Caroline Left the 'RHONJ' Drama for her Own Show

While Bravo's Housewives spinoffs are usually terrible, I still have a tiny little shred of hope that Caroline Manzo's Manzo'd with Children will be better than the rest, mostly because her family is the perfect breakdown for a sitcom. Grumpy dad, overprotective mom, two brothers always fighting for attention, and a daughter who is convinced she runs the show. It basically is an updated version of Married… with Children, except there are two Buds and they can use swear words (bleeped, of course, for anything too racy). But Caroline's taking a big chance by branching out on her own, instead of sticking with a reliable hit like The Real Housewives of New Jersey. But… she didn't reeeeally have a choice on this one, even though she clearly wasn't against the switch to her own show, since Caroline left RHONJ after Season 5.

She hasn't been shy about the reason she was happy to leave RHONJ: the other ladies. After a certain point, she couldn't spend time with them anymore, and in her final blog post for Bravo, Caroline claimed that she was too embarrassed to continue being on the show:

Over the past few years my outlook on the show has changed from something I couldn't wait to show my future grandchildren to something I hope my future grandchildren never see.

Luckily, Caroline doesn't have any grandchildren yet, and hopefully by the time they're born she changes her mind, because the table-flipping dinner party? Coolest home video footage ever. Then again, Seasons 4-5 were so boring, showing them to a small grandchild will only bore them and/or make them terrified of meatball-shaped men named Joe.

The quickest way to figure out if Caroline is still getting along with a RHONJ? Check and see if they're appearing on Manzo'd with Children. Jacqueline Laurita, her sister-in-law, is there, and… that's it. Apparently the Gorgas and Wakiles show up at Lauren's engagement party, but that didn't happen until this spring, so it might not be included in the season. The rest of the ladies aren't so much as mentioned.

As anyone keeping an eye on RHONJ news knows, Caroline and her sister, Dina, had some kind of falling out that neither one has been comfortable enough to talk about publicly. Whether it's a disagreement about their costars — Dina is best friends with Teresa Giudice, while Caroline sides with Jacqueline — or an issue with Dina's separation from Al's brother Tommy, they haven't said. Former Real Housewife Danielle Staub seems to think it's because Dina's charity, Project Ladybug, is being scrutinized. Whatever it's about, there's no denying that it will be on any Real Housewives of New Jersey fan's mind when both Manzo sisters are back to back on Bravo.

Image: Giphy