Caroline Manzo said she did not call the FBI on Teresa Giudice during her 2013 fraud indictment — but knows who did.
“I know who did,” the “Real Housewives of New Jersey” alum told Pvnew’s Evan Real and Danny Murphy during Thursday’s live taping of Pvnew’s “Virtual Reali-Tea” podcast Mother’s Day edition at NYC’s The Loft at City Winery.
“PS, I was there,” she said.
Her daughter, Lauren Manzo, immediately added, “But we’ll never say who it was.”
Caroline further explained that she saw what was going down, but she “took the fall” because “I am not [a rat].”
“It’s not even about being a rat,” she explained. “There’s this thing called collateral damage. So, when you say something, who’s going to hurt? Who is this going to hurt by saying this truth?
“You can believe whatever you like about me. I know I never did — I could never do that. But if blaming me makes you feel better, OK, then your reality. It’s not going to change my day.”
The reality star, 61, then noted that she has never revealed the identify of the caller “to protect people that didn’t deserve the collateral damage and the fallout once it comes out.”
Though she said it was “hurtful” that “responsibility” was pinned on her, she also feels very blessed to have her three children and her husband, Albert Manzo III.
n taping." >“I’ve got my baby, I’ve got my children, we’re all healthy. I have a healthy marriage … I don’t give a f–k what you think about me because the fact remains the same,” she concluded.
Giudice, 51, previously suggested that she believed Caroline was the one who turned her and her then-husband, Joe Giudice, to the feds after the “Food, Love, and Chaos” host predicted that they would be put behind bars.
(Teresa and Joe were convicted of fraud in 2015. Teresa served 11 months before being released in December 2015, while Joe spent three years in prison and was deported to Italy in March 2019.)
n taping." >“It’s just so sad, I guess because she’s lived that crooked life,” the mom of four said of her former co-star on a 2019 episode of “Watch What Happens Live.”
“Like, I’ve never lived that crooked life and I guess she has and who she comes from, and where she came from.”
Teresa then questioned how Caroline could’ve guessed their legal trouble so spot-on.
“How could she predict that? Could she have anything to do with what happened to Joe and I? Is she a rat?” she asked host Andy Cohen. “By her saying that, why did she say that? Why?
“Those words would never come out of my life regarding anybody. Maybe [she called the feds]. You never know. Why would she predict those words?”
Despite current social media chatter that Giudice’s brother, Joe Gorga, and his wife, Melissa Gorga, were involved in the call to the feds, Lauren shut down those rumors.
“Love the gorgas,” she wrote in a comment, shared Friday by the @nofilterwithzack Instagram account. “Never once even implied it was them.”
Notably, Caroline expressed her love for the Gorga family during Thursday’s live event.
“Joe and Melissa [have never been] anything but supportive and kind and fun. I saw them at BravoCon [in October 2022] after seven years … We literally live within two miles of each other,” the “Let Me Tell You Something” author said.
“We don’t see each other, but when we do, it’s like we saw each other the day before. They have nothing but kind words to say about me and my kids and our family and everything and our time on Bravo. I have no malice towards her at all.”
The “Real Housewives of New Jersey” airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo.
Missed the live event? It’s not too late to stream the full show.
New episodes of Pvnew’s “Virtual Reali-Tea” podcast are released Thursdays.
