Melissa and Joe Gorga’s relationship reads like a real-life fairy tale. Ya know, if said fairy tale involves reconnecting at a Jersey Shore bar, long-standing beef with fellow The Real Housewives of New Jersey star Teresa Giudice, and a spicy book about how to keep things, well, spicy in your marriage.
Honestly, for as much as their ’ship has been dramatic (which it t-o-t-a-l-l-y has been), Melissa and Joe have kept things real with us for the over 13 years they’ve been on reality television. And dare I say, they might just be one of our fave Bravolebrity couples!
Here’s a comprehensive timeline of their entire relationship from the complete beginning. And to quote the famous words of Bethenny Frankel, yes, dear reader, we’re fully gonna “mention it all!”
2002
These lovebirds first cross paths in 2022 while Melissa is on a spring break trip at a Cancún, Mexico, hotel with her friends...which Joe also happens to be staying at. 👀 Despite the whole thing being very much a ~star-crossed lovers~ vibe, the two groups actually end up going their separate ways after briefly meeting. That is, until...
...the duo bumps into each other for a second time (!!!) at a beach bar at the Jersey Shore. ’Kay, so maybe the star-crossed lovers thing kinda does apply to them. 😭❤️
August 20, 2004
After fate (and tequila) initially brought them together, Melissa and Joe decide to make things official official and tie the knot!
August 12, 2005
Melissa gives birth to the couple’s first child together, daughter Antonia.
September 12, 2007
The reality stars welcome their second child, a son named Gino.
April 27, 2010
Melissa and Joe become parents yet again with the birth of their son Joey.
June 24, 2011
Melissa’s sister-in-law Teresa Giudice calls Melissa a “gold digger” and accuses her of marrying Joe (aka her brother) for money. During a subsequent interview, Melissa tells E! News she was hurt by her sister-in-law’s words: “Joe and I have been married for seven years and have three kids. We went through a time where we couldn’t even buy diapers. We had to sell every house we lived in...Did I go anywhere? Would I ever? No. It hurts me that she would even put that out there, to put that in someone’s head. And it doesn’t even hurt me as bad as it hurts her brother.”
April 23, 2012
Another day, another rumor! This time around, Teresa tries to spread the news that Melissa is cheating on Joe.
Melissa responds to the hurtful allegation on BravoTV, saying, “What if Joe listened to her and came home yelling and arguing with me in front of my kids—is that what she wanted? Leave him for a richer man? Really? Come on, evidently, I have no idea what I was dealing with here, but I do think it’s very clear to everyone what she is trying to do, so I’m not going to get into it that much. I think watching me and Joe, it’s quite obvious how we feel about each other.”
July 2013
Amid all these ^^ claims, Joe Gorga and Teresa’s then-husband Joe Giudice get into a now-infamous brawl after Teresa tells Joe Giudice that her brother had called her “scum.” TL;DR: The two men end up legit fighting each other, while Melissa is trapped in a corner and urges Teresa to get help. Yiiiikes...
Btw, that same month (!!!), Melissa’s former BFF Jan DeDolce spreads the rumor that the reality star cheated on Joe with her ex. The Envy founder denies the accusations at the time and tells Us Weekly, “I’ve never cheated on Joe....This is all disappointing.”
September 17, 2013
Melissa publishes a relationship book titled Love Italian Style: The Secrets of My Hot and Happy Marriage. The project, which also features passages written by Joe himself, is hugely successful but definitely incites criticism for providing...erm...unconventional advice.
Love Italian Style: The Secrets of My Hot and Happy Marriage
“Even when I’m exhausted and not really in the mood, if it means a lot to Joe that we connect physically, I’ll say, ‘I’m not so into it tonight, but let’s go,’” Melissa pens. “If it’s a hard ‘no,’ I try to be nice about it. Don’t swat him away, or say with a tone, ‘Leave me alone!’ Eventually, he will leave you alone more than you wish he would.”
Well! Then!!!
May 19, 2017
Teresa, Melissa, and Joe-Squared start a pizza restaurant together called Gorga’s Homemade Pasta & Pizza in New Jersey, which kinda signifies a ~new beginning~ for the family members. How-ev-er, just one (!!!) year later, it shuts its doors. According to the family, the management was shady, but that’s pretty much all fans were told, leaving a buncha questions that were never answered. However...
...during a January 2018 interview with The Morning Breath, Melissa briefly talks about the subject and reveals, “I can speak about it mildly because it’s a major situation, unfortunately. I will admit one thing: We are overwhelmed with the amount of people that are going. We had no idea it was going to be as busy as it is; that’s first of all.”
“Second of all, yes, there are partners, obviously, that we’ve gone into it with. We were having issues with the management and the way they were running it. There were a couple shady things going on,” she adds.
May 8, 2019
Per usual, Joe keeps it publicly steamy and dishes to Us Weekly that he and Melissa have sex “more than the average” married couple. “I don’t think of her as my wife. I think of her as my girlfriend, and we just keep it real, and the key is as much sex as you can have. It keeps us together,” he adds.
Honestly? Good for them!
August 20, 2019
The longtime pair celebrate their 15th wedding anniversary with touching tributes to each other:
April 3, 2020
When Joe’s father, Giacinto Gorga, dies at age 76, Melissa pens an emotional tribute to her father-in-law. “Heaven just got another angel🙏🏼 You’ve been the only Dad I’ve known for the past 16 years. You were such an incredible man and such a loving Nonno.. they don’t make them like you anymore. Thank you for teaching my husband how to treat his wife the way you treated yours.”
“Thank you for teaching me how to cook everything I make. Thank you for all the energy you’ve always brought everywhere you went. Run to your wife. She’s waiting for you❤️ RIP we will miss you forever.💔,” she continues.
June 16, 2020
Joe opens up about his family life during a convo with Bravo’s The Daily Dish and says, “I have learned that I am actually a great dad and my whole life revolves around my children. Everything I do is to benefit them and my wife.” He also admits: “The most important lesson you can teach your kids is to be kind and to work hard in life. Anything is possible if you are willing to put in the time and work hard.”
As for their parenting personalities, the reality star confesses, “For the most part I am the easy parent. I go with the flow, I don’t want to baby them and I want them to learn from the mistakes they make. However, when they are in trouble, Melissa is sometimes too easy on them so then I need to step in.”
July 23, 2020
Melissa opens up to Us Weekly about what her and Joe’s future looks like re: children. “Just having to homeschool even another child [in quarantine] would make me want to say no, I can tell you that,” she begins before explaining, “I think we were really deep into, like, leaning toward yes for a minute. I think it’s just, like, the time has passed. I feel like we’re in a spot where I’m like, ‘Okay, let me just, like, be happy with what I have.’ I have three healthy children.”
January 14, 2021
In RHONJ’s season 11 trailer, Teresa accuses Melissa of cheating on Joe again. “Last night, the owner of the restaurant asked Melissa for her number,” the celeb says in the sneak peek before noting, “They’ve been texting all day.”
The teaser then cuts to the couple fighting and Joe cautioning, “Be careful what you say, because I’ll never talk to you again.”
Woof.
February 16, 2021
Ahead of the Bravo show’s 11th season premiere, Melissa fills Us Weekly in on where she and her husband stand. “This season, it’s very raw. It’s very real. It’s very different this season for Joe and I,” the reality star confesses. “We’ve done very good for 11 years. We’re a great couple. We try really hard. We fight really hard for our family and it’s not easy to be on reality TV for 11 years and still stand strong.”
She then adds, “I’ve been with him since I was 24 years old. So I’ve changed and I feel like this is a scary part of marriage. Either you’re going to grow together or you’re going to grow apart. And I think we’re fighting really hard to grow together. It’s not easy. We’re struggling. I’m not sitting here telling you that, like, I’m moving out of my house today, but we were struggling and we show it….We’re fighting out of it.”
May 12, 2021
Melissa’s warnings turn out to be legit indicators of her and Joe’s ’ship throughout the season. Following a ton of explosive fights, the celeb gets honest about where she sees their marriage going. “I don’t want to die unhappy,” she says during the season 11 finale. “I wanna feel fulfilled. Not just as a mom. And I’ve never seen Joe fight so hard against something that I want. So I am feeling really scared about our relationship because I’ve never felt this exhaustion and feeling of giving up.”
July 12, 2021
Much of Melissa and Joe’s issues stem from the Envy founder wanting to gain more independence professionally. “I know we’re been married for 16 years, but we are still learning each other. There’s different turning points, I would say, in marriages,” she muses on the bump in the road. “Joe is not big on change and he likes things to stay the same. He likes to know that everything’s going to be intact and probably, that’s what makes him a great husband. But for me, I’m all about change right now.”
February 1, 2022
Melissa updates fans on how she and Joe are doing, saying they’re “great” after working through their issues. “The pandemic was a little rough. I think it brought out a lot of our real feelings.”
Apparently, the COVID-19 pandemic gave the couple “way too much time” to hash out their relationship issues. “We’re just both sitting on the couch, looking at each other. And I’m like, ‘I got a lot to say.’ He’s like, ‘So do I.’”
The mother of three then reveals that, with time, they were able to move forward and are continuing to make progress. “We’re so much better now,” the Lip Sync Battle alum explains. “It was probably good for us to talk it through. I didn’t know how he was feeling, and I don’t think he was getting where I was coming from.”
June 5, 2022
Melissa and Joe appear to come out on the other side of their drama and attend the 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards in California, where she presents the nominees for Best Competition Series.
And, yes, she’s totally on the stage with Teresa.
April 11, 2023
Cheating allegations haunt the couple yet again during an episode of RHONJ after Jennifer Aydin tells Danielle Cabral that *takes deep breath* Margaret Josephs’s coworker saw Melissa get into a car with a man who wasn’t Joe. Yikes.
Oh, and Jennifer *also* drops the additional tidbit that “the person who claims he witnessed it told Margaret that they were making out. She was making out with another guy.”
After the episode airs, Melissa appears on Watch What Happens Live, and host Andy Cohen asks whether she actually cheated on her husband. In response, she says, “Andy, are you kidding me? First of all, it’s a game of telephone on a baseless rumor that they said they heard five years ago that they’re bringing to light now. Are you kidding me?”
Andy also questions Joe, who’s in the audience, about his reaction to the rumors, and the contractor simply laughs. I-con-ic!!!
December 31, 2023
The longtime couple rings in the New Year in Aruba and posts the cutest pic from the getaway:
May 12, 2024
In honor of Mother’s Day, Joe dedicates an Insta post to Melissa:
June 16, 2024
Melissa returns the favor for Father’s Day and uploads the sweetest tribute to her husband:
July 22, 2024
The reality stars share the most i-c-o-n-i-c ad they work on together for Rao’s and it’s truly *chef’s kiss*. See the campaign for yourself:
Aaaaaand that’s pretty much all we know about Melissa and Joe’s love story for now, but definitely make sure to check back for any and all deets (and selfies) on the reality stars!
