Melissa Gorga: 'Things Couldn't Get Any Worse'

With tongues still wagging and Twitter still buzzing over the explosive season premiere of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, the duelling parties are speaking out. "I have wonderful kids, a beautiful house, the whole package — but I don't have my family," Joe Gorga, Teresa Giudice's brother, says in the new issue of Life & Style. "I'm crying out for my family."

If you were one of the millions who made Monday's return of The Real Housewives of New Jersey the most-watched season premiere in Housewives history, then you saw Joe Gorga and Teresa Giudice's husband, Joe Giudice (and many, many others) clash at Joe Gorga's son's christening. The feuding parties took their stories to competing magazines (news on Teresa's exclusive here), with the Gorgas sharing their take on the build-up to the brawl in a Life & Style cover story.

"Teresa's never given us any respect," newest Jersey Housewife Melissa Gorga tells the magazine about her sister-in-law, while suggesting that a long-running sibling rivalry between the families was a factor as well. "I think when Joe and I started making a lot of money is when she really lost it," Melissa continues. "She was used to being the biggest and the best, and then when I came in, she felt threatened. She doesn't want anyone to one up her. Teresa's fine with you as long as you're one step below."

Reconciliation might seem a million miles away -- and trading barbs in the press won't help -- but Melissa remains optimistic. "Things couldn't get any worse, so I'm hoping it only gets better post-show," she says. "Maybe we can become a family again."

Life & Style's cover story with Melissa and Joe Gorga is on newsstands in New York now, and hits the rest of the country on Friday.

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