Rachel Fucks I will soon be a mother of four!
THE Real Housewives of New Jersey star made the revelation during Sunday’s unconventional reunion, subtitled Off the railsthat she and her husband, John, were expecting her fourth child. The couple already had daughters Gianella and Guiliana, while Rachel adopted John’s teenage son Jaiden from a previous relationship.
“Jaiden was really funny,” Rachel shares with ET, speaking about her son’s reaction to the family’s expansion. “We sat down, and I was like, ‘We have to talk to you…’ and I filmed the whole thing, and it was like the biggest womp, womp, womp! He was like, ‘I knew it.’ I was like, ‘What do you mean you knew?’ He was like, ‘I just knew it. I just knew it!'”
Rachel dropped the baby bombshell on her castmates in the final moments of the episode, prompting major reactions from the women she sat down with to relive it. RHONJexplosive season 14 finale: Melissa Gorga, Margaret Josephs, Danielle Cabral and Jenn Fessler.
“I had seen the girls right before we[filmed]together,” Rachel recalls. “I was in my backyard, and all the girls were like in my pool cabana outside, and[Danielle]screams from across the yard, and she’s like, ‘Are you pregnant?!’ And I’m like, ‘No, that’s so offensive.’ I’m like, Do I look pregnant?! Which, like, I’m so bloated that I definitely did at that moment. And I’m like, what? Why does she think I’m pregnant? Why is she saying that? And she’s like, ‘I had a dream that you’re pregnant.'”
“I went to the bathroom and I was like, whoever’s telling her, shut up,” Rachel continues, miming talking to spirits in the sky. “I’m not going to tell them yet! Because when you tell one, they all know, you know? … So when we get together on the reunion special, that’s why she’s freaking out, because she said that. So, she was losing her mind. … She’s a witch, man!”
Rachel was worried that Melissa had found out too, after Melissa scolded her for not drinking during a night out.
“I wanted to say that the second I sat down[to record]just to get it over with, because I was, like, I was sweating,” Rachel shares. “I don’t know why I was nervous, but I just wanted to get it off my chest! Like, Melissa going out to dinner with her, it stressed me out. … She’s the one that stresses me out the most because she pays attention.”
It was a happy moment to bring closure to a subject that would otherwise heavy season of RHONJwhich ended with the cast so divided that the network opted not to bring them together to reunite as it had done in the previous 13 seasons. Instead, the ladies banded together into two separate factions — Teresa Giudice, Jennifer Aydin, Jackie Goldschneider and Dolores Catania being the other group — to provide commentary on the final headline-making episode at the crime scene, so to speak, Rails Steakhouse.
“I’m not gonna lie, I was a little confused,” Rachel says of what made the final cut. “I feel like I need to watch it again, but I think watching both rooms, our room felt very much like, it was a group of friends watching the episodes together, like we’ve done a lot of times, you know, sitting on the couch in my living room, talking, laughing. You know, making fun of people. Like, that’s what we do. And then, the other room is like, ‘Why would they do that? Why would they do that? They need to say that. And what? Oh, shut up!’ And like, all these very meaningful lines, like everything has a purpose, and it feels very manufactured to me.”
Two of the most talked about moments of the Off the rails episode so far includes Teresa still not caring Jackie talked to Teresa’s ex-husband, Louie Ruelas, behind her back — Teresa only cared that Margaret had gotten involved with the woman, and Jackie denied having done anything nefarious with the information she was given — and Teresa defending Louie by saying she hopes Margaret’s son suffers (a comment he already apologized for social networks).
“Listen, Margaret is my friend and Jackie is not, and based on her past behavior, I mean, she literally got called out for having her ex over to her house, and she lied to Teresa’s face,” Rachel muses. “No, I don’t believe her[version of events].”
As for Louie’s situation, Rachel wants Teresa to realize that “it’s okay to tell your partner they’re wrong.”
“It’s also OK to apologize on their behalf,” she said. “But it takes a totally emotional and intelligent person to do that.”
Teresa had problems with Rachel’s husband throughout season 14Also, their friction came to a head in that fateful finale, where Teresa once again referenced John’s past drug arrest. Since the season began airing, news has surfaced about other legal troubles John faced in his late teens and early 20s. The revelations left some fans feeling cheated by the Fudas, who had only addressed one juvenile arrest up until that point.
“We all make mistakes, and my intention was never to misrepresent,” Rachel offers now, “But to expect a 36-year-old man to walk around carrying and bearing the weight of the mistakes he made when he was 18, 19, and 20 is laughable, because there are people who were criminals yesterday and decide today that they’re going to be a better person, you know? Those mistakes that he made shaped him into who he is. He again — I’ve said this a million times — he’s not ashamed of it. But he doesn’t walk around with those mistakes, meeting people, saying, ‘This is what I did when I was 20. This is what I did when I was 18…’ Like, it just doesn’t work that way. And also there are a lot of missing pieces in these stories, and he doesn’t owe any of them an explanation. Sorry.”
Rachel’s biggest disappointment in the edit was discovering a 20+ minute discussion about the drama of social networksthat blew up before the season and added an additional layer of mistrust between the sides, was not given its due on screen. Before the season 14 premiere, screenshots circulated on social media that appeared to show Teresa and Jennifer encouraging at least one blogger to seek out certain information, or post certain information, so that the women would have a reason to bring it up on camera and push the story. Jennifer admitted to some of this banter, while Teresa denied any involvement and instead pointed the finger at Margaret and Melissa for doing so. They also denied participating in behavior.
“That’s literally one of the main reasons why we’re sitting in opposite rooms right now,” she laments. “Jen Aydin and I had no issues all season until all this stuff came out online. … That was a really important piece of the puzzle, to make sense of it all. But I think, if the same pieces of the puzzle aren’t falling into place again, then what does it really matter?”
The one thing both groups seem to agree on is that there is no way forward with the other. This has left producers in a precarious situation: a big question mark over the future of RHONJ seems to be moving forward. The show gains a full resetwith an all-new cast, as The Real Housewives of New York City? Or will it stay? The Real Housewives of Miami treatment, with a half-and-half approach to the cast? On Sunday’s episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohencomedian Matt Rogers introduced Andy Cohen — who is the executive producer of Housewives show — about keeping most of the cast, claiming that it’s Teresa, Jennifer and Jackie who are keeping the series from being “fun.”
“I would love to see that,” Rachel admits. “I think we’re a group, even if you didn’t add anyone else to the cast, we could make a show out of us. We could! And I think we’re capable of having conflict with each other, and also resolution, which are the two words that go together in these shows. And I think that’s a big problem with our cast, that there’s too much conflict and not enough resolution. So there has to be both of those things to make a show work, and it’s unfortunate that there’s only conflict and no resolution, but we’re at the end of the rope on conflict right now.”
Rachel says she’s in a good place with everyone she shared her room with at Rails — including Jenn and Dolores — and “would love to do the show again,” but notes that there are “factors I would have to consider before I return… and I think the network knows what those are, for all of us.” If this is the end of her Housewives chapter, however, she also agrees with this.
“I feel great,” she shares. “I’m grateful that I had the opportunity, and I’ve done some really cool things along the way, and I’ve made friendships that I’ll have forever, and I’m grateful for that. Whatever’s going to happen, is going to happen.”
History may repeat itself, however. When she joined the show for season 13she began filming just two months after giving birth to her youngest daughter. Cameras may be back in action for the next iteration of RHONJ shortly after giving birth to their next child, though Rachel and John are choosing to keep details about the pregnancy — including the baby’s sex and due date — under wraps for now.
“We’re just enjoying announcing our pregnancy and everything,” she explains. “But we did our third IVF transfer, and it’s been a bumpy road. It wasn’t all smooth sailing like my first two pregnancies, getting pregnant. But at the end of the day, everything always works out in the end, and I feel very grateful and very blessed.”
Rachel’s girls interacting with their new brother (or sister)and — Rachel isn’t sure if this will be the last!) would certainly make for cute TV.
“They can’t stop talking about it!” Rachel reveals. “They’re like, ‘We’re going to have a baby. We’re going to have a baby. I want to bottle feed the baby. I’m going to change the baby’s diaper. I’m going to clean the baby. Mommy, I’m going to take care of the baby.’ That’s Gigi’s new thing: ‘You and Daddy can go to dinner, and I’ll take care of the babies.’ I’m like, oh, the babies? … I’m like, how much do you charge? She’s like $5. I’m like, you’re hired!”
All episodes of The Real Housewives of New Jersey are now available on Peacock, including an extended, uncensored version of Off the rails special.
RELATED CONTENT: