Real Housewives of New Jersey

The Real Housewives of New Jersey is another installment in Bravo TV’s hugely successful Real Housewives series. The New Jersey housewives join the ladies from Orange County, New York and Atlanta in giving viewers a glimpse "behind the gates" at the lives of affluent, suburban housewives and all of the drama their money can buy. The first season of Real Housewives of New Jersey premiered on Bravo on May 12, 2009.

New Jersey is the newest location for Bravo's Housewives.

Like other seasons in the Real Housewives franchise, the New Jersey cast is made up of five women. Unlike the other versions, however, the housewives in New Jersey not only have some pre-existing friendships in place, but there are actually family members on the cast. The cast includes:

Danielle Staub is actually not a housewife at all but a newly single mother of two. She has two daughters, Christine and Jillian, and is active in their various extracurricular activities. One of her claims to fame is to be one of the first female American Express Black card (no limit!) holders in New Jersey. She manages to juggle a storied string of celebrity flings with active involvement in her church. Personal appearance is very important to Staub, and she invests a lot of time and money in trying to keep up a youthful look.

Caroline Manzo is one of two sisters to appear on the show; the sisters are married to brothers! Caroline is married to Albert Manzo, and her family runs a successful catering business and events facility in New Jersey called The Brownstone. She has been married for 25 years and is the mother of three children. Manzo runs a real estate company called Opus Properties and a children’s accessory line called 4 My Mom. She is also active on the board of her sister’s Project Ladybug charity and frequently vacations on the Jersey shore.

Caroline’s sister Dina is married and has been married to Tommy Manzo for four years. You might also know this couple from their appearance on Platinum Weddings. She has an interior design firm and an event planning company in addition to helping out with the Manzo family catering business. Manzo is the founder of Project Ladybug, a charity that helps children with cancer. She is working toward opening Ladybug Houses so families who have to travel for cancer treatment have someplace to stay.

Jacqueline Laurita recently left behind a career as a cosmetologist to become a stay-at-home mom. She has been married to her husband Chris for 13 years, and Chris just happens to be the brother of Dina and Caroline. Laurita and her husband have one son and they have plans to expand their family soon. She also has a teenage daughter from a previous marriage. Laurita spends a great deal of time shopping and going to the spa with her sisters-in-law and also has a close relationship with her husband.

The daughter of Italian immigrants, Giudance was born and raised in New Jersey. She has been married to her contractor husband Joe for eight years, although they have been friends since they were children (in fact, they used to play house together!). The couple has three daughters together, and Giudance stays at home raising them. Before becoming a mother, Giudance earned a degree in fashion marketing and worked in New York City in the fashion industry. She hopes to return to this career some day. She is on the board of Project Ladybug and is friends with Staub. Giudance spends a great deal of time entertaining in her Jersey Shore beach house.

Of course, Bravo made good on the mob angle everyone looks for from a story about the lives of people living in Sopranos country. The Manzo Brothers’ father was Albert "Tiny" Manzo, who was murdered in 1983. He was discovered shot four time in the back seat of a car. The crime remains unsolved, but police have always believed it to be mob hit. Manzo was in the process of opening a casino without the approval of the top brass in the Bergen County mafia group.

All Bravo Real Housewives series episodes premier at 10pm on Tuesdays and then are repeated throughout the week. The channel also shows frequent marathons of Housewives shows between seasons.

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