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The Daily Dish The Real Housewives of New Jersey

Who Was Involved in the Controversial RHONJ Pre-Reunion Meeting to "Take Down" Louie?

Teresa Giudice wanted information from Jennifer Fessler, and she got it.

By Joe Dziemianowicz

A celebration-of-life party that was all about moving forward suddenly turned into a moment to dig into the past on The Real Housewives of New Jersey.

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Watch The Real Housewives of New Jersey Sundays at 8/7c on Bravo and stream next day on Peacock.

At the event, hosted by Danielle Cabral to celebrate her husband Nate's good health six years after brain surgery and seen on Real Housewives of New Jersey Season 14, Episode 2, Teresa Giudice pulled Jennifer Fessler aside and told her she’d heard that “everyone had met at Margaret’s house” the night before the controversial Season 13 reunion.

“My husband [Luis "Louie" Ruelas] met with Frank [Catania] after New York,” Teresa said. “He said to him that everyone had met at Margaret's house the night before the reunion. Why did Margaret have you guys all at her house?”

What was the meeting before the RHONJ Season 13 reunion?

Jennifer told Teresa everybody was “prepping” for Louie Ruelas to have information on them from a private investigator he said he'd hired.

That whole group, Jennifer told producers, included “Jackie, not Evan, Margaret and Joe, Jeff and I, Melissa and Joe, and Rachel and John.”

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Jennifer clarified that the gathering was damage control.

The cast of the Real Housewives of New Jersey in front of a carnival backdrop.

“It was, like, a get-together to say, ‘We're walking into this sh-tshow. When they come at us with this, we can come back at them with, whatever, XYZ,'" she explained.

Louie previously claimed that he hired “one of the most famous private investigators in the country” to get the scoop on people.

“In New York. Nate, Danielle, and Paulie [Connell] … heard you say, ‘You guys didn't execute the plan correctly,'" Teresa claimed.

Jennifer denied saying that.

“I said they came in there with the manilla envelopes and I was like, ‘You talk this big talk about the manilla envelopes and you didn’t even open them,'" she explained.

The two also discussed Margaret's issues with Louie and Teresa.

At last season’s reunion, Margaret alleged that Louie called her son at his workplace and that police had a record of it.

“Margaret was going to pull out her son's recording of what happened with that phone call,” Jennifer said in a confessional in the new episode. “But from what I remember, it wasn't even used.”

She went on to say that Margaret “was hysterical the day that she thought that Louie called her son.”

Teresa firmly denied doing that.

“It was not true. I swear to God,” Teresa said, her hands raised in prayer. “On my four daughters, we did not do that.”

Asked by a producer if she thought Louis called Margaret’s son, Jennifer said, "Teresa swearing on her girls … I really want to believe her.”

Where will this all lead? Watch The Real Housewives of New Jersey, airing Sundays at 8/7c on Bravo.

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