A brawl at a nightclub in Punta Cana—sparked by a group of people getting “very aggressive” after Teresa Giudice accidentally sprayed champagne on the dancefloor, according to Caroline Manzo—had devastating consequences for Teresa, Caroline, Melissa Gorga, Jaqueline Laurita, their husbands and kids.
“All hell broke loose” inside the club, Melissa said in Not All Diamonds and Rosé, especially after the group started hurling slurs. As Greg Bennett, a friend of the Manzos, recalled, “Albie and Chris are arguing with the guy dropping the N-word, I’ve got the guys calling me homophobic slurs, then the Joes are dealing with another dude. It was like, these different scenes all around.”
The fight, which The Real Housewives of New Jersey cast has never publicly spoken about before, somehow ended, but the next morning, the police arrived to question everyone. Melissa and Joe Gorga had already left the country, and though Caroline said Bravo advised her to do the same, she insisted on staying when authorities took Greg, Albie, Chris and Joe Giudice‘s passports.
Executive producer Lucilla D’Agostino spent the next five days contacting lawyers and officials in the Domincan Republic to try and help. Bravo’s efforts eventually paid off, and in the end, there weren’t any formal charges.
According to Caroline, “the Manzo family will never set foot on Dominican Republic soil again.”