RHONJ's Margaret Josephs Slams Danielle Staub Over 'Horrific' Fight — But Staub Has No Regrets
Margaret Josephs is speaking out about that explosive altercation with her Real Housewives of New Jersey costar Danielle Staub.
On Wednesday night’s episode of the Bravo show, fans saw the two women at a private shopping event engaging in a tense war of words related to their ongoing feud, which escalated when Josephs poured a bottle of water over Staub’s head. Staub then placed items from Josephs’ purse into a lit candle.
Eventually, things got physical when Staub grabbed Josephs’ ponytail from behind and dragged her towards the ground.
The episode cut off before fans could see the aftermath of the pull, but Josephs said on Twitter, Wednesday, that she’s “devastated” by what happened and accused Staub of nearly breaking her neck and paralyzing her.
“It is very painful for me to relive,” Josephs, 52, said of the argument. “The energy that day frightened me and to this day it still does.”
“I have never hit anyone nor did I after being pushed or being assaulted from behind,” Josephs said. “What I did do after a half hour of a brutal back and forth with my personal space being invaded was to pour water on someone who was clearly looking to assault me and push me into a physical altercation.”
Josephs went on to deny claims that she “deserved” or “asked” for Staub’s offense, stressing that she was “attacked” by Staub “a full 12 minutes after the fact, from behind.”
“My neck was snapped back, and easily could have been broken,” said Josephs. “I could not defend myself. I could have been paralyzed. Everyone was crying including production. It was horrific. I wanted to forget [and] move on. To this day, [I’m] devastated.”
Staub, for her part, wasn’t sorry for her actions.
“I feel like she should have been taught that lesson a long time ago,” she said of Josephs on the Bravo after-show. “She crosses every boundary of mine; every line, every boundary. You know how many people have asked me, why haven’t I done anything to her sooner? Not just ask me, been adamant about it! Almost mad about me that I haven’t. It’s just not in me. But I guess you poke at somebody long enough… I was backed into a corner and I just, I was done.”
Asked if she had any regrets, Staub said, “Hell no” — stressing, “My only regret is not doing it sooner.”
“I would love to know why Margaret feels like she needs to pour things on me, throw things at me, yell at me, talk about my past as if she was a part of it, get involved with my marriage, get involved with my relationships,” Staub said. “She’s affected my life in a very bad way, and all I did was help her fit into the group in the beginning. From where I’m standing, she owes me not only a big apology but she should give me a lot of gratitude.”
“When it escalated to her pouring water over me, I really just didn’t expect it,” Staub added. “I decided, if she was going to basically s— all over me again, how far am I going to let this go without a push-back? No more. I was going to take something that she really loved and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it, so I decided that I would pour her bag into a candle. And it made me feel happy. I felt happy.”
While Staub may have been smiling, many of her RHONJ costars were not.
“It is totally unacceptable to physically hurt someone else!” Jennifer Aydin tweeted on Wednesday. “No matter what happened, @MargaretJosephs did not deserve that! #brutal.”
“I love you and will always have your back,” Jackie Goldschneider told Josephs. “#TeamMargaret.”
But Staub had words for them, too.
“All of them collectively really are the most disgusting, vile people ever,” she said on the RHONJ after show, of her cast mates. I would never be around a group like that again and you know what, they should be really careful. I do hold secrets of there on my own. For a long time I’ve held those secrets. You never know when it’s going to blow.”
The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs Wednesdays (8 p.m. ET) on Bravo.
