TV & Movies

RHONJ Season 12 Will Reveal A Painful Secret About Jennifer & Bill’s Marriage

“I pretended it didn't happen.”

HAWTHORNE, NEW JERSEY - MAY 03: Jennifer Aydin and Bill Aydin attend the Envy By Melissa Gorga Fashi...
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Of all the bombshells Bravo teased in the Real Housewives of New Jersey’s Season 12 trailer, the impending reveal of Jennifer and Bill Aydin’s “family secret” is among the most explosive. Though the specifics of the secret won’t be disclosed until later in the season, the first look made clear that it relates to Jennifer and Bill’s marriage.

Several preview scenes show Jennifer in tearful conversations with her co-stars, sharing in one scene that if Bill “doesn’t want to be in this marriage,” he doesn’t have to “do [her] any favors.” In another clip, she explains to Margaret Josephs that she’d already asked her husband if he wants a divorce. Later, Margaret tells some of the other women that Jennifer “doesn’t even know if her marriage is going to last” or if she “wants to stay with Bill” anymore.

However, the couple has since worked things out. Ahead of the Season 12 premiere, Jennifer assured E! that she and Bill “are fantastic” now. “We are in a place where we're just going to filter out the noise and not let anybody ruin our happiness,” said the mother of five. “I do have the perfect family for me, it’s perfect for me. I know nothing is perfect but it works for us and we do whatever it takes to make it work and like I tell everybody we are committed to the family. We will like move hell and high water in order to keep it intact and happy.”

Noting that she’d intended to take the secret about her husband “to the grave,” Jennifer called the resurfaced painful memory “one of the hardest things” she’s had to deal with. “I pretended it didn’t happen, I’ve never brought it up once in an argument,” she said. “When I decided to forgive him, I forgave him and I forgot about it and that was his past. So for it to be brought up now in front of everybody was extremely difficult for me.”

According to an anonymous and unvetted tip sent to the Deuxmoi celebrity gossip Instagram account, RHONJ Season 12 allegedly reveals that one of the husbands “had an affair 10 years ago,” and Marge “found out and told everyone” at one of Teresa’s parties. “Wife is super pissed because only they knew about it and had already worked past their issues and now she has to tell her kids about it,” the tipster claimed. It didn’t take long for fans to piece together that the blind item was suggesting that Bill cheated on Jennifer.

In August 2021, Jennifer denied rumors that Bill had taken a mistress on a romantic getaway to St. Barts. In a video shared by the “RHONJ Obsessed” Instagram account, she flipped through the pages of Bill’s passport on camera, attempting to prove he hadn’t traveled there since his current passport was issued in 2018. “Sorry to burst your bubble, folks,” she concluded after showing he’d only made a few international trips to the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic in the last several years.

Regardless, Jennifer said that Bill “didn’t shy from talking about” his secret on RHONJ because he “knew that it was important” to her. “It’s hard to show the dirty laundry that's going on in my family,” she added to E!. “I mean it’s not hard for me, I always tell people it’s my gift, but it’s hard for me to expect my family members and loved ones to be OK with it, you know?”