do it with my sister,' and Louie was like, 'OK.' He put out 250K, but then he spoke to our attorney and was like, 'OK, what percentage should I give Joey?'" Teresa recalled. "And they came up with five percent, and my brother went nuts. He wanted 50 percent. And then I called my brother, I'm like, 'He put out all the money, what are you doing? If you want half, you need to put half in.' And he didn't want to."
In the end, the business endeavor went nowhere and Teresa said "Louie took the loss."
"My fiancé lost a quarter of a million dollars," Teresa explained to Danielle Cabral and her husband Nate, as well as Jennifer and Bill Aydin.
Later in the episode, the women and their husbands gathered at Rachel Fuda's shore house for another party — and Louie took the opportunity to try and make things right with Melissa.
"I wanna hold your hand when I say this," he said. "This wedding has been beautiful, but it's also been like bombs going off and your mother's been nothing but beautiful and sweet and kind to me and my boys."
"She was obsessed with you," Melissa said to Louie.
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At the same time, Teresa was off at a different table telling Jennifer Fessler that "there is hatred between the whole family." She then proceeded to walk over to where Melissa and Louie were sitting.
"OK, what's going on? What's the problem?" she asked.
"I was upset that you said you had issues with my mom or something," Melissa responded.
But, before Teresa even had a real chance to say anything, Louie jumped in.
"Teresa, you're coming over here and ruining a moment between me and Melissa. I need you to respect our space," he said. "I don't care if God came down and said something to you. Teresa, it doesn't matter what anybody is saying. You gotta respect that I'm here talking to your sister-in-law."
Though Louie's gesture in defense of Melissa might have seemed noble, Melissa wasn't so easily convinced of his good nature.
"Sometimes I think it's the guy he wants to be, but then there's the guy he really is," she admitted in a confessional.
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Teresa ultimately heeded her fiancé's advice and walked away, and Louie apologized to Melissa.
"I'm sorry. I don't want that going on. That's bulls---," he said.
The next family member to join the conversation was Joe.
"I think there's a lot of hurt going around," Louie said, referencing Joe's pain after he sat down. "And just understand that [Teresa's] hurt too, and I'm marrying her in 31 days. I want peace."
Back over at the high-top table where the other women were gathered, Teresa continued to complain about her brother. "My brother needs to get therapy because he keeps blaming me," she said.
Teresa even went so far as to say Melissa "has daddy issues" — which Jackie attempted to call her out for. But Teresa quickly snapped at Jackie, telling her to "Shut the f--- up, get out of my f---ing face."
Louie, left alone with only Joe, then made his now-infamous pajama comment. "I live with your four nieces," he told Joe. "I wear your father's pajamas at night to make them feel safe and loving, do you know that?"
Joe's face looked blank in response, and Teresa soon rejoined the conversation.
"Joe, you know if you would've called me and told me to invite Donna, I would've invited her right away. Why didn't you do that?" she asked.
Joe, for his part, insisted he called Teresa's daughter, Gia, and Louie after Teresa neglected to make Melissa a bridesmaid in their wedding, but Teresa didn't fix the situation then, either. "I'm so mad at you. I'm so mad," he said.
"I just felt like you and Melissa should have had my back more," Teresa responded, continuing to reference the events of the last year when Margaret was making comments about Louie behind Teresa's back.
Upon re-inserting herself into the "kumbaya," Melissa had a rebuttal for Teresa's argument: Teresa never stuck up for Joe when Jennifer Aydin was talking poorly about him.
"You're not understanding how you are," Joe explained to Teresa, trying to get his sister to realize her seeming hypocrisy.
"I prove her wrong every time and she gets so mad," Melissa said, matter-of-fact, as Teresa walked away.
"Babe, can you fix it? Fix it!" Teresa yelled at Louie as she stormed off.
"This is your brother! It's a shame you don't want to fix it!" Melissa called after her.
At that, Teresa turned on her heels, and proceeded to argue with her brother about which one of them is truly "happy" in life.
"Go get therapy. You should," Teresa concluded. "Because maybe then we could be a happy family."
After Joe and Melissa left the party, Joe had to ask Louie to move his car so that Melissa could back hers out. Joe then spotted Margaret sitting with Teresa and Louie, and erupted in anger.
"Stop, stop, stop, it's not worth it!" Louie insisted, holding Joe back.
Margaret, for her part, was trying to convince Teresa that Melissa does, in fact, want to make things better between them.
"No she doesn't," Teresa said, doubling down. "And trust me they're not happy because if Melissa was a good woman, she would make it better with my brother and I."
The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.
