Danielle Staub, who returned to the Bravo hit reality series last season as the official "Friend of the Housewives" for the first time since her season 2 departure in 2010, will be back, but her role is up in the air, according to the source.
While no new full-time Housewives have been hired yet, “they’re rolling in a bunch of different people and trying to figure it out as they go,” a source explains.
Meanwhile, multiple sources revealed to Radar Online that Jacqueline Goldschneider and Jennifer Aydin were “test filming” with the current cast.
Aydin is the wife of a renowned New York plastic surgeon, and a mother of five children. She flaunts their fabulous lifestyle on her Instagram page, showing off her New Jersey McMansion and luxurious lifestyle.
Her husband, Dr. Bill Aydin, went to the University of California at Berkeley, and obtained his medical education at New York Medical College.
Jacqueline Goldschneider & Jennifer Aydin (Credit: Instagram)
According to sources, Aydin is close friends with former RHONJ star Kathy Wakile, Teresa Giudice’s cousin. “Jennifer and Kathy are friends, and she pretty much knows all of the other ladies. So, she could really bring the drama the show needs,” the insider told Radar Online.
AS for Goldschneider, she is a well-known local reporter for 201 magazine, a mother to two sets of twins, former lawyer and recently wrote an article about former RHONJ stars Jacqueline and Chris Laurita.
Goldschneider runs the blog Scary Mommy and describes herself as “a freelance writer and master carpooler with a degree in picking green things out of food. And she’s a mom of two sets of twins!”
New Jersey celebrity blogger Tom Murro confirmed that Goldschneider is filming with the cast. It's unknown at the moment if they will make it in to the final lineup for the show's Season 9 cast.
As previously reported, Siggy Flicker announced that she was quitting the Bravo hit reality show back in late December before the season wrapped.
“Looking back at the show I truly wanted to make a difference for Jersey and in Jersey and I realized that I had too many obstacles working against me and I couldn’t do it,” Flicker told Us Weekly about why she decided to leave the Bravo show. “I feel like I lost the battle but I won the war because at the end of the day, everyone’s goal should be … to be happy. And there is nothing more that I love than myself, my husband and my family too much for them to be unhappy and for me to be unhappy.”
A production source told the publication that Siggy feels she got a rough edit this season and feels “betrayed” by production. “There’s not a chance she’ll go back. She feels liberated,” the insider added.
Another insider claimed that Siggy was “very difficult” to work with this season. “She was not going to be asked back. Fan reaction about her has been very negative, especially with what she has posted on social media,” the source told Us Weekly.
"After much reflection and Bravo’s support, I have decided that this will be my last season on The Real Housewives of New Jersey," she said in a statement to Bravo's The Daily Dish. "I am grateful to the network for allowing me to be part of this successful franchise and wish only the best for Teresa, Melissa, Dolores, Danielle and Margaret. At this time, I want to focus on my beautiful family, my growing business and some exciting new projects."
Back in January, it was reported that RHONJ producers were considering approaching former housewives Caroline Manzo and Jacqueline Laurita about returning to the series, but it has been confirmed that Manzo and Laurita will not be returning this season, according to Us Weekly.
“It’s not a no and it’s certainly not a yes. It’s a who knows,” Manzo revealed to Us Weekly when asked in January if she would rejoin the hit franchise.
“But for me it would be a major major decision that I would have to really think very long and very hard on. It’s not something that I would embrace wholeheartedly and say “let’s do this!” It’s something that I would consider very very heavily and for a long time,” Manzo added when asked if she would rejoin the show. “On my end it would have to be a very well thought out decision because it has so many layers to it at this point in my life. So many layers to it. I had so much fun doing Manzo’d. It was just an awesome awesome opportunity.”
As for Laurita, apparently “she talked to producers and they couldn’t give her what she wanted, so she passed,” an insider told Page Six. The insider noted that the show was extremely “stressful” for the mother of three to shoot.
However, Bravo has denied that producers met with Laurita and that she rejected their offer, “This is absolutely not true.”
The Real Housewives of New Jersey is set to return later this year on Bravo.
Photo Credit: Bravo
