Dolores Catania defends RHONJ co-star Teresa Giudice and calls her a ‘good mom’

Just one day after Real Housewives of New Jersey star Teresa Giudice came under fire for encouraging her 17-year-old daughter Milania to lose weight, her co-star Dolores Catania is defending her.

Milania appeared on Namaste B$tches podcast recently, where she admitted that her 51-year-old mother coerced her to slim down while she was only in middle school.

That coercing resulted in her losing 50 pounds, which Milania said was a ‘good thing,’ though Giudice still came under fire for pressuring her teenage daughter to lose a significant amount of weight.

Milania admitted on the podcast that she weighed 150 pounds before the diet and  dropped down to 110 pounds after the diet. 

Catania, 52, who has appeared on Real Housewives of New Jersey since the seventh season in 2017, came to Giudice’s defense in an interview with The Sun.

Milania: Milania appeared on Namaste B$tches podcast recently, where she admitted that her 51-year-old mother coerced her to slim down while she was only in middle school

‘I do remember Milania had gone through something and she was gaining weight,’ Catania began.

‘You know what? Sometimes as an adolescent, you get into an unhealthy lifestyle — you’re eating junk with your friends all the time,’ Catania added.

‘I think it’s good for a mom to monitor and to be conscious of their child’s weight and to get on them about it before it gets out of hand. Obesity is very unhealthy,’ Catania continued.

Milania said on the podcast, ‘I was way thicker in middle school. I was a pumpkin. One day it hit me, and I felt suffocated in my own body.’

As for her mother, Milania said she never flat out told her to lose weight, though she would make some not so subtle suggestions.

‘My mom would — she would never say anything to me — but she’d be like, “Oh, you’re gonna have another ice cream?”‘ she recalled.

She added that she would fire back at her mom, ‘”I don’t care if I’m fat!” I’d be like, “If I’m fat, I’m fat. Whatever. It’s my life.”‘

Milania admitted, though, that despite her mother’s suggestions, she made the decision to lose weigh herself.

Dolores remembers: ‘I do remember Milania had gone through something and she was gaining weight,’ Catania began

Unhealthy: ‘You know what? Sometimes as an adolescent, you get into an unhealthy lifestyle — you’re eating junk with your friends all the time,’ Catania added

Thicker: Milania said on the podcast, ‘I was way thicker in middle school. I was a pumpkin. One day it hit me, and I felt suffocated in my own body’

‘It just clicked, and I did it,’ Milania said, adding that she asked her mother to hire a nutritionist for her.

The nutritionist would give her the, ‘healthiest meals’ three times a day, and she started working out twice a day, before and after school. 

In fact, Milania even asked Teresa to hire a nutritionist, who gave her the “healthiest meals” three times a day. On top of that, the then-eighth grader started working out twice a day: before school and after.

‘They have to wanna do it themselves. You can’t force them, and I didn’t want her to have a complex or anything, and I thought she looked adorable. She was just a little thicker,’ Teresa said.