Melissa Gorga Details What Her Relationship With Joe Is Really Like Today

"Real Housewives of New Jersey" stars Melissa Gorga and Joe Gorga appear to be trying to make their relationship work after recently dealing with major issues in their marriage. Fans watched the couple struggle during the latest season, especially since Joe had issues adjusting to his wife's work life. In the season finale, Melissa shockingly confessed (via Us Weekly), "I wanna feel fulfilled. Not just as a mom. And I've never seen Joe fight so hard against something that I want." She continued, "So I am feeling really scared about our relationship because I've never felt this exhaustion and feeling of giving up."

The New Jersey natives were also forced to deal with their issues head-on thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Melissa explained, "The pandemic I think put us together a lot more hours than we usually are because usually he's at work. So we don't have time to argue about this stuff ... but all of the time to talk about it was almost like it was rough for us."

The mother-of-three admitted that while at first she was "embarrassed" by their fights this season, she does believe that it helps portray what a real marriage is like. She revealed, "Nothing's perfect. I know a lot of people always wanted to believe that we were, [but] we are not, we have arguments. We love each other hard, but we also butt heads." Yet, it appears that the couple has managed to work through some of their problems since filming.

They're doing 'much better' since filming

"Real Housewives of New Jersey" star Melissa Gorga revealed that while her and her husband, Joe Gorga, are doing "much better" these days, they "are still learning each other" after 16 years of marriage. She explained to Us Weekly, "There's different turning points, I would say, in marriages. Joe is not big on change and he likes things to stay the same." Yet she did find a positive, adding, "He likes to know that everything's going to be intact and probably, that's what makes him a great husband."

Melissa even defended Joe's attitude toward her work, saying, "It's not that he's not proud of that. He is proud of it, but it does pull me out of the house a lot. It was becoming strenuous for us because he just doesn't want it." Yet she made it clear that "I'm not willing to give it up."

But the couple is willing to make changes to make their relationship work. Not only did they decide to skip watching the latest "RHONJ" season together, presumably to avoid rehashing old fights, they also found a compromise. Melissa dished, "I told him to stop picking on me. So he stopped picking on every little thing I do as if it was going to have like change our life." As for her, "I'm really picking and choosing a little bit more as to when I actually have to go somewhere and stay overnight and be somewhere." The Gorgas are apparently turning things around for the better!