'RHONJ' Star Melissa Gorga's Adultery Secret -- Why She Almost Lost Husband Joe
Sept. 26 2013, Published 6:32 a.m. ET
Real Housewives of New Jersey stars Melissa and Joe Gorga would have fans believe that their day-to-day marriage is as perfect as it seems on TV. But in her new book, Love Italian Style: The Secrets of My Hot and Happy Marriage, the RHONJ diva opens up for the first time about a dark secret from her past that has haunted her for years -- and almost torpedoed her relationship with Joe before it ever really began.
On March 29, 1986, Melissa's father Anthony Marco was tragically killed when he drove into a tree. And after his death, the daddy's girl learned he hadn't been the white knight in shining armor that she'd always thought: In fact, he'd been cheating on her mother for years.
"My father died driving in the middle of the night on personal business that my mother and I knew nothing about," she writes. "…He had disappeared before. Many, many times."
"Like all young men, my father liked to party," she reveals. "But he didn't want to do it with his wife. A wife was supposed to stay home, care for the kids and make dinner," she continues. "A good woman didn't run wild. So when the urge to run wild hit my father, he went elsewhere to chase it," and with other women.
"As young as six or seven years old, I remember nights and days of anxiety, of not knowing or understanding what was going on. Dad was home, and then he was gone," Melissa remembers. "Mom fretted and cried."