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Jacqueline Laurita On Siggy Flicker, Dolores Catania, And ‘RHONJ’ Season 8

By Karen de Wilde
Published on: 04:57 PST, Aug 22, 2017

One person notably absent from the Real Housewives of New Jersey Season 8 preview that Bravo released early this morning is Jacqueline Laurita. Jacqueline starred on the show for its first five seasons, was a recurring cast member on its sixth season, and then returned as a starring housewife last season.

In Season 7, Jacqueline was involved in much of the season’s most dramatic storylines, as a major focus of Season 7 was her broken friendship with Teresa Giudice, who had just been released from federal prison after serving a year for fraud. Tied to the question of whether Jacqueline would mend her friendship with Teresa was her friendships with new housewives Siggy Flicker and Dolores Catania. Throughout the season, Siggy, who came on the show as Jacqueline’s friend, and Dolores, a long-time friend to both Jacqueline and Teresa, found themselves caught in the middle and trying to be peacemakers in the battle between Jacqueline and Teresa.

While the Season 8 preview shows the return of Teresa, Siggy, Dolores, and Melissa Gorga as housewives, there is not a second of Jacqueline. However, Jacqueline’s total absence from Season 8 may not be shocking to many of her fans; about two weeks ago, Jacqueline confirmed to Page Six that she opted to not participate in the new season. According to Jacqueline, the show’s producers, after seeing how her relationships with some of the other women were, would not guarantee that she would be a starring housewife. Jacqueline explained that to her, it wasn’t worth filming a season only to later be featured as a part-time housewife.

“They had given me a start date. A couple days later they expressed concern that I wasn’t getting along with a few of the girls and they were like, ‘How’s this going to look authentic if you don’t want to be hanging out with each other?’ They wanted me to come on and start filming part-time to see how the story line unfolded and then [said they] maybe would make me full-time. They weren’t guaranteeing full-time, so for me to film all season long under all that stress and drama to not have a guaranteed full-time [spot] was not worth it for me, so I said no.”

Was Jacqueline Laurita actually not getting along with Siggy Flicker and Dolores Catania? After all, during Season 7, Siggy was shown getting very close to Jacqueline’s enemy, Teresa Giudice. Did Jacqueline feel betrayed by Siggy? In Season 7, Dolores also remained close to Teresa and didn’t automatically take Jacqueline’s side when she fought with Teresa. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Teresa claimed last season that Jacqueline guilt-tripped Siggy and Dolores about not sticking up for her more during a heated argument in Vermont.

Yet, in her Page Six interview, Jacqueline made it clear that she’s still friends with both Siggy and Dolores.

“I still talk to Siggy and Dolores all the time, that friendship will never change.”

Indeed, on Twitter, Jacqueline praised Siggy and Dolores on the new season.

Earlier in the summer, Jacqueline wished Siggy a happy 50th birthday.

After the Real Housewives of New Jersey Season 8 preview was released, Jacqueline also admitted that the new season looks great, with the exception of the return of Danielle Staub, who is now a part-time housewife.

[Featured Image by Robin Marchant/Getty Images]

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