It's going to take more than a family feud to get Teresa Giudice to leave The Real Housewives of New Jersey.
Despite speculation that Teresa's ongoing drama with brother and sister-in-law Joe Gorga and Melissa Gorga has left her wanting to quit the Bravo series, the RHONJ star recently clarified that she's here to stay on the small screen.
"I would never step away. I started the show," she told People. "I'm never going to give that to anyone because I'm the one that started the show."
Teresa has starred on the series ever since its premiere in 2009. She's become a RHONJ staple over the years, so much so that the show went on pause while Teresa served out her 11-month-long prison sentence in 2015.
"Other people are trying to put that out there, like, 'Oh, Teresa wants to leave,'" the 50-year-old continued. "It's so crazy to me how people are trying to plant the seed that Teresa wants to leave the show…the games that people play. No. I started this. I'm not walking away until Bravo wants me to walk away."
Though the family's most recent drama revolves around Joe and Melissa skipping Teresa's Aug. 6 wedding to husband Luis "Louie" Ruelas, she noted that things between them have been tense ever since Melissa—and subsequently Joe—joined RHONJ in season three.
"Since my family came on the show, it was very hard for me to enjoy being on TV," Teresa said. "Here I am, just getting my feet wet, enjoying it and then bam. I get knocked, really stabbed in the heart with my family coming on the show behind my back."
"It was very sad," she added, "because I felt like my dream kind of got shattered."
All the ups and downs with the couple have taken a toll on Teresa over the years, especially after Joe insulted her new marriage on an episode of Watch What Happens Live filmed at BravoCon 2022 in October. When asked whether Teresa and Louie's relationship or his stand-up career would last longer, Joe jokingly responded with the latter.
"What he did at BravoCon, that's very mean-spirited," Teresa said on the Oct. 26 episode of her Namaste B$tches podcast, "and I just wish that he would stop talking about us to make himself relevant."
The Real Housewives of New Jersey season 13 premieres Tuesday, Feb. 7, at 9 p.m. on Bravo. Catch up on past seasons streaming now on Peacock.
(E!, Bravo and Peacock are all part of the NBCUniversal family.)