Why ‘RHONJ’s Gia Giudice Will ‘Always Defend’ Her Family (Exclusive)

Gia Giudice wants to show a whole new side of herself to Bravo fans.

The eldest daughter of The Real Housewives of New Jersey star Teresa Giudice, who also stars in Bravo’s new show Next Gen NYC, is embracing a more “fun, light-hearted side” with her new iHeartRadio podcast Casual Chaos with Gia Giudice, but she’ll never apologize for sticking up for her family.

“A lot of the Bravo audience has seen me grow up in front of their eyes from when I was a little girl until now,” Gia, 24, told PopCulture. “But I really wanted to show my audience more of the fun, light-hearted side of me — not as serious and tense [as] what they see on the show.”

She continued, “I wanted them to really just see me for me and really just get to know my authentic self outside of the Real Housewives.”

The reality personality has appeared on RHONJ since its first season in 2009 and has navigated everything from her parents’ prison sentences and divorce to her father Joe Giudice’s deportation on camera.

“So all of these emotions [and] events that took place, they were very real,” Gia shared. “So it kind of left me no choice but to be serious and upset or agitated or things like that, because that was what was happening at the time.”

It’s “refreshing” to take on lighter topics like pop culture, relationships and wellness for Casual Chaos, and Gia said she also hopes the podcast helps people reframe some of the assumptions they’ve made about her over the years.

“A lot of people always say that I’m assertive or that I involve myself in adult conversations,” she said. “But at the end of the day, I am defending my family and I will do that all day every day.”

Looking out for her parents and her three younger sisters — Gabriella, Milania, and Audriana — Gia said she “will always defend” her family through everything,

“My mom also didn’t have my dad for quite some time on The Real Housewives of New Jersey, so I was her person,” Gia explained. “When you always have people constantly going after you, you want somebody in your … corner — and that was me. And I would do that any day for my mom.”

She continued, “So people could be mad at me for being so assertive and inserting myself into things, but I’ll never be mad at that because I was defending my mom when she needed me.”

As Gia welcomes guests like The Bachelor‘s Maria Georgas and fellow Real Housewives daughter Sami Sheen to the podcast, she hopes that Casual Chaos can eventually expand to live shows. “I would love to go on tour with this podcast,” she told PopCulture. “I have put a lot of effort into this podcast and I hope my fans see that just with the efforts … that I put in to really show that this podcast is going to be amazing. So I hope my audience thinks the same.”

Casual Chaos with Gia Giudice, an iHeartRadio podcast, is available wherever you listen to podcasts.