The Real Housewives of New Jersey’s Frank and Dolores Catania
They’re the stars of the hit reality show, “The Real Housewives of New Jersey.” Dolores and Frank Catania aren’t your averages exes. They were married for several years and are now divorced, yet still live together. Their healthy lifestyle and love of working out keeps their friendship strong. In this interview, they’re revealing the reality of their relationship - and what you don’t see when the cameras aren’t rolling. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
And I gave him the chance, Frank, call your girlfriend, tell her it's over, and I will never mention this ever again.
I was like nine months pregnant and I probably was not in contracture.
Frank hurt worse though.
You have no idea.
Hey, everyone. everyone.
I'm Dr. Oz, and this is the Dr. Oz Podcast. Dr. Oz Podcast.
They're the stars of the hit reality show, The Real Housewives of New Jersey.
Dolores and Frank and Tanya aren't your average exes.
They were married for eight years.
They got divorced, yet they're still living together.
Their healthy lifestyle and love of working out keeps their friendship strong, but there's more to this.
We'll talk about that in a second.
Today, they are here in person revealing the reality of their relationship and what you don't see when the cameras are rolling.
Dolores and Frank, thanks for being here.
We actually have two housewives here because Lisa lives in New Jersey, too.
Oh!
We're neighbors.
Oh, awesome.
Toysy girls.
First of all, just get into this relationship for a second.
For the average human being trying to figure out why you would bother divorcing someone if you're not going to move away from them, walk me through the thought process.
Feel free to go ahead, Frank.
Frank wasn't ready.
I'll help you.
Frank wasn't ready for the divorce or to move out?
He wasn't ready for a marriage when we got married.
Okay, we are married.
We had two children.
And Frank, I guess, wasn't done sowing his oats at the time.
So it was better that he lived in another place.
We got divorced.
But my thing is, I grew up with a very close-knit family, and I wanted that for my children.
So that's why we're here, and that's why we've always been together.
And it worked out.
See, if Mehmet were cheating on me, because let's just cut to the chase, that's what you were doing, I would kill him.
The best case scenario, I would never speak to him again, except with my lawyer to get whatever.
Maybe she tried.
But the idea of reconciling living with him?
The living with came only two years ago.
This is new.
We haven't lived together in 20 years.
We were apart, but always close.
We're always within half a mile of one another.
Because despite my shortcomings, as I'll put it, Dolores always was worried about family.
And in order to keep it as a family, she overlooked some of my shortcomings.
Are you better now?
But I didn't stay married.
Because you cannot stay married and not trust someone.
No.
Because as a mother, you're so consumed with where is he, what he's doing, waiting by the window, why is he five minutes late?
You lose that time as a mother, which I did before it came to a head.
I can't get that time back.
And I don't remember a lot of my kids being little for that reason.
And that's my resentment that I'll always hold towards him.
But I put it aside.
But...
Well, that's new to me.
I didn't know you had a reason.
Well, I'll let you know now.
Okay, there you go.
So I say, my advice to women that go through that is, you cannot be with a man when you're so consumed with what he's doing because it takes away from your time with your kids.
And you miss out on very valuable time.
Their first words, the walking, enjoying their games.
It's not worth it.
Let them go.
Enjoy being a mother.
But when did you first figure out that you had an infidelity problem?
When I was pregnant for my son.
And he was being, you know, he wasn't being nice.
And I knew a lot was going on.
And I approached him.
He'd come home smelling like perfume.
His hair was a mess in the middle of the day.
And I said to him...
Oh, they notice this stuff.
Believe me.
Don't look around.
But you have to understand, I used to be a cop.
And my father was the chief of police.
So I was raised...
To be suspicious.
To be suspicious anyway.
Like, my father's a conspiracy theorist, so everybody's up to no good.
Let's tell it out what it is, though.
Dolores has the uncanny ability.
If she suspects something, she will continue to act perfectly normal to you until she builds a case against you that is...
Ironclad.
Ironclad.
She needs evidence before she will proceed.
I will not ask a man a question.
I have no idea.
Unless I have the answer to the question I'm asking, especially when it comes to...
Where were you Thursday night?
I was out to dinner.
Well, no, you weren't.
Back then we had VHS still.
Right.
Slips the VHS in.
Isn't that you?
Coming off a boat?
And who's that with you?
It's not me.
But I won't say anything leading up...
Until I have the black and white...
I know what I have to do.
But I always give a nice warning.
And I warned him.
I said, you're up to know.
Listen, don't make me prove this.
I had a broken heart.
None of this was easy.
My mother looked at me one day.
She goes, you're going to die of a broken heart.
Take something to sleep.
And I said, I can.
I got an infant and a three-year-old here.
But I got through it.
And I said to her, you know, I said to him, don't make me prove this, but stop what you're doing.
And he goes, go see a psychiatrist because you're crazy.
Oh, he was gaslighting you.
So, I knew, you know, as things got worse and out of hand, you know, it was the time of the Sopranos.
I guess Frank thought he was Tony Soprano at the time.
I'm speechless.
I thought I had a difficult...
See, I always tell Lisa, in our house, the prosecution never rests.
But you were convicted.
Sentenced?
You didn't even know it.
You have no idea.
It got so bad...
That Dolores had my car bugged.
She had my office bugged.
I was so afraid to even talk to anyone that my friends wouldn't talk to me because everything we knew was being recorded.
Why didn't you just stop dogging around?
You want to know something?
And Dolores said it to me.
And quite honestly, I would have came home.
I would have came home.
I would have been with my family if, in fact, I loved Dolores.
I still love her very much.
I knew deep down that I couldn't be.
I couldn't be faithful.
And when I saw her hurt, I could never do that to her again.
So, crazy question.
If you couldn't be trusted to tell the truth about your relationship, about the commitment of your marriage, could you lie about the bills?
Was there an inherent trust factor that was a problem with you?
No.
No, you wouldn't?
The dishonesty did not spread to other aspects of your life?
No, not at all.
Everything else was basically an open book.
It was.
Everything.
Until recently, by the way.
Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
What's this can of worms that we're talking about?
It was on air.
It was air during the first episode, so we have to, you know, speak about it since you brought it up and it's a good question.
Well, no, because for me, it's always a matter of trust.
And if you break my trust, I'm not going to believe anything that comes out of your mouth.
Right.
Well, I knew because of all the due diligence that I did and all the work I did, I knew when he was lying, I knew his path.
Human nature is very...
It's like...
How can I say, you know, I know everyone has a pattern to everything.
I learned his pattern.
This didn't happen overnight.
I learned his pattern.
She's good.
I learned how he speaks to other people.
I learned other people in his life.
You know, I kept everything to myself.
I would never, ever reveal somebody else's issues with what they trusted in him.
But I got to learn a lot about the way people react to things and the way they do things, which has come to play in other relationships down the road.
In whether it's a romantic relationship or not.
So what else did he cheat on?
No, he didn't cheat on anything.
Here's the thing.
Frank got disbarred.
Got disbarred.
Yeah, I was going to ask about that, but...
Oh, yeah.
Might as well...
Well, no, here's your chance to say.
Absolutely.
And he didn't tell me.
But I knew about this because it was...
He didn't steal money from anyone, but in New Jersey, it's very cut and dry.
You could take $5 out of the account or $5 million, and you're still going to get disbarred.
And you could do way other things that are a lot worse and not.
But he'll explain to you...
What happened?
Why were you disbarred?
Back in 2010, I had...
One of my very, very close friends, who's still a very close friend.
I represented him, his mother, and his wife in the purchase of a piece of property.
And sitting in my trust account was $180,000 for what's called a riparian grant.
And that takes the state for a while.
And we had other businesses going on.
And at that time, we were doing very, very well.
And there was an attorney who called us.
We had a balance due.
It was the end of the year, December 22nd.
Said to me, if you pay us, he more than cut our bill in half by the end of the year.
I didn't have the money available to me.
Within two days, I called my friend who had the money in a trust account, had him send me a letter authorizing me to take the money.
Took the money, not $180,000, it was $15,000.
Took the money out, paid it to the attorney, put it back in the account 62 days later.
No harm, no foul.
There was never even a report to the ethics committee.
In 20 years, not one ethical complaint.
He's an amazing attorney and a very well-respected person.
And a prosecutor for the city of Hackensack, and we have our random audits.
They did our random audits, and the lady who did the audit saw the money go out, saw the money come back in, said to me, what was that for?
I said, well, it was a loan for my client.
I said, You can't take money directly out of your trust account, number one.
Number two, you can't ask your client without suggesting to them at the very least to go get separate counsel.
So when all was done is said, it ended up being a trial.
It went on.
It went on for almost six years.
That's why when it happened.
For six years.
She knew what was going on.
I know.
I told her.
The whole time, because I never, never expected this.
We had a trial, and my friend, who's also my business partner, and Delores is a business partner now, too, still are.
Him, he came in, he testified on my behalf.
His mother testified, his wife testified.
Everybody testified.
And it was determined later on that that money, at the time that it was taken, that the title company may have had an interest in it, that the mortgage company may have had an interest in it.
And I did not get their permission to take the money.
Although at the end, they did not have an interest in it.
It was all my client's money.
So there's a threshold.
If it's negligent, you get a slap on the wrist, you get probation.
If it's intentional, it's misappropriation of funds.
They ruled it.
They considered it to be intentional.
Can you appeal it?
For $15,000, his law firm, his job as a prosecutor.
Exactly.
People have cried for him.
We've had friends call crying.
It doesn't seem that anyone's served by that decision.
Was it a jury trial?
No, no.
It's not even a...
It's a counsel trial.
Yes.
It's a kangaroo court.
Other lawyers sitting there saying...
Not even other lawyers.
One other lawyer who sits as a hearing officer.
Me and her, and the trial went on for two weeks.
Me and her hit butt heads from the very, very beginning.
So it didn't go well for the first day, the first day.
Is there a way to get it back, to reinstate it?
I may look to do that for the mere purpose, just I don't like someone having the authority to take my license right.
Yeah.
We're doing much better now because what I did is the time that I would put into the law firm, I took, and now I put 100% into our other businesses.
There's a lot of part where that came from, but first, a quick break.
First off, kids are up and they're out of their home.
One in vet school, one at Sacred Heart and finance.
Why?
If the kids are gone, you have to live together.
Now you've lost the excuse of why you're living together again.
Oh, explain that, Frank.
Because you weren't getting along with your girlfriend.
Not the one that broke the marriage up.
She's been long gone.
But the girlfriend now is fine.
But they're not getting along.
I like the company.
You have to understand, Frank, I didn't even know that this was going on.
Myself and my girlfriend have 14 years living together.
We're having some problems.
There were some issues in the relationship.
Not?
Not me.
It wasn't me cheating.
You weren't hooking up behind the girlfriend's back.
We needed time apart.
So what she was afraid, my girlfriend, who's friendly with Dolores, is that if I went out and built myself a house, all right?
It would look like National Lampoon, like a frat house, probably.
And that I would never, me and her would never have a chance to get back together.
I'm in favor of them staying together.
So the girlfriend went to Dolores and said, we have issues.
Can he stay here?
Can you mind if he comes back?
So, it's definitely not your orthodox relationship.
Wow.
What do the kids say about this?
That doesn't faze them one bit.
Well, I used to threaten them when they were younger that I would let him come back home.
When they were bad.
Your dad's coming home and you're going to be sorry.
I'm going to let dad back home.
Oh, we'll go clean our rooms.
And then, you know, but they were both one was leaving for graduate school and one was leaving for college.
And all of a sudden, an empty nest hit me hard because my life has only been them.
I have not remarried in 20 years, which is, you know.
But you have a boyfriend, right?
I have boyfriends.
I've had relationships.
I just really didn't...
My life was my children and everybody's children.
I had all the Franklin Lakes in my house every weekend.
I would wake up and there'd be kids and, you know, I took kids in and they were my...
I made a family out of, like, always having them there.
And I had a great relationship with him, so I didn't tolerate a lot of crap from other people.
I didn't need them.
But all of a sudden, I didn't realize how much of a wussy I really was until my kids were leaving.
Then I was like, oh, my God.
Oh.
Now what?
Everything, within a week, my house, you could hear a pin drop.
I had an anxiety attack.
Now, I worked in a jail for six years.
I did not grow up in an easy neighborhood.
Like, he can tell you, when he met me, things were, I was waitressing, I was working in a jail, I was helping my parents.
I was, you know, my dad was a cop, my mom was a waitress, so it was always like, no, it was a hustle, like, scrapping.
You know, I didn't go to camps or vacations.
Right.
Or they weren't out in the Hamptons.
I didn't know the Hamptons until like probably 10 years ago.
I didn't know they existed.
So my first vacation, he took me on.
I was on a plane at 22. That was my first time ever on a plane.
And so, I mean, I could go on with that stuff forever.
However, you know, I thought to myself, oh my God, my life is gone.
These kids are gone.
And all of a sudden, the wall started closing in on me.
And I was like...
I didn't know what to do.
And I had a really rough six months.
Really rough.
Almost.
I didn't take medication or anything to get through my divorce.
I raised my kids a lot of times by myself while Frank was finding himself.
But I almost considered seeing a doctor about that.
Well, now that Frank has found himself, would you guys get back together?
We like things the way we are.
They are.
Everyone asks that question.
Everyone asks that.
Well, everyone's curious, right?
You're living together.
You obviously still really love each other.
You know, 100%.
And I would do anything for her.
And people say, you know, well, how do you guys get along the way you did?
We were best friends before we were married.
We never...
That was really our only problem.
And it was...
I could have turned away.
I actually said to him, the night that I approached him with this, when you approach a man, when you're in a relationship and you approach the other person about what's going on, now it's time you have to make a decision.
You can eat it and turn your head.
But once it's brought up, you gotta do something.
And I gave him the chance.
Frank...
Call your girlfriend.
Tell her it's over.
And I will never mention this ever again.
I was like nine months pregnant and I probably was having contractions at the time.
Frank hurt worse though.
He said, I explained to him and he said, I can't because I don't know where she is if I'm here and I gotta go.
So, he left that night.
And he wanted to come back about two weeks later.
And I wouldn't let him.
Then it was done.
And as hard as it was for me, I could not.
Because I knew it wasn't over.
It would trickle down.
It would go on and off.
It was a tumultuous relationship anyway.
So, how did you repair your relationship with Frank?
Well, growing up the way that I did, I learned to detach myself from certain situations and my feelings towards it.
And I did that when I was investigating him, and I did that when I was...
Becoming friends with him.
A lot of it was hard.
I would cry after he left, or I would fall apart, or I would walk the floors all night.
But the next day, I'd see him with a smile.
Because there was something that had the biggest impact on me through this whole thing.
I took my kids after I had my son, after I beat up his girlfriend, and I decided...
Physically?
Oh, absolutely.
Yes.
Oh, to her?
She used to work in a jail.
And Dolores...
Dolores is tough.
Dolores is very, very tough.
I can see that.
I see those biceps.
She can take me out.
She fights.
Dolores can fight.
She grew up in Patterson.
She can fight.
How did you find the girlfriend?
I thought she was missing.
No, the girlfriend, no.
I knew where she lived, and I waited for him to get there because he told me he wanted to come home.
I said, oh, you want to come home?
He goes, yeah, I'm done with that girl.
I said, okay, let me think about it.
The next day, I knew his pattern of going there, so I made my sister wait outside the house, and when he got there, my son was a week old, and when he got there, she goes, I had to see it for myself because I wanted to believe him.
I wanted him to come home.
I wanted to never talk about this again.
And I went there and I said to my sister, where is he?
She goes, he just walked in.
And I said, I come from a very close family, to one of five.
And he jumped out the back window and ran down the street.
Okay, this is an episode of Cheaters.
I know that you're on Real Housewives of New Jersey, but my gosh, this is like such good television.
Ran down the street.
I wish we had a camera back then.
I'm in my suit.
I jumped out the second.
That's how afraid I was of her.
I was in my suit and I dove out the second floor window and landed in the bushes in the back of the house.
And you're running away.
Oh, you have no idea.
I kept running.
You know he's in there, so now he's escaped.
The girlfriend's there.
He's escaped.
The girlfriend made the mistake of coming out of the house.
And I had to have my peace with her to move on with him in the way that I did.
So then I did.
And, you know, my dad had gotten the call by the time I got home from this.
And my father said, do you feel better?
He was the chief of police at the time.
Wait, and that's assault, right?
Couldn't you get in trouble for that?
Yeah, but she knew that she deserved it.
So then I, um...
It's Jersey, Africa.
Well, it's 20 years ago, Jersey.
It sounds like home.
Yeah.
So, my dad said, you feel better now.
And I said, I do.
I can move on.
And he said, okay, then I'll take care of the rest.
And that was it.
We've always been.
Quite honestly, once the divorce or separation happened, her whole family is the same way she is.
And I've learned so much from her family.
Her father pulled me aside.
And he goes, listen, stuff happens.
It's how you take it from here.
Don't turn your back on the kids.
You don't turn your back on Dolores, all right?
We will consider you as family, always.
You turn your back on them, all right?
We'll never talk to you again.
To this day, I am still called their son.
They still call me son.
I still call mom and dad.
I'm invited to every affair, you know, because the whole husband thing, I fell far short on in my face.
But for the father, provider, and everything else, Dolores never wanted for anything at that time.
Is that why you're still friendly?
Was that the key to repairing the relationship?
Because I've never actually thought of it that way, but you're absolutely right.
You separate the husband part from the father part, and they are different.
That does make a difference, yeah.
Yes, big difference.
She was able to do it, and I don't think many women can do that, but Dolores was able to do it, and it wasn't for me.
It was for our children.
It was for him, too.
You're not a throwaway guy.
You make the mistake, Frank.
You have to live with what you did.
Our kids had no idea we were divorced.
They just thought we lived separately because we used to get along.
Well, here's the thing, the reason for this.
I have gone after Frank.
In the beginning, we fought in front of the kids.
And I carried my kids in to the therapist and it was like a family therapist and this young man came running out, punching and kicking the walls with gauges and his hair was shaved.
You know, he had, like, tattoos, and his mom was so broken and brokenhearted.
And I sat down, and I said to the therapist, what do I do to make my kids not have that problem and not have them so hurt?
She goes, don't fight in front of them.
And from there on in, all fights, all bets off.
Everything done.
Done.
Far away from fighting, you actually are business partners.
I mean, I will talk about the gym for a second here.
Sure.
That came later on.
I know it did, but many years later, whatever you did not only allowed your...
Allowed you to be a father, and you raised two wonderful children, but also allowed you to reconvene in a business relationship.
Lisa was asking earlier if you cheat on other stuff.
Sure.
Because a lot of men, Ross Perot said it perfectly, right?
If he's going to cheat on the woman that he loves, who else will he cheat on?
Right.
So why do you trust him in business?
Because I knew everything about him.
I knew he never stole from anyone.
I knew that...
He always did the right thing in people.
What he did, I guess some men are hardwired to do.
I've heard it before.
And it was a time where it was the cool thing to do.
It's not cool anymore.
I mean, back then, 20 years ago, it was still cool.
Tony Soprano, affairs, blah, blah, blah.
He was walking around with a bodyguard.
I don't even know who the hell he thought he was.
But it was, like, cool.
Why'd you need a bodyguard?
We, um...
We had some affairs that were, you know, you're just worried.
Wait, wait, you mean physical affairs?
Like women you're saying?
No, no, no, just some business affairs.
It was just cool.
He was scared of you.
Andre, that was a six foot seven guy.
Andre was afraid of me too, though.
I look at Frank, you're pretty, you could be my bodyguard.
He bench presses what, five?
No, more than that.
Six?
It was just, it made me feel comfortable.
There's lots more to come after the break. - So you're bench pressing how many pounds now?
Not now.
I'm on my decline.
But I used to bench 600 pounds.
Oh, my goodness.
I always spent squat 800 pounds.
He worked out with Joe Gorga the other day.
That was fun.
How many hours a day would you work out?
Now...
Where are you working out?
I used to work out.
I was there for at least two hours.
At least two hours.
And probably another 45 minutes to an hour of cardio.
And that used to be my life.
Now I just try to do it to maintain...
And to keep my sanity, it's almost like a stress relief.
So an hour a day?
A little more.
Probably between cardio and working out, probably two hours.
How do you have time to do that?
I mean, I wish I could do that.
Well, that's his business now.
Exactly.
He's like working when he's working out.
He's supposed to be recruiting customers, you know?
Well, they see him and they think, I want to look like this.
What do I do to get that?
Look at the size of his neck.
What do you have, 18 and a half?
Yeah, a little more than that.
Please embarrass me.
That's a sign of somebody's face.
I'm not in the gyms all day.
We have partners in the gyms, but we also have a building business.
What's the name of your gym?
We have a couple.
There's Gold's Gym.
We have a Gold's Gym and we have two powerhouse gyms.
It's a franchise.
Yes, both NMR. But now we also have the building business.
Do you ever fight over this stuff?
All the time.
So when Dolores comes in, she doesn't like the way the gym looks?
No, not so much with the gym.
She pretty much let me do what I want with the gym because I've been in it.
But when it comes to houses, we're building houses to sell to make money, not to live in.
Dolores wants everything done in the house as if she's living there.
But I thought you were building her or her boyfriend's house.
I'm building her boyfriend's house for her.
He wants the house to himself.
I'm not moving out.
You're not going to move with your boyfriend?
I'm not moving out with my boyfriend, no.
Unless he wants an age, like a commitment.
If you guys could go together, would you consider going?
Why don't you put a wing on his house for you?
The boyfriend would have me.
He loves it.
We get along great.
Oh my God, we get along great.
I get along better with him than Dolores does.
The worst is they fight.
I got to go there and I act like the mediator.
Oh God.
Working out, you eat well?
I try to eat well at least five days out of the week, yes.
On the weekends, I pretty much binge.
Meditrating diet, paleo?
No, what I do is I love corps cycling.
I love the corps cycles.
So you look fabulous.
Thank you very much.
Take time to do it.
You're building businesses together, and you're now doing marital counseling for your ex.
And they're shooting Real Housewives.
And Real Housewives.
He's the best housewife of all.
Yes, you're very housewife.
He says whatever they tell him to say.
I have a great time.
I'm like, Frank, you don't want to say that.
You feel like you figured life out better than 20 years ago?
Oh, 100%.
I'm very comfortable.
And a lot of it has to do, if I didn't have the relationship that I have with Dolores, if we...
Where a normal divorce couple and Dolores wasn't in my life, I would be sorry.
What changed?
What did you find that allowed you to be more of the man that you could be?
My mother passed away in 2007. And honestly, ever since my mother passed away, everything changed.
Everything changed.
What was important to me before she passed away was no longer important to me.
All right?
It's family.
I get choked up.
She'll tell you, like, we have a place down in Miami.
And I love, right, for Dolores to come down.
She was down with her boyfriend at the time and the kids.
And I had to drop him off at the airport to go home.
And I start crying, you know?
I'm a 260-pound guy in a curb.
And she's like, oh, yeah, you know?
And she knows.
I start crying.
And I was going to see him, like, five days later.
Just that I love the family.
He's like, don't go.
Don't go.
It's family together, you know?
Things are different.
Things are different now, you know?
It makes you realize.
Unfortunately, it takes an event.
It's a shame because I wonder how many people this could have happened with had they got through that hard first part.
And I have counseled many women who know our situation and they say, what do you do?
And I say, is he remorseful?
Which Frank wasn't at the time.
But if he's remorseful and you can move on from it, It's worth it.
If he's worth it, if he's not, whatever you do, don't make the kids' lives miserable.
Don't be petty.
Don't fight with them.
If he was supposed to be there a Tuesday at 7 o'clock and he doesn't come until 9 or he can't come because he's out with his girlfriend, eat it.
Spend the time.
Kids are on rent.
They're only little for so long.
My God, that's right.
And it's our relationship and what happened in our divorce, unfortunately, hurt my business as an attorney.
I was a divorce attorney.
Oh, gosh.
And I used to be a divorce attorney, and listen, I was very forceful, I was very aggressive, you know, when I was in court, and I would be.
And it got to the point where you go through your own divorce, and you see, that's my kids, that's my ex-wife who cares for my, that's the mother of my children.
And when I used to represent, especially men, and their concern was not so much taking care of their kids and seeing their kids, but how much money can you save me?
How much can you keep so I don't have to pay?
And I was like, that's your children.
I said, why would you not?
If you have it, why would you not?
And quite honestly, I lost clients because of it.
And I'm perfectly okay with it.
Teresa Gutice, she's become a bodybuilder.
Sure has.
Did she call you and check in with you?
He got her on the stage.
He trained her.
Oh, I didn't know that.
No.
Well, you haven't seen that yet.
Oh.
All right.
Come on, keep me up to date.
Teresa is a hard worker, and she was getting ready for a show, and she was dieting for, I think, seven weeks, and she lost two pounds.
She went to somebody else before she went to Frank.
Yes.
Two pounds?
Two pounds.
I don't know why she didn't go to Frank.
Teresa's so level-headed as she is.
She must have been really...
So, but she came, Dolores, one night, came to me with Teresa at my office, and we sit down.
We have three and a half weeks to the show.
And he said to me, what are you doing to me?
Right.
He trains people for shows as long as I know him.
Since I'm 18, I know Frank.
Right now, I do have a salute of professionals that are now at a professional level who I train both men and women.
And I love it because I used to compete.
I injured myself to the point, I tore my pec where I now can't because I don't look symmetrical anymore.
So I love to train people because I live vicariously through them.
So Teresa comes.
Now I say to her, I said, this is going to be a challenge.
So I got three and a half weeks.
I took 19 pounds off her.
In three and a half weeks?
Three and a half weeks.
Wait, what did you do?
What I do is what I was talking before.
Amputation.
Amputation.
I think I have three and a half weeks until Christmas.
19 would be just like good.
She follows directions to a T. Teresa does?
You are kidding me!
The thing about Teresa, I will get a text message from Talisa at 12 o'clock at night.
She's still up.
At 4.30 in the morning, I get another text message from her.
She does not sleep.
You tell her to do something.
The one key thing to help her lose 19 pounds in 21 days.
Carb.
Carb depletion.
Like a total keto diet.
Not so much keto diet, alright?
Because what I do is I also pull the fats out.
Where the keto diet has the saturated fats.
I said the avocados and the almond butter.
No.
With Teresa, what I did is I cleaned up her diet.
I had her on medium carbs.
I reduced it down to zero.
I pumped them up a little bit.
I also put her on dandelion, a natural diuretic, which I've got to be honest with you.
She just peed and peed and peed all night.
So no salt.
So she was holding a lot of water.
She was holding a lot of water.
So no salt, dandelion, like natural diuretics, and then all protein?
It was pretty much protein.
I would throw the vegetables in.
I love the asparagus because it's obviously a natural diuretic.
And we went from there.
How stressful is it being a real housewife?
I mean, Danielle, for example, is back on this season.
You didn't really get along with her so well.
Yeah, but I know Danielle for over 20 years.
See, I know everyone.
The way you know Frank?
Yeah.
Or Frank's girlfriend, that kind of way?
No, not like that.
Almost, she got that.
But no, it gets very stressful sometimes, but it gets less stressful as time goes on.
Your first year, you want to crawl in a hole.
You don't know really, is that going to be on?
Did I say that?
And so much is cut out.
Then the second year, like, all right, so if it happens, it happens.
Then, you know, even me and Teresa got into it on the phone on the way here, a little tiff.
It was just a little tiff, but we've known each other since we're 16, so it can pass by.
You know, it's like a chess game sometimes.
And there's always when there's two new girls, which we have now, it's different dynamics, and then it's...
I just met one, yeah.
Yeah, it gets...
And the two, you met the one that's on one side of this, you know, and then the other one's a Turkish Catholic, she's Jewish, and two totally different people, and two totally different views of looking at things, which can sometimes you can get along and sometimes you can't over that.
That's what makes life fun.
Yes, and it made a very interesting season.
Apparently, Andy's very happy with him.
So is the rest of the world.
I get to join him at midnight whenever he calls me down to those ungodly hours.
Do you know that they actually do a college thesis on that?
Yale did a play on Housewives.
I was invited.
It's a sociology class.
It's...
Oh, I can imagine.
The study of human behavior.
It's like Harvard Business School doing reports on big companies, right?
They do a review.
You learn a lot.
You learn from reality.
That's the thing.
Last question.
When the cameras are not rolling.
Yes.
What do you want to share with people about what you are really like?
I am exactly what I am on TV. It's exactly what I am at home and in the real world.
And so is the rest of the cast.
For Jersey, I could speak only for Jersey.
Right.
She said it.
What you see of us on TV, that's us.
What you see is what you get, and that goes for everybody on my cast, even the new girls.
It's been a real pleasure.
You guys are a blast.
What a story.
Our pleasure.
Thank both Dolores and Frank.
I watched Real Housewives of New Jersey Wednesday nights on Bravo.
