Rachel Fuda reveals a big difference between RHONJ rooms

Heavy/Peacock

Rachel Fuda from RHONJ.

Season 14 of The Real Housewives of New Jersey ended without a reunion, but the cast still came together to relive the season — albeit not all in the same room.

After producers decided that the feuding cast could not continue after an extremely turbulent season, they organized a finale introduction, which was filmed at Rails Steakhouse in Towaco, New Jersey.

In the RHONJ finale non-reunion show, titled “Off the Rails,” Teresa Giudice, Jennifer Aydin, Jackie Goldschneider and Dolores Catania watched together in a room, and Melissa Gorga, Margaret Josephs and Danielle Cabral, Jennifer Fessler, and Rachel Fuda looks on in another.

Speaking to Page Six’s “Virtual Reali-Tea” podcast in August 2024, Fuda, who announced her pregnancy at the end of the watch party, said there was a big difference in the atmosphere between the two rooms. “We have real relationships with each other, and I think that was what was special about our room for the watch party,” she said of the screening room where she sat with her friends Gorga, Josephs, Cabral and Fessler.

Fuda noted that Giudice seemed to control the dynamic in the other room. “You watch the other room and you think, ‘Okay, Teresa, what’s next? What are we going to say? What do we have to prove now?'” she said.

Rachel Fuda said Teresa Giudice’s “artificial” friendships were damaging the show

BravoCast of RHONJ.

Elsewhere in the interview, Fuda said the friendships on Giudice’s side lack “authenticity.” “In my opinion, it’s just very artificial now,” Fuda told Page Six of Giudice’s crew. “I think that’s the biggest problem,” she said, adding that on her side, there are “real relationships as opposed to artificially created relationships.”

“When you looked at our room, it seemed like a group of friends joking, making comments, gasping, laughing. All those little things that we would do if we were sitting on my living room sofa – and we did,” she added of the finale introduction process.

In response to Fuda’s comments, Giudice posted: “Why is she so obsessed with me?”

Giudice’s fans also defended her.

“Poor Rachel, it’s so obvious Teresa is living rent free in her head!!,” wrote one fan.

“She was in two seasons. Two, lol. Teresa is the only cast member from day one. Bravo paused filming while she was in prison because they knew there would be no show without her. Why? Because she’s everyone’s storyline every year. So Miss Rachel, I wish her all the best in her new pregnancy, but she really needs to lay low for now,” wrote another.

Rachel Fuda revealed another big difference between the two RHONJ rooms

peacockRHONJ cast reacts to Louie Ruelas’ comment.

During the RHONJ finale, Fuda expressed regret for not exposing Giudice’s controversial husband Louie Ruelas as “the real man.”

“Unfortunately, I have moral principles,” she explained. “That’s what really holds me back. And that’s the difference between this room and that room: We really have higher standards for ourselves.”

Fuda also told Us Weekly in an interview that she no longer speaks about Ruelas because she has “morals.” “I’ve said this a million times, but that’s my biggest mistake as a Housewife: I set higher standards for myself than some of the women on our show,” she said again. “I don’t feel like I have to ruin people’s reputations and livelihoods to be successful. That’s not how I was raised.”

Still, she suggested that Ruelas contributed to the “downfall” of the RHONJ friend group and that Giudice is focused on damage control.

“I think that (Louie) kind of added fuel to the fire,” Fuda said of the toxicity on the show. “He just dropped it, you know what I mean? He just brushed it off. Unfortunately, I feel like Teresa has to correct a lot of the things that he says. I mean, I feel like her podcast is just to clean up Louie’s mess.”