RHONJ’s Joe Gorga Defends ‘Tough’ Exchange With Niece Gia Giudice Over Joe Giudice: I Did ‘Explode’

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Not backing down. Joe Gorga shared his perspective on the “tough” conversations he had with his niece Gia Giudice about her father on the Real Housewives of New Jersey.“I never really speak about Joe Giudice ever,” the real estate developer, 42, explained during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen on Tuesday, March 1. “And there’s a ton of articles about me [and] him, about my wife and I … if you go out and look, there’s 11 articles and I’ve never said anything.”However, Joe explained that he was already on edge when Gia, 21, confronted him about what she felt were “disrespectful” comments about her father, 49. “Before that day, my sister [Teresa] is telling me, ‘We’re going through a divorce,'” he said. “And she’s telling me all these things that he was saying to her. … We [filmed] that episode a couple days later, and I explode.”Joe continued: “I’m just trying to protect my sister [in the moment].”While discussing their argument, Joe told host Andy Cohen that he thinks Gia may have been taking out her frustrations with Joe Giudice out on him. “I wonder if they ever yell at him for anything,” he said.The Instagram influencer faced off against her uncle in the February 8 episode of RHONJ, when she told Teresa, 49, that “people shouldn’t open their mouths” to talk badly about others. “Just like dad didn’t deserve that either,” Gia continued, later telling her uncle that she was “done” with him “being disrespectful.”“She looks at me like I’m the devil,” the TV personality said after the confrontation. “Their father is the devil, not me!”The Rutgers University student shared her side of the story with Cohen, 53, last month. “I kind of just stayed calm, because if I reacted, it wouldn’t have done much,”