Michelle Barone: Almost a Bravo Housewife — What Really Happened? Inside Her Secret RHONJ Test, Teresa Giudice Friendship & What's Next. Rejection & the Reinvention.

Michelle Barone is UNDRESSED in New York City — and nothing is off limits.

Michelle joins Pol' Atteu and Patrik Simpson for a wildly candid conversation

about the reality-TV opportunity that almost changed everything: her

months-long run at The Real Housewives of New Jersey. She opens up about going through 11 auditions over roughly eight and a half months, filming with Dolores Catania and Margaret Josephs, being placed on hold, believing she was close to landing the show — and finally getting the call that production was going in another direction.

But what really happened behind the scenes? Michelle reveals what she was

trying to accomplish when she attempted to bring fractured cast relationships together, why she believes geography and casting chemistry may have played a role, and how she processed the disappointment after getting so close. She also gets personal about her friendship with Teresa Giudice, sharing the side of Teresa she says viewers don't always get to see and the encouragement Teresa gave her after the Housewives door closed.

Then the conversation shifts from what didn't happen to what could be next.

Michelle says she's pitching other shows, admits she'd rather become “Andy

Cohen” than simply be a reality cast member, and talks about expanding her

podcast world between New York, Los Angeles and possibly Florida. Could an L.A. chapter — and even a future role on Ventura Shores — be in her future?

Of course, this is UNDRESSED, so the conversation gets deliciously unfiltered: Michelle talks fashion, diamonds, her upcoming tummy tuck, her husband's relief that Housewives didn't happen, her children, a possible move, and why red-carpet fashion lives forever. Meanwhile, Patrik's very revealing audition callback becomes a full-blown topic of conversation, Pol' offers some custom-underwear commentary, and Michelle arrives “undressed” in more ways than one.

It's Housewives secrets, friendship, family, reinvention, fashion, ambition and a lot of laughter — with Michelle Barone proving that sometimes the opportunity you almost get may be the one that opens the door to something even bigger.