Siggy Flicker joined "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" during Season 7 last year. The brunette beauty was introduced to the audience as a relationship expert, matchmaker, television personality, and writer. Bravo viewers fell in love with the confident, funny woman who made her television debut just after having a facelift, sipping lobster bisque through a straw.

This season, fans got to see a more outspoken side of Siggy.

I met up with the reality star earlier this week to talk about the show, her life, her family, and what's next.

The spotlight is on Siggy this season

Season 7 of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey's" storyline was more focused on "fighting between Teresa, Jaclyn, and Melissa" and it would have been "weird" if she tried to meddle in between that so she wasn't really involved with much drama. However, that changes almost immediately this season with the "cake-throwing" incident in Boca during the premiere.

In case you missed it, Siggy had gotten Melissa Gorga a beautiful, extravagant cake for her birthday, which they were celebrating down in Flordia. What started as a small joke of rubbing cake on Melissa's face, turned into a full-on cake throwing battle between Melissa and Teresa.

Siggy was upset about the cake and embarrassed about the scene and the mess her friends had made at one of her favorite restaurants. Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of fighting that ensued.

This incident was just the beginning of Siggy's issues with the ladies this season. After that, newcomer Margaret Josephs left her and Dolores out of a memorial service that she hosted for Teresa's mother on the beach and the drama continues to spiral out of control from there.

This season, Siggy is telling it like it is and "standing up to bullies." Although she has gotten some criticism for her outspokenness, she is proud that she spoke up for what she believed was right.

A dramatic trip to Italy

The Boca trip was not the only vacation that "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" ladies took this year.

Siggy, Dolores, Teresa, Margaret, Melissa, and Danielle jet off to Milan, Italy for some food, wine, and more fighting about mid-way through the season.

In preview commercials, a fight is seen breaking out at dinner while the women are in Europe. Glasses are thrown, along with F-bombs, and Teresa is heard screaming “No! No! No!”

Margaret was filmed walking out of the restaurant saying, “It was an epic ending, need we say more.”

Siggy teases that the Milan trip would certainly be “dramatic” for the viewers watch. She won't give away too much but she did say that she and newcomer Margaret Josephs get into a heated argument at dinner after she says something absolutely “disgusting” to her.

Strategic editing is not uncommon on reality shows

Flicker "absolutely" feels that the storyline is against her this season and she is not happy with the way she was edited.

She points out that viewers are only getting to see around 45 minutes of carefully edited video content each week as opposed to the countless hours of footage that they are actually filming. When viewers see Siggy react with so much “emotion” this season it is because they are not seeing all of the events leading up to her reaction. She says, "it's like the viewers see me go from point A to C without seeing point B."

Television producers specifically pick out the entertaining pieces of content to highlight on the show and sometimes that does not always portray the stars in the best light.

Blocking out the haters

As far as dealing with criticism from the haters this season, Siggy informs me that she does not give them the Time Of Day. The reality star hired someone who monitors her social media accounts, blocking people and deleting malicious messages.

She admits that almost every day she experiences "fake accounts sending me tweets or commenting on something." However, she chooses not to let the negative feedback get to her.

Some of her online haters even include her "RHONJ" costars. On Wednesday night while the Bravo show was airing, Margaret took a few jabs at Siggy on Twitter, Bravo TV reported.

Siggy responded that to a fan who told her not to "go low" that she was not going sit back and take it when people were going after her.

Although Siggy has been more outspoken this season, she does not regret anything she's said and won't let how other people feel about her determine how she feels about herself.

Friends and family keep her strong

Flicker's costar Dolores has been a supportive friend, always having her back and helping her deal with the backlash she's received. The two really are as thick as thieves.

They hang out just as often, if not more when they are not filming "The Real Housewives of New Jersey." To prove it, Siggy pulls out her cell phone to show me the call log and sure enough, Dolores was the first person she had spoken to that morning and the last person she had spoken to the night before.

Siggy actually hooked Dolores up with her new boyfriend. She and her husband Michael go on double dates with the couple often and she is thrilled to see her friend happy and in love. Dolores' ex-husband Frank even approves of her new man and the two get along well, according to Flicker.

When we talk about her husband, Michael Campanella, Siggy lights up and stretches out her arms as if she were going to hug someone while telling me she is "obsessed" with him.

She knows she has a great man and said she feels lucky to have him every day. She mentions that she loves that "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" fans are getting to see more of her handsome husband this season.

Siggy whips out her phone again and calls Michael. She wants me to see how excited he sounds when he answers her call because "whatever time of day" it was, he was always happy to hear from her.

Michael sounds sweet and cheerful when he answers her call, wishing her a good morning and good luck on her interview (he didn't know I was sitting there), before rushing back to a busy day at his car dealership in Bayside, New York.

Siggy says that she feels so fortunate that she can mesh her past life and present life together so well.

She has her two children, Joshua and Sophie, with her first husband Mark Flicker and the two have been able to remain close after their divorce. So close, in fact, that Mark was Michael’s best man at Siggy and Michael’s wedding in 2012.

Her kids are her pride and joy

Although Michael is appearing on the reality show a bit more this season, viewers do not get to see a whole lot of Siggy's children. They are not huge fans of having the cameras around all the time. Last week on the show, we saw her struggle to communicate with her son Josh, who was about to go off to college.

Joshua is now a freshman at Penn State, and according to Flicker, refers to the school as "GOAT," which means the "greatest of all time." She is excited to have him home to herself for a little while during the holidays.

She recently booked a family trip to Boca and shows me the text message she sent to her son and his girlfriend letting them know about the trip but informing them that there would be absolutely no cake throwing! She joked with them in a follow-up text that throwing cookies, however, would be okay.

She refers to her 15-year-old daughter Sophie as her "mini-me." Sophie is a sophomore in high school who apparently has a keen eye for style. According to her mother, she loves raiding her closet! Siggy, who has multiple walk-in closets in her New Jersey home, says she has to lock her closet sometimes to keep Sophie from wearing all of her clothes.

However, sometimes her daughter's closet invasions work out in her favor.

Sophie will often put together some stylish looks for Siggy and leave them out for her to wear. She says recently, “I came home and there were 10 outfits laid out in my closet for me.”

Siggy reaches for her phone to call her daughter for the third time since we’ve arrived at breakfast, wanting her to come meet up with us during her lunch break at school. Minutes later, a beautiful petite Siggy look-a-like came walking into the restaurant with her friend.

The first thing out of Siggy’s mouth is, “Is that my jacket?!”

Of course, Sophie was wearing her mother’s black leather jacket, which she had styled quite well with a pair of jeans and some Converse.

'Cut toxic people out of your life'

Siggy is a naturally positive person and the negative energy surrounding this season of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" is definitely affecting her.

While she would normally tell someone to "cut toxic people out of your life," she is finding it difficult to do that herself because of the people she is surrounded by on the Bravo show.

She obviously knew what she was getting herself into when she signed up to star in a reality series, but she is finding it to be really difficult to be forced to spend time with a few specific individuals who she "wouldn't even have a coffee with" in real life.

In her Bravo TV blog, the housewife refers to Margaret and says that she "won't' break bread with toxic people." She adds that the "only way to win with a toxic person is to not play their game."

Flicker is looking forward to filming the season reunion so that she can stop having to relive the drama. While she did not necessarily say that she was done with "The Housewives" for good, she is definitely ready to be finished with Season 8.

What's next?

Helping people find love and happiness makes Siggy feel the most fulfilled so she plans to focus more on that in the future. She has written books and appeared on television and radio shows in the past. She has big plans for the future and is currently exploring some opportunities that will highlight her matchmaking skills and relationship expertise.

Although she is lucky to have a husband earns enough for the two of them, she says that she doesn't have a desire to sit around and not work. We see this season on the "RHONJ" that her husband Michael actually wants her to work less but Siggy has too much ambition to stop now. During last night's episode, we saw a touching scene where Michael tells Siggy that he supports her decision to start working more and acknowledges that they have a busy year ahead of them.

"The Real Housewives of New Jersey" was a great platform for Siggy to introduce herself to the world and build her brand. With so many fans and followers now, the possibilities are endless for her to be able to do something she is passionate about while helping people at the same time.

Do you think Siggy Flicker will return to "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" next season? Let us know in the comments section below!
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