Melissa Gorga’s experience on Wife Swap: The Real Housewives Edition put husband Joe Gorga’s more hands-off approach to parenting their three children on display.
While getting acquainted with her new family in East Point, Georgia, The Real Housewives of New Jersey mom immediately noticed a major difference between her swap husband, Sean Clark, and Joe, with whom she shares kids Antonia, 20, Gino, 18, and Joey Gorga, 15.
“I’ve never had a man help with a child in my life,” Melissa admitted to Sean. “My husband never changed my child’s diaper.”
Afterward, Sean, who’s very involved in the lives of his and wife Michelle Clark’s three children (Sean Jr., 8, Phoenix, 7, and Maverick, 3), declared to a producer, “That’s a problem. We don’t do that.”
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Following a family park outing for some Double Dutch aerobics, Melissa decided that her soon-to-be-introduced rules would include giving her swap husband a tase of how Joe operates in her family.Â
“I appreciate what an amazing hands-on dad Sean is,” she noted, before adding, “He never gets a break, and that’s gonna change.”
Melissa and Joe Gorga open up about their marital issues on Wife Swap: The Real Housewives Edition
Some of the larger issues in Melissa and Joe’s 21-year marriage also came to light throughout the second Wife Swap: Real Housewives Edition episode, which aired on Oct. 28.
In addition to parenting three kids, Melissa joked that also having “a husband that’s like a child” is “a whole job in itself,” outside of her actual career. While breaking down her “typical day,” the RHONJ ‘Wife also revealed that she spends a majority of her time away from him.
“Joe is out of the house at 6:30 in the morning. He doesn’t come home until dinner time,” Melissa shared. “Most of my days are with me. I have coffee, I work out, do glam, and then I go to work. [I] come back home and then I get dinner together.”
RELATED:Â Joe Gorga Shares the Major Difference Between Daughter Antonia and His Sons
From Joe’s POV, Melissa had been perhaps too focused on keeping their Franklin Lakes, N.J. home in a state of perfection. He also later cited his busy work schedule as the reason why he doesn’t help her with daily household tasks such as cooking.
“If this house is unorganized, it kind of f–ks with her head,” Joe elaborated to a producer.
As he more bluntly put it to Melissa, “You’re so OCD on everything. That’s the word: OCD. … It’s too much.”
That’s why Melissa said her main goal for the swap was to learn “to just let some things go.”
What Melissa Gorga learned on Wife Swap: The Real Housewives Edition
Throughout the course of the social experiment, Melissa first lived under Michelle’s rules, which included adopting a more relaxed vegan lifestyle and letting dirty dishes sit in the sink overnight. Then, upon the rule change, she gave the Clarks a taste — at times, literally — of the more structured way her family lives in the Garden State.
By the end, Melissa said she “learned a lot,” pointing out how being around children much younger than her own ultimately reminded her of the importance of family time.
“I need to spend more quality time with my kids,” she shared. “Like, there’s not a ton of time left before they wanna move out of my house.”
As Melissa elaborated in a confessional, “I’m with my kids a lot, but we need to have different conversations when we are together. We need to dig a little deeper. It’s not just about being with them, it’s like what are you guys talking about when you are together? And that was big for me.”
After Melissa returned to New Jersey, Michelle, who’d even gone to work with Joe during the swap, opined that she spends too many hours away from her husband.
“We do spend a lot of time apart during the day,” Melissa acknowledged, before adding, “But I gotta go to work; he’s gotta go to work. I can’t go sit in an excavator. I have to make sprinkle cookies. How am I gonna do that?”
Jumping ahead to one month post-filming, viewers got an update on how Melissa was doing putting those lessons into practice.
“Melissa is still learning to chill… and her house is still spotless,” an onscreen graphic read. “Melissa has been making sure to spend more quality time with her kids… but she still refuses to visit Joe at the construction site.”
As you await more Wife Swap: The Real Housewives Edition episodes, take a closer look inside Melissa and Joe’s family life today.
