“Real Housewives of New Jersey” star Melissa Gorga opened up about her relationship with Joe Gorga and how they have maintained their marriage of 21 years.
Melissa & Joe Celebrate 21 Years Together
Melissa and Joe celebrated their 21st wedding anniversary on August 20 and shared the festivities with their fans on Instagram.
“21 years with this man. All I want to be is a beautiful example of what marriage is to these kids we made together❤️ So far I think we are doing a great job 🙏🏼Happy Anniversary @joeygorga I’ll always be by your side,” Melissa wrote in the caption of her Instagram post.
“Happy Anniversary to my amazing beautiful wife! I love spending time with you. 21 years went by so quick ❤️❤️” Joe wrote in the caption of his own Instagram post dedicated to their anniversary.
The couple recently went to St. Barths together, where an unexpected Bravo crossover occurred.
Joe posted an Instagram photo of himself posing on the beach alongside “Million Dollar Listing New York” agent Steve Gold.
“My Man!” Joe captioned the photo.
Steve, who was vacationing with his wife, Luiza Gawlowska, shared a photo of the Gorgas and their crew sitting on a dinghy.
“Old school Bravo fam,” the realtor wrote in an Instagram story, which Melissa and Joe shared on their respective accounts.
“Always by my side,” Melissa wrote in the caption of her post.
Melissa’s Advice to a Long-Lasting Marriage
“I met him as a 24-year-old girl, and to think, you know, this many years later we’re still together,” Melissa said in an interview with Bravo’s The Daily Dish. “I wake up every morning, [and] I’m like, ‘You’re still here. Here you are.’ No, honestly, we’re friends.”
Melissa acknowledged that her marriage to Joe was far from perfect, but the pair have always managed to overcome their conflicts as a team.
“I do enjoy going to dinner with Joe,” she said. “We’re both fun people, so it works. And our lives are similar and, you know, we balance each other out in such a way where he lets me be the boss where I need to be, and I let him be the boss where he needs to be.”
Melissa also said that her and Joe have maintained a healthy banter in their relationship.
“I wanna kill him sometimes, but we’re attracted to each other and we’re both fun people,” she explained. “It’s like if you can’t have fun with us, you can’t have fun with anybody because we’re lifers. We love life. We enjoy life. We don’t like the negative. We really don’t. It’s hard for us to do negative. It’s always been my struggle on the show (RHONJ), just keeping up with the negative, right?”
“It’s never easy, a marriage,” Melissa continued. “We definitely have our ups and downs…We struggle, we fight, we battle. We’re both very strong-minded people.”
“When Joe and I have an argument, we have an argument, but I’d be the first one to move on with my level head, and he’ll hold that grudge for, like, five more days,” she said. “You got five [days]. I start counting down the days until he’s gonna let it go.”
