An eyewitness says what he saw made him "sad."
Former friends and "Real Housewives of New Jersey" co-stars Teresa Giudice and Caroline Manzo shocked fans when they came together to film a Super Bowl commercial for Sabra hummus, months after Teresa claimed Caroline was the "rat" who reported Joe Giudice to the feds.
Both women shared a snippet of the commercial to Instagram last week, leaving even Andy Cohen in disbelief they'd agreed to be in the same room. He needed to know more. We needed to know more. And now we do.
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Caroline's oldest son, Albie Manzo, who appeared on the Bravo series before his mother quit in 2013, spilled on what went on at the shoot on his "Dear Albie" podcast Thursday.
"So obviously, for the last month, I haven't been able to say much of anything. We mentioned I think on [this podcast] I was in L.A., but I couldn't say what it was for," he told his listeners. "I have known this was happening -- it wasn't that long before the commercial was actually shot. It was pretty quick. I was really, really surprised. There are a lot of components to it, but yeah, the entire process was in and out."
Noting he was "deflecting" a little, Albie made sure to say he could only comment on his experience while watching the former pals come face to face.
"We get to L.A., everybody goes to the studio, I show up maybe about 45 minutes after Mom did. And they went through hair and makeup, and we're waiting for the actual shoot to take place. And I haven't seen Teresa in years... Last time I saw Teresa had to be...I do not know. It's been that long ago since I saw her last," he explained, estimating it had likely been "one of the last filming days we had" on "RHONJ." However, Albie did say he saw Teresa's estranged husband, Joe Giudice, a few months before the latter went to prison.
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View Story"To be honest with you, it was exactly what I thought it was gonna be," he said of the shoot. "Teresa walks in. I wasted zero time, personally. I went right up, said hi, gave her a hug. Like, 'What's going on?!' Blah, blah, blah."
"She and Mom were getting mic'd up basically next to each other. That's where they saw each other for the first time," he went on. "They said hi, and it was totally fine."
"I will tell you the God's honest truth," he added, "my read on the entire situation while they were filming the commercial and everything else is that they were having fun. That's honestly what my read on it was. Like, I actually got almost -- I almost felt bad, because I think it was the type of thing where Mom was 100 percent herself Mom, and I think I watched Teresa have kind of like, the hair up on her neck when she walked in, looking for something to go on, and then was like, 'Wait a minute.'"
"Because when they were together, these bullshit aspects of things are just not present, you know what I mean?" he said. "So when they're actually having that interaction, you see, I think...I think you saw Teresa get a taste of actually what used to be a little bit, and I think honestly it was almost a little sad. They were in a room together, and I think they were having a good time. They were having fun."
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View StoryAfter the shoot, Albie said "bye to [Teresa] and asked her to say hi to the kids." Overall, he thought the women enjoyed their time together and that a part of Teresa was maybe saying, "I miss all of this," which made him nostalgic for the families' happy times.
"The issues that Teresa and Mom have, in my opinion, I do believe are on Teresa's end manufactured, but I don't think she necessarily even realizes it," he noted.
Teresa and Caroline last appeared on the show together in Season 5, and by that point, they absolutely hated each other. They started out as good family friends when the series premiered in 2009, but their relationship deteriorated after the two released cookbooks around the same time. Caroline felt Teresa had taken unnecessary jabs at her in hers.
This was toward the beginning of the Giudices' financial and legal troubles, which only got worse and put more strain on the ladies' friendship. In the Giudices' first joint interview since Joe was released from prison, which took place in November of last year, Andy Cohen brought up a prediction Manzo had made on the show several years prior: that Joe would go to prison and that Teresa would divorce him and go on to raise their four girls to be strong and independent. Tre's response was to accuse Caroline of ratting out her family.
"The Real Housewives of New Jersey" airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on Bravo.
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