A Bad Business Deal Sparked a Feud Between Joe Gorga and Louie Ruelas on ‘RHONJ’
Published March 29 2023, 12:56 p.m. ET
Teresa Giudice and Joe Gorga’s feud now includes a new member. During the March 28 episode of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, the brother and sister opened up about a family business venture gone wrong — and Teresa’s now-husband Louie Ruelas got caught in the middle. As to be expected, there's a full-on feud between Louie and Joe now and it's not pretty.
After attempting to create a pizza oven to honor their late father’s legacy, the funding, profit splits, power struggles, and more killed the concept before it came to fruition. So, who exactly is to blame in the feud between Joe and Louie? Here’s what went down.
A business deal caused a feud between Louie Ruelas and Joe Gorga on ‘RHONJ.’
The March 28 episode of RHONJ revealed the cause behind the intense feud between Teresa’s husband, Louie, and her brother Joe. In the previous week’s preview for the shocking episode, fans learned that Joe allegedly caused Louie a quarter of a million dollars in a business deal that turned sour.
However, Melissa Gorga’s husband doesn't quite see it that way. “I don’t wanna bury my sister,” Joe says during a confessional on the show. “But if she’s talking about it, I can’t lie.”
Joe explains that he and his sister wanted to create a pizza oven to honor their late father, Giacinto Gorga.
“I told [Louie], ‘It’s my idea, it’s me and my sister, and we’ll honor my father,’” the RHONJ star says. “We’ll call it Nonno’s Pizza. He loved it.”
However, the concept spiraled out of control once money became involved. According to Joe, Teresa’s then-fiancé “screwed [him] in a second.” And it got even worse once Louie contributed $250,000.
The pizza oven profit split sparked a family fight between Joe Gorga, Teresa Giudice, and Louie Ruelas.
On RHONJ, Joe claims his sister and her now-husband hijacked his idea for Nonno’s Pizza.
During another confessional, the reality star says that his nephew told him Teresa and Louie ordered the boxes without his consent and called the concept “Skinny Pizza or something like that.”
After receiving the intel from his nephew, Joe immediately calls his sister’s partner, and Louie allegedly gives him “some lip.”
Then, Teresa blows up at her brother. “My sister, out of nowhere, goes, ‘Did you put the f--king money up?’” he recalls. “I go, ‘What? You think I couldn’t put $200,000 up?’ I go, ‘It was my f--king idea!'” Joe admits that the situation got out of hand, and his wife Melissa starts crying.
“My sister was saying, ‘This is why you don’t do business with family!’” The RHONJ star says. “Bullsh-t. You can do business with anyone if you go in with the trust and you’re not looking to cheat somebody.”
Teresa Giudice thinks her brother is to blame for the business deal.
After Louie contributed $250,000 toward the pizza oven and Joe contributed nothing, Teresa couldn’t believe her brother wanted 50 percent of the profits.
Given the idea’s rocky start, they decided to can the concept, but Teresa claims Louie “took the loss.”
“My fiancé lost a quarter of a million dollars,” she reveals on the show.
New The Real Housewives of New Jersey episodes air on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EST on Bravo.
