Dina Manzo Breaks Her Silence on Oprah
September 3, 2013 by Ricky Guo
Former Real Housewives of New Jersey star Dina Manzo has finally revealed the reason she quit the hit show.
Many fans of the show were shocked when she left after the first season. Usually, nobody voluntarily leaves the hit Bravo franchise. They usually get fired and replaced. Fans never knew the reason why she left the show. Rumors were flying around saying that she left because her now ex-husband did not want her daughter on the show and also that she did not want to deal with the show’s resident villain, Danielle Staub.
However, Dina finally broke her silence on Oprah’s show Where Are They Now?
She tells Oprah about how the show changed from showing the lives of wealthy housewives from New Jersey to a show about fighting over petty things and flipping tables.
“At the very beginning of filming we had a lot of fun,” says Dina. “Because they weren’t sure what direction the show was going into — it was before the table flip happened.”
She also tells Oprah that she was “horrified” at the antics that these ladies were partaking in. She also left because she did not want her daughter watching her fight all the time on the show and be exposed to it.
“I was with my daughter and I was shaking and I kissed her on the head and I said, ‘Don’t be like any of us, including myself.’ I was just so horrified that my daughter saw that,” she continued.
After Dina left the show, she spent her time concentrating on her charity, Project Ladybug, which helps children suffering from life-threatening illnesses. She came back to television in 2011 as the star of HGTV Dina’s Party, where her event planning business helped people planned parties. But, she gave her fans what they wanted, a long awaited return to The Real Housewives of New Jersey, where she showed up at Teresa’s party in an episode of Season 4.
We will be seeing a lot of Dina Manzo in the future as Dina’s Party has been renewed and she has a scripted show in the works.