While season five of Real Housewives of New Jersey filmed, Melissa Gorga was facing accusations that she had cheated on Joe Gorga with her ex boyfriend, Bryan “Bulldog”. Bryan surfaced on Twitter during this time and dropped hints about the accusations.
When the show aired, Melissa brought her friend Jan DeDolce on the show because Bravo wanted to film Melissa with her friends, but as it turns out, Jan also became upset with Melissa. A few episodes later, Jan was seen outing Melissa’s meeting with Bryan while she was already married to Joe Gorga!
You might be wondering why Jan “turned” on Melissa, but she has her reasons! I got in touch with Jan recently and she agreed to answer all of your burning questions about her history with Melissa, and she is not holding back! After Melissa said Jan is desperate for attention on WWHL recently, Jan is speaking out after turning down money for paid interviews.
Jan was a very good friend of Melissa’s up until she got on the show, which is when things began to change. Jan has had enough saying, “I can’t watch her lying. She’s just such a good liar.” Check out AllAboutTRH‘s chat with Jan, found exclusively here!
AllAboutTRH: How long have you known Melissa?
Jan DeDolce: I would say over 12 years.
How did you guys meet?
We met a long time ago through a mutual friend, this girl Melissa Giordano. Melissa [Giordano]’s parents were divorced, so she would spend time here [Jan lives in Northern Jersey] and she she would spend time down the shore. She would always take Melissa Gorga out with her, so that’s how we met. And then I started dating someone from down the shore so we were just able to get together all the time.
You guys were friends and then you were in her wedding to Joe Gorga, so when did things begin to change?
Well, people get married and have kids and go on with their lives so we don’t get to see each other every day, but I guess when she got on the show, she just got weird. She is not the same person that I was friends with seven years ago.
Before she was on the show, did she ever speak negatively about Teresa?
Yeah. She didn’t like Teresa before the show. She asked me to write an anonymous letter to Bravo so she could get on the show.
Did you do it?
No, but someone else did.
Really?
Yeah, that’s how she got on the show. She would take me to Dina Manzo’s Ladybug conventions at the Brownstone and Melissa would follow the freakin’ camera around. Melissa would be seated in the back corner, and then she would always get up and prance around in front of the camera.
So obviously she was bitter that Teresa was on TV and she wasn’t.
Yeah. What she asked me to write to Bravo was that Teresa was hiding a younger, prettier girl who had more money than her.
Is Melissa that much better off than Teresa?
I mean, not at all. Her husband owes a lot of people money.
The house that they live in right now, was that built for them to live in or to sell?
What Joe does is he builds homes and sells them. So they were trying to live in this house but they can’t because they owe too much for it.
Is this why they are selling it now?
Yeah.
What type of house did they live in before this one? Was it a modest house?
Well, no, when Melissa first met Joe he had a beautiful McMansion in Franklin Lakes that he sold to a football player or somebody. Then, they moved into a house they rented in Lincoln Park until this house was built.
Even when they were moving in, they were talking about when they were going to sell it. That’s what they do. It’s like, the bank owns it, but they did move in before the show.
What did you think when she finally made it into the show? Did she tell you?
Yeah, it was actually my daughter’s birthday party. She came in and she was all like “They cast me! They cast me!” She was all excited, and I was so excited for her. She was like, “Don’t tell anybody!” yet, but then she went around to each person and told them all that she was on the show.
Did she promise to feud with Teresa in order to be cast on the show?
Well yeah, of course. They want that. They weren’t going to bring anyone who wasn’t going to bring any kind of drama to the next season.
So how did Bravo find out about you?
So, it was weird because Melissa and I started having problems. I don’t know what her deal was, but she started talking about me to people. Very two-faced. That’s when I started getting mad at her.
A picture came on Twitter of her [Melissa] from that girl Penny that only I had. What happened was, I was doing my extensions, and they were saying she had her nose done. And at that time, Melissa hadn’t had her nose done and I was like, arguing with them like, “No, her nose is real! Look at this!”
At the time, the guy [her make-up artist] was just contouring it, but now her nose is done. Her nose is completely new, so when she denies it, she’s lying about that.
So I was showing them the picture trying to prove that it was the same nose, and the girl Penny must have taken a picture with her camera. I didn’t even have a Twitter account at the time. I signed onto Twitter maybe four or five months ago but I don’t use it. This picture went up about one or two years ago.
So Melissa calls me out of nowhere asking if I had put up that picture. I said, “What are you talking about?” She started sending it to me and I told her that I had shown people the picture because they were saying she had a nose job and I was showing them that she didn’t.
So, we talked. We got set up for lunch, whatever. But of course, it was just to find out information. We didn’t talk for a few months because she’s so busy with her life and what not. There was something that went on Facebook that had upset me that she put up, and I was just over it.
How did she approach you to film with her and her other friend Maria?
Out of nowhere, she calls me to go meet her for lunch. Again. She wanted to know if I told anybody about the night we were out at Sushi Lounge with Bryan. I said no, but of course there were other people there. And Bryan is friends with Penny!
So she asked me if I would come on and film with her to say that there was no meeting together. I didn’t really want to get involved, but she asked me to film because she needed girlfriends to go to lunch with her. Melissa doesn’t have a lot of girlfriends. If you look at her wedding party, I’m the only friend at her wedding. It was all family. Her two sisters, her cousin, Teresa, me, I think Kathy might have been there too.
She was like “Please, please, please,” so I said alright. Now mind you, I denied a majority of the stuff because I just didn’t want to get involved in this. So we go out to lunch and after that, Kim D and Penny start calling me and my partner. At first, they tried telling me that Teresa had a hair product line and she wanted it in my salon.
Kim D has this guy Damien who was friends with my old partner, set up a meeting behind my back with Penny and they wanted to see if we could get me to come on the show. I said I didn’t want to get involved, but then they said it would only be about the hair products and Melissa wouldn’t be there. Kim D gave me the whole run around.
My partner then begged me and said it’ll be good for the business. At the time, I was still mad at Melissa because she had used me to get information about Bryan and to deny all that stuff. So when we get there, they push Malcolm, who is my partner, to the side and they place me next to Penny to make it seem like we came here together.
The night at Bellissimo’s [with Teresa, Kim D, and Penny] I was defending her. They were attacking her and ambushing her. And once again, I’m sticking up for her and Bravo switched it up because apparently Penny has a lawsuit with Bravo, so they didn’t use her in that scene bashing Melissa. I don’t know, maybe they wanted to make it look realistic. I have no idea. The whole thing was just fake.
They just started bashing Melissa. At the table, when they showed me saying all this stuff. It had nothing to do with Melissa. We were talking about an old boyfriend. It was just stuff that had nothing to do with Melissa. They re-arranged the entire conversation which was really messed up.
So then someone behind the cameras asks me to tell them about how Melissa cheated on Bryan, and I said no. I knew we went to dinner together, but I didn’t leave with them so I don’t know what happened.
So what you know is that you all had drinks with Bryan but you don’t know if she cheated. When was this?
This was right before she got pregnant with her third son.
Did Joe know that she was going out and Bryan would be there?
Absolutely not!
He obviously wouldn’t have liked that.
He would’ve killed somebody! She wasn’t even allowed to go to my bachelorette party, that’s how crazy they are together.
So who’s idea was it to hang out with Bryan?
Hers! She set it up. They were talking.
In this week’s episode you say she deserves an Academy Award, why do you say that?
Because she’s full of sh*t! She’s a confused person now. Everything about her is a lie. She’s like a “shore girl.” She slept around. She did whatever she could to get money, houses… She pretends to be better than everybody.
For example, her relationship book about how to keep a man. She’s just trying to make money. First it was her singing, now it’s her trying to write a book. The Housewives is going to be short-lived, I mean how long is she going to carry this out for? She doesn’t have anything else.
She’s just not a real person.
Do you think Bryan will tell his side, since he insists that they hooked up while she was married?
I kind of hope he does because she’s saying that I’m desperate for attention. Really? I’m not pushing 40 on stage trying to be a singer. I’m not trying to follow my sister-in-law’s footsteps.
She said you’re desperate for attention, but she brought you on the show first to defend her about allegations?
Yeah! Every magazine has tried getting in touch with me to pay me for articles, to bash her, sell pictures and what not. And I didn’t do it. There was one guy [reporter from the National Enquirer] who showed up to my salon twice, showed up at my house, the next day he left a note in my mailbox, called my salon.
If I wanted attention I would have done that. Bravo wanted me to get involved in other stuff. Kim D wanted me to do other things, and I just said no. I wanted no more part of it.
Do you think you would attend the reunion if asked?
I don’t know. I just think it’s such a degrading thing and I’m mad that I even got involved. I don’t want to bring that back to my family. I don’t know. I have a little bit of a temper, and I’m just afraid that I’d get to the point where I’d smack the shit out of her.
What would you describe the real Melissa as?
Melissa’s very selfish. She’s very cheap. Seriously. She’s the kind of person who will go into a store and wants to get everything for free. She’s never had style, she never knew how to dress herself. She had to call my sister or somebody, ‘Where did you buy this? Where did you get this?’
If she saw Teresa wearing something she had to find out where Teresa bought it. She’s just never had a mind of her own. She went and took Teresa’s freakin’ make-up artist, her hair stylist. It’s just crazy.
For her daughter’s Holy Communion this year she had people doubting if she actually paid for the big party or Antonia’s dress because she was constantly tweeting about the designer and vendors and plugging their business. She even had a paparazzi photo agency take pictures at the reception.
Probably because it was free. She did that because she probably didn’t pay for the dress. Trust me. She gave a gift to my daughter once for her birthday and on the tag of the outfit it said it was for Antonia.
How did she really meet Joe?
She went on the show lying at first. ‘Oh, I was a secretary, that’s how we met.’ No, he met you at Lookers. What do you mean? You were working at a strip club. No, she wasn’t a stripper. But she would only date guys with money. [If] you didn’t have money, she wasn’t dating you.
So she met Joe Gorga at Lookers?
They met in Cancun years ago, I think he hooked up with her friend in Cancun when they were on spring break. Then he saw her again at Lookers. That’s when she called me, “I met this guy he wants to take me out, but I don’t know. He’s a little short for me…”
When she finally went on a date, he took her back to his house, and all of a sudden she made up this whole story that she had to get out of her apartment, her roommate bailed on her, just so she could go and live with him.
How soon after they began dating did she move in with him?
Like, six weeks. Six months later they were engaged. Six months later they were married, and then six months after that she was pregnant. Crazy.
She was so nice to Teresa in the beginning. I don’t like Teresa, I think she’s sneaky, but I do know for a fact Teresa tried to welcome her as a friend, as a a sister, and as soon as they got married she started treating Teresa like shit.
Is her new book about having a sexy marriage a sham?
She wasn’t even into him [Joe Gorga] like that. She was not attracted to him. Of course, I’m sure she fell in love with him eventually, but the first thing was the money.
When she first met Joe she was hooking up with like three other guys at the time. There was a guy Dave who she came to see at my house after she was married. She didn’t hook up with him, but why would she come to see her ex-boyfriend? But she couldn’t be with Dave because he didn’t have enough money.
Thank you Jesus, right?
Thank you, Jesus. Please! She did tell me, I remember, we were driving home from a wedding shower for our mutual friend. We were driving through this nice part of town, and this is when she was with Bryan.
Bryan and her didn’t have that much money, he had just broken his knee so he was out of commission for making money. And she kept saying, “See, this is what I want. I pray to God to send me someone with money. I want a nice house, I want this, I want that.”
She would say that? I read the first chapter of her book and in it she writes that her family had the first Lincoln town car in her neighborhood…
Her dad may have had money, but then they were poor. Her mom used to go to a salon and she didn’t have money to tip. She’d ask if she could bring a bottle of wine or something. She didn’t have money to tip her hair stylist.
So ultimately why do you think Melissa is making up her whole act?
Right now, I think it’s for the public eye, so that they like her and not Teresa. And she is putting on an act for Joe. Joe’s family is old-school Italian, he doesn’t want to be with a girl who slept around. If he had known how many people she slept around with he would have never married her.
So do you think he knows now how she used to be?
No I think she has him blinded and he will just say people are jealous. Listen, they couldn’t ever leave each others’ side. They were always trying to hook me up with one of his friends, because Melissa wasn’t allowed to go out without him. This is why it was a surprise to me, how she got out that night for Sushi Lounge. I think he was going somewhere.
He’s very jealous. He slapped her on the face one time because she was dancing with his one friend down the Jersey shore. He got mad at her because she was dancing with his friend and he thought she was flirting. She was dancing with him trying to be friendly, and Joe didn’t like that. So, when they left the club, when we got in the car together, he smacked her on the face.
Are you shocked by what Jan had to say? Do you believe Melissa has cheated in the past!?
1 comment