'RHONJ' Star Melissa Gorga Continues to Face the Allegations That She Cheated on Joe

Anyone who has ever watched The Real Houswives of New Jersey knows that the show thrives on one thing: drama. Documenting the real-life trials and tribulations that the chosen stars go through has made the show and all of its related spin-offs true successes.

One of the situations to captivate viewers of the show appears to have formulated entirely off-screen but affects two of RHONJ's biggest stars: Melissa and Joe Gorga. There's an ongoing rumor about infidelity in the marriage, but did Melissa actually cheat on Joe?

Let's unpack what we know about the rumors, including how Melissa has reacted to it all.

Melissa and fellow reality icon Teresa Giudice got into an argument over cheating allegations while filming the Season 12 finale for RHONJ.

Claims on social media circulated that Melissa cheated on Joe with Nick Barotta, who is also married, for the record, and it appears as though the situation caused a bit of tension between the castmates.

Sources for The Daily Mail claimed that Melissa has not cheated on Joe and that the claims regarding that are baseless.

"He is shocked that someone would make up something so nasty in an attempt to destroy two families," the source said of Nick's take on the rumors. Nick and Melissa have been friends for some years now, and the former is known for his work on the reality series Divorce Court from 2018–2020 as a bailiff, as well as on Tyler Perry's BET series The Oval from 2020 onward.

Sources close to RHONJ stated to AllAboutTRH that Laura Lee Jansen made Jennifer Aydin aware of a rumor claiming Melissa had made out with Nick. The rumor made its way to Teresa shortly after and spurred her falling out with Melissa

After filming for the finale concluded, Melissa reportedly confronted Teresa about spreading the rumor, and things got heated fast. Joe was even reportedly restrained from getting physical with Teresa's new husband, Luis "Louie" Ruelas.

Teresa's argument with Melissa while filming was described by sources for the publication as "a crazy situation" that was the last straw in terms of making niceties with Teresa for Melissa and Joe, who both skipped out on the former's wedding shortly after.

The source called the situation a "step too far for Joe," who even posted photos of him and Melissa hanging out at home right in the middle of Teresa's big day. It goes without saying that things probably won't be smoothed over any time soon.

The drama in the press leading up to Season 13 of RHONJ exploded once the show aired out new episodes. During the season, Jennifer told Danielle about the rumor that Melissa had an affair, which Danielle believed at the time was further information.

Throughout the latter half of the season, viewers watched Danielle wrestle with telling Melissa what she heard due to their budding friendship. Ultimately, Danielle spilled the tea to Melissa in the season finale.

However, once the cast came together for the three-part reunion, Danielle discovered that Melissa and Joe knew about the rumor because Teresa and Louie told them about it off-camera! As Danielle shared that she felt “played” by Jennifer and Teresa to discuss the rumor on the show for what Melissa believed to be a storyline, she didn’t regret giving Melissa a heads up.

In the final part of the reunion, fans heard Teresa and Louie’s side of the story. During the reunion, the couple said they heard Melissa wasn’t only cheating on Joe with Nick and claimed “multiple men” were on the side, with Teresa specifically stating Melissa was with “two guys.”

Surprisingly, Louie told Joe he and Tre didn’t believe there was any truth to Melissa cheating on him and claimed they just wanted the Gorgas to get “ahead” of the drama before it went public.

“You came over to the house, we said, ‘We heard a rumor about Melissa,’ and we didn’t believe that your wife cheated on you, we didn’t tell you your wife cheated on you,” Louie said at the reunion.

While they seemingly dissolved the cheating rumors, Teresa, Melissa, Louie, and Joe’s troubles didn’t end after the reunion. The families vowed to keep their distance from each other after the reunion, which will likely affect the show when RHONJ returns for Season 14.

While the cheating allegations seem to have brought Melissa and Joe closer together rather then separated them, they remain distant from Teresa. In August 2022, Melissa told Us Weekly, "Let's see what the future holds" in regards to making amends with her sister-in-law.

She also shared with the outlet that "it's been tough" to deal with the rumors about her marriage.

Chances are, viewers are going to continue to see the fallout of the cheating allegations and Teresa's estrangement from Joe and Melissa in Season 13 of RHONJ. As if fans needed more reason to tune into the drama.

Watch RHONJ on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EST on Bravo.