Former The Actual Housewives of New Jersey stars Dina and Caroline Manzo have an extended historical past of drama that dates again to no less than 2012.
Dina married her ex-husband, Tommy Manzo — the brother of her sister Caroline’s husband, Albert Manzo — in 2007. The previous pair separated in 2012 and divorced in 2016. Tommy is at present in jail after being discovered responsible of “hiring, then helping, a soldier within the Lucchese Crime Household to assault” Dina’s second husband, David Cantin, in 2015.
The crime precipitated a serious rift — and Caroline’s daughter, Lauren Manzo, not too long ago revealed that they keep away from talking about it due to its impression on a number of branches of the household tree. Nonetheless, Lauren was pressured to handle parts of the story after her cousin Lexi Ioannou informed Gia Giudice that her stepfather, Tommy, allegedly pressured her and her mother, Dina, to maneuver out of their residence.
Preserve scrolling for a deeper take a look at the long-running feud and the way it’s impacted the Manzo household:
Caroline Defends Tommy
Dina and Caroline skilled their very own disconnect after it was revealed throughout the trial that Caroline wrote a letter of protection in help of Tommy. Caroline’s son Albie Manzo later defended his mom’s determination to supply her written help.
Teresa Giudice is weighing in on the aftermath of Caroline Manzo siding together with her brother-in-law over her sister Dina Manzo. “To me, that’s a no-no … it’s your sister. And I suppose that was her husband’s brother,” the Actual Housewives of New Jersey star, 52, mentioned throughout the Tuesday, December 31, episode of the “All […]
“That is why I respect my mom a lot. She made a selection that she knew getting into was going to be terribly unpopular — that might’ve been simply twisted into one thing that it isn’t — however she made it anyway as a result of she felt it was the appropriate factor to do,” Albie mentioned on his “Pricey Albie” podcast in June 2021.
“Put your self in my mom’s sneakers,” Albie continued. “Figuring out full properly that is going to occur, have you learnt how a lot you bought to consider in what you’re doing, figuring out that is going to be the blowback? That’s why I love my mom and the braveness she had, doing what she did.”
Tommy’s Trial
“I went to the trial final yr and I sat there for per week, and I listened to all people testify,” Lexi informed Giudice throughout her Could 2025 podcast look. “My mother and I are so completely different like that. She couldn’t even abdomen being there for, like, half-hour. I went on daily basis, all day, for seven days. I wanted to know every little thing. The phrase that got here up loads was ‘obsessive.’ There was some sort of obsessive dysfunction happening there with the truth that he misplaced his ‘household’ — my mother and I — and he simply misplaced management.”
Tommy’s Conviction
The conclusion of the trial noticed Tommy sentenced to seven years for his function within the tried assault towards Cantin. He was convicted by a jury in June 2024, after a two-and-a-half week-long trial held in Newark. He was discovered responsible on one depend of committing a violent crime in help of racketeering, one depend of conspiracy to commit a violent crime in help of racketeering and one depend of falsifying and concealing paperwork associated to a federal investigation.
Sooner or later after Tommy was discovered responsible, Dina shared a social media photograph of herself elevating her palms as much as the sky because the solar shone down on a big monument. When considered one of her followers commented on the picture, “Mild all the time wins!!!!! ✨✨✨✨✨,” Dina replied, “ALWAYS ✨.”
Lexi Speaks Out
Lexi first detailed the household dynamic in October 2024 when she blogged about Tommy allegedly kicking her and her mother out of the home.
The Actual Housewives of New Jersey franchise has seen lots of its stars depart the world behind over time — and Us Weekly is taking a visit down reminiscence lane and checking in on the place they’re now. OG solid member Caroline Manzo left the present in 2014, and years later, opened up about […]
“Don’t poke the bear,’” Ioannou shared through Instagram on the time. “For the final decade I’ve stayed silent in worry of poking the bears in my life. With readability I now can share this fact not just for myself, however for my mom, and for all of those that quietly endure their ache. My story is now accessible so that you can learn on the hyperlink in my bio.”
A prolonged submit shared through Substack provided extra particulars.
“For over a decade, I’ve saved silent in worry of poking Tommy Manzo, my stepfather of 15 years — a confirmed to be harmful man, who received the loyalty of my blood household,” she wrote. “I may write a novel as to what made Tommy such an advanced man to be raised by, however as an alternative I’ll converse to how I got here to worry a person who promised to maintain me secure and what it feels wish to lose the love of my prolonged household. Many of those relations had been additionally figures I feared to confront, leaving me emotionally stranded.”
She additionally accused Tommy of being “an unavailable husband, a infamous cheater and a workaholic.”
Tommy’s Alleged ‘Obsession’ With Lexi
Whereas talking on Giudice’s podcast in Could 2025, Ioannou mentioned of Tommy, “He had this, this, like, bizarre obsession with me. For years, folks would inform me that he saved my room precisely the identical as a result of he thought I used to be going to come back again. I can’t even start to grasp why he would assume I might ever come again there.”
Ioannou added that Tommy saved her belongings for a decade after he and her mother separated.
“He by no means had kids of his personal and I used to be the closest factor he needed to it. So, he actually beloved me,” she continued. “He was by no means inappropriate, however he undoubtedly was very affectionate. And that was one thing I used to be very uncomfortable with as a result of neither of my dad and mom are that approach. To obtain it from a stepfather is sort of, like, additional unusual whenever you don’t obtain it out of your precise father.”