Nearly two decades after “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” introduced viewers to one of the franchise’s most memorable rivalries, Caroline Manzo is sharing a Danielle Staub story she says she has never publicly addressed.
During an appearance on the “Legally Goff” podcast, Manzo looked back at the early years of RHONJ and recalled an allegation she says Staub once made involving a Housewives bus tour, damage to Staub’s property and, somehow, the infamous phrase “Prostitution Whore.”
Manzo said she never responded to the story at the time. Until now.
Caroline Manzo Recalls Danielle Staub’s Alleged Claim
According to Manzo, bus tours centered around “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” cast became popular during the show’s early years. Fans could pay to visit locations associated with the Housewives, including Manzo family businesses and other places featured on the series.
“In the beginning years of Housewives, there was a bus tour,” Manzo explained. “And it was a big, you know, buses. And people would pay to get on. They’d take them to the Brownstone and my daughter’s salon and whatever, you know, our homes, whatever.”
One of those stops, Manzo said, involved Staub’s home.
“And Danielle’s house at the time had two large pillars in front of it,” she continued. “Apparently this bus went to her house (and) went to make the u-turn or something and hit the pillar and damaged it.”
What allegedly happened afterward is the part Manzo still can’t quite believe.
“I don’t know how or why, she goes on this radio show, saying that either I was driving the bus or I was the head of the tour, like I was on the bus giving the tour, which is insane, right?” Manzo recalled.
But according to Manzo, Staub’s alleged story didn’t end with the bus.
Caroline Manzo Says She Never Responded Until Now
Manzo claimed Staub also accused her of getting past an expensive home security system and entering her house.
“And I broke into her house, past her $150,000 security system. Me, okay,” Manzo said. “Wrote on her walls, in lipstick, ‘Prostitution Whore.’”
The phrase immediately became part of “Real Housewives” history after Teresa Giudice used it during the explosive RHONJ Season 1 finale. And Manzo couldn’t resist pointing out one major problem with the alleged story.
“Which I never called her Prostitution Whore. Teresa called her (that). I called her a clown,” Manzo said. “So if the story were to be true, it’d have said ‘Clown,’” she added with a laugh.
Manzo and Staub’s contentious relationship was a major part of RHONJ’s earliest seasons, but Manzo said she chose not to engage with this particular allegation when it was supposedly made.
“How insane is that? How insane to say something like that?” she said. “I just never responded.”
Then came the detail that makes the story particularly noteworthy all these years later.
“It’s the first time I’m talking about it,” Manzo revealed. “I never responded to it.”
