Real Housewives of New Jersey star Amber Marchese penned a lengthy Instagram response after her stepson James Marchese launched a GoFundMe campaign to pay for half his college tuition because, he says, his father disowned him and refuses to pay for his education because he's gay.
Newsweek reports: “Joining the cast for Season Six of the Bravo franchise, Amber and Jim were often the target of their other cast members and left after one season. In December, Jim was heavily criticized for making homophobic comments on Twitter, drawing the ire of Andy Cohen, the show's producer, and his son's recent claim that his father withheld tuition over his sexuality renewed the backlash.”
You may recall a series of tweets from Marchese's father in 2018 defending Kevin Hart, who was fired as Oscars host over past anti-gay statements in which he declared he didn't want his son to be gay.
Tweeted the elder Marchese: ‘So true NO STRAIGHT MALE wants his son to be gay. A gay son is a curse that takes away your#family traditions #heritage#lgtbiq is a a parents nightmare that destroys families. Ruins holidays like #Christmas#KevinHart we support you! #LiberalismIsAMentalDisorder‘
In later tweets, the elder Marchese accused his critics of being bigots, and alleged that LGBTQ people are responsible for Europe “importing Muslim men” because there are no children being born. He also said that being gay is “a lifestyle choice like being vegan.”
His wife Amber responded to her stepson's campaign this week on Instagram.
Wrote Amber Marchese on Instagram (typos her own): “I am going to repeat. My step son was never kicked out nor banished from his siblings. He coldy walked away never to return (January 17, 2018). It took many months to help his little brother and sister deal with a tragic loss of siblings. Although we were paying for his tuition at school, he did not include us with proms, school functions, nothing. Never called for brithdays, Christmas, nothing. We were never afforded a sit down conversation about sexuality. Michael got in trouble for lying about his where abouts with my other, at the time, 14 year old step son. We found out that he was bringing my young son around 18 year predators boys that wanted to sexually abuse him, among other Christian Brother freshman children. He was grounded by taking his range rover away.”
She added: “Michael has refused to sit down and speak with us for neary 2 years. We raised this child, sacrificing so much, giving unconditional love. I never treated him any differently than my own biological children. I have so many emails and texts imploring this young man to come home and talk. That we love him no matter what he is going through. He refused. This is parent alienation at its best. As far as college, we tell all of our children that we are going to be economically smart about it. Michael does not get a more expensive school because he wants speical privileges for being gay. Michael is using our platform to brow beat us into going to a school that we said no to. Currently, it is not in our budget. This is called a temper tantrum from a spoiled rotten, privileged young teenager. Michael, i forgive you, I love you, and you can always come home as you are. Nothing you do will make me love you less. However, the answer is still a resounding NO!! Daddy and I will not condone your lying, cheating, scamming, or public outbursts such as this. I dont care if Andy Cohen himself tells you how awful we are. It is not happening. Again, I love you, please, come to the therapy so we can discuss this as it should be discussed. Behind closed doors with a professional. I love you. THERE IS SO MUCH TO THIS STORY. PLEASE KEEP THAT IN MIND.”
In case you missed it, here is what her stepson had written on the GoFundMe campaign.
“At the beginning of 2018, my father “found out” I was gay,” wrote Marchese. “This began two weeks of mental abuse that led to me being removed from his home when I told my Mom (her and my father are divorced) and went to court with her. Since this time, my father has been slowly cutting ties with me until I “live according to his standards.” Essentially, this meant – and still means – that I have to be “straight” and date women while “admitting” that I chose to be gay so that I could get something out of it from my mother. With this, my father has refused to help in paying for any schooling because he believes I have to live in his home and follow his preferred life-style to be good enough to receive any financial assistance with school.”
Continued Marchese: “All of this has not made me give up though as I have worked extremely hard my Senior year to get as much assistance with schooling that I possibly can through scholarships and the like. I also began working the summer of 2018 and continued to throughout the school year so that I can begin saving money for college. Even with all of my efforts, I have fallen short of the money I would need to be able to go to the college I have been working extremely hard to get into. For Fairfield University, for one year, is around ~65,000 dollars. The reason I am only asking for 35,000 is because, through my focus on my studies through this year, I have been able to get Merit Scholarships for around ~30,000 dollars of that cost. I was able to be exempt from all of my Final Exams this year as well as getting an average of 95 for my final year in high school. I did not only work and study this year as I also was the Stage Manager for my high school's theater company for their fall and spring production. Being the Stage Manager required me to stay after school Monday through Friday till as late as 10 pm in preparation for the shows. At this current time, I am unable to get a co-signer for my student loans and is the main reason I have decided to create a gofundme page to try and help raise money for my Freshman Year.”
UPDATE:
