As Teresa Giudice‘s family handles Milania Giudice‘s mental health and legal troubles, an insider is giving new insight into how her children allegedly navigated growing up in the spotlight.
“Teresa absolutely loves her daughters, but she has lived on reality television for so long that I don’t think she recognizes where the show ends and the family begins anymore,” a family friend told Rob Shuter for his Naughty But Nice Substack on September 30.
“A fight becomes an episode. A heartbreak becomes a storyline. Eventually, even a crisis starts looking like content,” the friend continued.
Another source close to the Real Housewives of New Jersey star, 54, told Shuter that the family “studied” other reality TV shows and stars in order to emulate their success. In addition to daughter Milania, 20, Teresa is also mom to daughters Gia, 25, Gabriella, 21, and Audriana, 17, all of whom she shares with ex Joe Giudice.
According to Shuter’s reporting, the Giudices would practice “phrases, comebacks and stories they thought might ‘pop’ on camera,” claiming her children were “being groomed to understand the fame business” from a young age.
“They watched other reality shows constantly and studied what worked,” claimed the insider. “Who became famous? Who got the spin-off? Who turned one scene into a career? The Kardashians were the gold standard. There was an obsession with how that family turned reality television into an empire.”
“It wasn’t someone handing out scripts,” sources continued. “It was learning how to deliver a line, how to make a moment bigger and how to say something people would repeat the next morning. They understood that boring doesn’t make television.”
An insider also said they also talked “about how to win at social media,” and how to go viral, instead of learning “the dangers of social media.”
As In Touch previously reported, Milania recently entered treatment following an incident at the Tampa airport alongside her mom and Gia, while going through what Teresa later called an “extremely vulnerable time in her life.” The reality TV star’s childhood friend Victoria Zardoya also died unexpectedly on July 27.
Before her mental health issues became public knowledge, she was arrested on May 14 following a domestic dispute at her family’s New Jersey residence, Page Six reported.
Per Shuter, the current drama will not be featured on the next season of RHONJ, as it happened after cameras went down. They will not pick back up to capture any of the fallout, he reported. However, a former reality TV producer pointed out how Giudice has a history of highlighting her family struggles on the show, including her and Joe’s prison stints, divorce, and his deportation.
“Most families would pull the curtains closed,” said the producer. “Teresa did the opposite. The darkest chapters of her life became some of the biggest chapters of her television career. Disaster didn’t destroy the brand. Disaster strengthened it.”
But as more children of reality start to make troubling headlines, the producer noted, it’s not just “a Teresa problem,” but a “reality TV problem.”
“We built an industry around rewarding dysfunction, put children inside it,” the producer added, “then acted surprised when some of those families struggled off screen.”
This story Teresa Giudice ‘Studied’ the Kardashians, Taught Her Kids ‘to Understand the Fame Business’ first appeared on InTouch Weekly. Follow InTouch Weekly on Yahoo so you don’t miss what’s coming next.
