According to insiders at the Gansevoort hotel,
The drama surrounding The Real Housewives of New Jersey continued off-camera early Sunday morning, as stars Jennifer Aydin, Melissa Gorga and Joe Gorga got into a verbal spat in a New York City hotel lobby.
Two sources confirm to PEOPLE that the trio exchanged harsh words when they ran into one another post-BravoCon in the lobby of the Gansevoort Hotel. The back-and-forth got so bad that Aydin threw a plastic cup of ice water on one of the members of the Gorgas’ team, a tussle that was caught on camera by spying Bravo fans.
Their altercation came after Aydin said that the Gorgas’ future on RHONJ was in jeopardy amid their feud with family member Teresa Giudice, claiming that they were “holding on for dear life” and are “gonna say whatever they need to say to keep them on.”
According to the insiders on the scene, while at the Gansevoort, Melissa saw Jennifer — who was in the lobby without husband Bill Aydin — and called her a “loser” and a “wannabe.”
In response, Aydin shot back with a few insults of her own, the sources say, prompting Joe to get involved. A verbal spat between the two ensued. When a member of the Gorgas’ team also weighed in, Jennifer threw the beverage his way — though the liquid appeared mostly on a hotel security guard who was attempting to break things up. She also crumpled the cup and threw it as well.
“Melissa and Joe had enough of Jennifer’s attacks behind their backs and her desperate attempt to involve herself in their family’s business,” one insider says of the incident, while another notes that Jennifer “lives by a ‘don’t start one, won’t be one’ mantra” and that if Melissa and Joe didn’t want trouble, “they shouldn’t have come for her.”
Frank Catania, who was also on the scene, then helped calm the waters and take care of Jennifer, according to the sources.
Reps for Jennifer and the Gorgas did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Tensions between the Giudice and Gorga camps were so high on Saturday, BravoCon organizers split the Real Housewives of New Jersey panel into two, with Giudice and husband Luis Ruelas on one panel and the Gorgas on another.
Each used their time on stage to open up about their ongoing fallout, Giudice getting especially firm with her feelings after a fan told her that Joe said she’s uninterested in making amends with him.
“Every day I hear something new that my brother’s saying in the press. And this is why,” Giudice said. “Family shouldn’t be acting this way.”
“Right now, I just got married. I’m focusing on my children, I’m focusing on my husband,” she added. “This is shenanigans. This is not how I was raised. My parents are off the boat, I’m first generation. what’s going on is disgusting.”
The mother of four went on to stress that she hopes her brother will stop discussing her in the press.
“I want him to keep my name out of his mouth,” Giudice said. “I wish him and his family well. … I want him to wish me well and I wish him well. That’s it. I just want peace. For my own mental health — you know when there’s drama goes on, you can’t concentrate on what’s really important. My children, they’re teenagers right now. It’s an important time in their life. I just got married. I want to focus on what’s good for our family.”
“And my brother and Melissa said they wanted the toxic to be taken away. So they got what they wanted,” she added.
Giudice and the Gorgas have been at odds since well before Melissa Gorga joined Giudice on RHONJ’s third season, and they haven’t been shy about expressing their feelings toward one another on camera.
They appeared to be on mostly good terms until the filming of the RHONJ season 13 reunion, which ended so badly that Melissa and Joe decided not to attend Giudice and Ruelas’s wedding.
Two sources told PEOPLE at the time what was behind their absence, explaining that Joe and Melissa had been planning on attending until false rumors about their marriage surfaced as the cameras rolled. Giudice’s part in the matter and Ruelas’s behavior amid their back and forth ultimately changed the Gorgas’ minds.
“I got off the roller coaster,” Melissa told PEOPLE at BravoCon. “I don’t want to be on it anymore. We’ll see what happens.”
The “On Display” singer added that she will no longer be the one to try to mend fences with Giudice, saying, “Melissa has exited the building in that situation. I’m done.”
She added that the family “needs a little time” right now.
“I think that sometimes this goes on. How many times do you want to go in and out, in and out? Eventually you need to protect your immediate family,” she explained. “We need to protect our marriage and our children and our life that we live. We can’t always just try to put our hands out and it doesn’t get reciprocated. We’re tired.”
But Jennifer — who was Giudice’s RHONJ panel with husband Bill as as well as Dolores and Frank Catania — said that the Gorgas decision not to show up to the event was a misstep.
“I think that they had to do what was best for them at that moment in time. However, there will be a day, trust and believe, he is going to regret not being there for his sister’s wedding,” she said. “Regardless of what was going down… you just don’t show up for family. That’s a testament to the type of family he is.”
Asked by a fan why the RHONJ panel needed to be split into two, Aydin insisted “the separation didn’t come from us, the separation came from the network.”
That’s a different story than Joe said on his RHONJ panel, which he and Melissa were on with Margaret Josephs, Jackie Goldschneider and their husbands. On it, he explained that Giudice was the one who requested the change — a point Giudice refuted.
“Thank you that you think I’m the boss,” Giudice joked. “Obviously. I didn’t do it.”
Executive Producer Andy Cohen didn’t seem to say either way when questioned about it during his “Ask Andy” panel on Sunday.
“Obviously they’re in a bad place right now,” he said. “We’re on the precipice of the new season … They’re in a very different place than they were when we filmed.”
“I think it’s better to let the show live on air and let you guys watch the show and then pick up at the next reunion,” he said. “It’s a balancing act because you want things to play out on TV, but here were are, and we want to give everybody a good time.”