The Real Housewives of New Jersey star Melissa Gorga has been in the news quite a bit recently. Of course, this is partly due to her new line of sprinkle cookies, but it’s also because everyone is wondering who will return to the show. Now, the RHONJ star is opening up in a new interview about the cookies, the future of the show, Teresa Giudice throwing shade, and much more.
Fans will recall that Melissa recently made headlines by issuing a warning to Bravo about waiting too long to announce the RHONJ season 15 cast. Notably, she said that they would lose people if there wasn’t any forward movement with the show soon. Of course, this came after Andy Cohen said there may not be news until 2026 regarding the long-running series.
Recently, Melissa sat down for an interview with Page Six. Naturally, one of the biggest topics they talked about was her line of cookies, which is called Sprinkle Cookies by MG. When asked how she’s feeling about the new business venture, she says, “I feel so good. Like, who knew? I mean, everyone knows that I’ve always had, like, this iconic love of sprinkle cookies, right?”
Melissa continued, “So I am completely, like, in shock over the response and how much everyone loves them and is tasting them and loves them. I’ve had such great, like, response from so many of the Housewives and some of my, you know, some of the girls out there, so it’s been great.”
Melissa, who shared plans to expand the cookie line by coming up with a new box for Valentine’s Day, then reacted to Bethenny Frankel, who surprisingly gave her sprinkle cookies a very positive review.
“Do you know what my sister said? ‘Like are you sure? [Bethenny] is going to be brutally honest.’ And I’m like I know that I have the best butter sprinkle cookies she’s ever going to try. I felt 100% confident. I sent them over the next day. Like the second they were ready and the packaging was ready,” said Melissa. “And I would have taken constructive criticism but I knew. They’re never frozen. They’re real butter. They’re from a real Italian bakery… They’re just awesome. They’re great.”
Of course, the origin of the cookies also came up. Notably, this was from the earlier years of RHONJ when she sent sprinkle cookies to her sister-in-law Teresa, who rejected them. Specifically, the interviewers asked if she would be associated with sprinkle cookies because of the show.
Melissa said, “I know. I really didn’t realize that it would, I don’t think any of it, I don’t think Bravo realized. I mean, to this day, there hasn’t been a Christmas that has gone by that I don’t get 1000 DMs, showing me that they’re picking the sprinkled cookie or that someone brought them the sprinkled cookie.”
Naturally, they also asked her about Teresa’s social media post, in which she said, “You’re welcome,” following the announcement for the line of cookies. According to Melissa, “Oh my gosh. I know. I mean, do we expect anything different It’s like, when they go low, we go high. That’s my reaction to that. I mean, it was expected, you know?”
She added, “I mean, come on, it’s expected.”
RHONJ then comes up and the interviewer asked Melissa what she thinks of the possibility of a reboot and if the fans would want that. She said, “I think that they would want, especially, we come from a very like long-standing franchise with very familiar faces. I feel like they would need a few[returning faces].”
She went on, “I understand them wanting to do a little like mix-up because it’s time, obviously. But I think they would need to keep a few familiar faces, and that’s on by. I don’t know who or what they decide, but I would suggest they kept a few familiar faces. I think it would be very tricky.”
However, Melissa then said, “You can’t do everything forever. It’s like when one door opens another door, when one door closes, another one opens. We really don’t know.”
They then ask if she has an ideal scenario for the show. She responded, “I really don’t. I really don’t. I can see it going a couple of different ways. Honestly, I can understand this, I can understand that, and I can understand that. You know, so. It’s been a really good run and a really long time. And it’s like people have watched my children grow up, you know, like everywhere, people know them as well.”
When it comes to the biggest misconception about her, Melissa says it’s about her business acumen and hard work.
“I think that I get overshadowed sometimes. Everyone knows me from the Housewives and that’s very normal. I get it. But I’m actually a really really hard worker,” she said. “I’ve been since I was a young girl. I’ve always had 3 jobs. When Joe met me, I had 3 jobs. I’ve always been very ambitious in that way.
Fans can watch old episodes of RHONJ on Peacock.