Following the season 12 premiere of The Real Housewives Of New Jersey, fans discovered that Jennifer Aydin’s husband Bill Aydin had an affair a decade ago, and she has now opened up about it, admitting that filming the new season of the show was “pure agony” because of the cheating scandal. During the premiere episode, Jennifer’s co-star, Margaret Josephs, brought up Bill’s infidelity at Teresa Giudice’s pool party. This was despite Jennifer saying she told no one about the affair when it happened.
Jennifer did not just keep the affair away from her co-stars but also from her kids. However, her children eventually found out after one of her daughters, Olivia, 9, watched a TikTok video that contained leaked information about RHONJ season 12. After watching the video, Olivia commented, “This is my mommy and daddy and this is not true!” However, Jennifer later asked Olivia to delete the comment and explained the truth to her. Eventually, she and Bill told all of their kids, who reacted differently to the revelation.
However, as Bill’s infidelity continues to make headlines after its revelation in the new season, Jennifer has revealed how it affected her during the show’s filming. In a chat with People, she said, “It was supposed to be in the vault and never brought up again. When I say I told nobody, I didn’t tell my mother, I didn’t tell my sister, I didn’t tell my best friend.” Jennifer revealed that Bill cheated on her when she was pregnant with their fourth child, Christian, 10. The reality TV star said she did not want anybody to see any red flags. Hence, she went through the motions, put up a brave face, and did everything she thought a good wife and mother should do while being crushed inside ultimately.
However, despite going through all that she did to keep Bill’s infidelity under wraps, Jennifer said it was worth it in the end. She said she was happy pretending it didn’t happen and decided making the affair public would hurt her kids. She said, “And at the end of the day, my children are my number one driving force.” Jennifer and Bill are doing well in their relationship today as they have healed with time. However, with his past infidelity being a major plot point in the new season, it was “pure agony” for Jennifer. She said, “Everything just seemed like it was taking so long filming,” she recalls. “The filming season felt like it was long, every day felt like an eternity, every day that I was fighting with these girls and not finding any kind of common ground was just absolute torture. I wanted to be done with it so bad.”
Jennifer explained that if someone did a bad thing, it does not automatically make them bad people. The mother of five said she has been trying to reiterate to her kids that “when you love someone, people make mistakes, you forgive them if they’re truly remorseful. Life is all about learning the lessons and what you do with it.” Jennifer also admitted that filming season 12 was somewhat therapeutic for her because she is now at a place where she can talk about the affair without emotionally breaking down, which hasn’t always been the case. However, she concluded that it was overall a hard season for her, saying, “It was very traumatic and hurtful for me.”
Many The Real Housewives of New Jersey fans were shocked when they found out about Bill’s infidelity. However, while it may be easier for those fans to deal with that realization, one must spare a thought for Bill and Jennifer’s kids, especially how they first found out on social media. It was a bold but necessary move for Jennifer and her husband to tell their children about the affair, and one can only hope they eventually learn to live with it and stay fine afterward.
The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo.
