Ramona Rizzo<\/strong> is one of the two new members to join the cast of Mob Wives<\/em> for season two, and during the Jan. 8 episode, fans watched Ramona as she allied with her “cousin” Karen Gravano<\/strong> and fought with Drita D’avanzo<\/strong>. Well, it turns out Ramona has a strong family tie to the lifestyle. She opens up to HollywoodLife.com<\/strong> exclusively about her family history — and reveals to us how she knows her best friend Karen.<\/p>\n “I had somebody by the name of ‘Lefty Guns’ Ruggiero, who was my grandfather,” Ramona tells us. “The movie Donnie Brasco<\/em> was based on his life. The only person I’m willing to speak about is my grandfather. We’re the real deal.”<\/p>\n Ramona’s grandfather Benjamin Ruggiero<\/strong> was a “soldier” in the Bonanno crime family. He was notorious for his friendship with FBI undercover agent Joseph “Donnie Brasco” Pistone<\/strong>, who\u00a0infiltrated\u00a0the family\u00a0for six years.<\/p>\n “I was extremely close with my grandfather,” Ramona tells us. “His going away affected me really bad. When I was making my communion, that’s when things started going on.”<\/p>\n Ramona’s family tried to keep its affiliation with the lifestyle a secret from her.<\/p>\n “My grandfather went to jail for 13 years, but they still didn’t tell me,” Ramona recalls. “My family hid it from me. I grew up differently. The word ‘mob’ was never used in my home. …\u00a0I saw all the news with my\u00a0grandfather, and that’s how she found her family’s secret out.<\/p>\n After watching what happened to her family when her grandfather went to prison, Ramona decided she wanted to break away from the lifestyle.<\/p>\n “Everything I went through, I didn’t want to marry Italian,” Ramona explains. “If [I had] a boy, he could possibly be in the lifestyle.”<\/p>\n Sadly, Ramona’s marriage of 10 years turned out to bring its own hardships. The man she married was of Arab descent and ended with her struggling to get a divorce and fighting to get her kids out of the country of Jordan.<\/p>\n “The last time I was in Jordan was to get divorced,” she says. “I went there for two-and-a-half years.”<\/p>\n Ramona now raises her four children — Giovanni<\/strong> 13, Anissa<\/strong>, 12, Melina<\/strong>, 11, Gianna<\/strong> 7 — on her own in the United States.<\/p>\n So far on Mob Wives<\/em>, Ramona has come to be known as the ally and friend of Karen. Karen reveals the story behind their friendship<\/p>\n “I met Karen at 4 years old,” Ramona says of her Mob Wives <\/em>co-star. “I called her mom and dad ‘aunt’ and ‘uncle.’ We did frequent holidays together.”<\/p>\n As seen on the Jan 8. episode, Ramona is sure to be a key player in the Mob Wives<\/em> season two war fighting for Team Karen.<\/p>\n More Mob Wives News:<\/strong><\/p>\n Ramona reveals her connections to the other ‘Mob Wives’ with HollywoodLife.com exclusively — and shares what it was like to watch her grandfather ‘Lefty Guns’ Ruggiero go to prison.\u2014 Lindsey DiMattina<\/h3>\n
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\nRamona Rizzo is one of the two new members to join the cast of Mob Wives for season two, and during the Jan. 8 episode, fans watched Ramona as she allied with her “cousin” Karen Gravano and fought with Drita D’avanzo. Well, it turns out Ramona has a strong family tie to the lifestyle. She opens up to HollywoodLife.com exclusively about her family history — and reveals to us how she knows her best friend Karen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37016532,"featured_media":624254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exclude_post_from_river":false,"_cr_original_post":"","_cr_replace_post_id":"","_cr_replacing_post_id":"","mt_seo_title":"New 'Mob Wives' Star Ramona Rizzo -- Interview","mt_seo_description":"","_pmc_canonical_override":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[378004978,462],"tags":[54378967,48207919,378005007,69518280],"_post-options":[],"coauthors":[121208685],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/010612_ramona_rizzo_2_600120106154426120109094903.jpeg?fit=600%2C616","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc8i1J-2hVL","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545585"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37016532"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545585"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4956523,"href":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545585\/revisions\/4956523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545585"},{"taxonomy":"_post-options","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_post-options?post=545585"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=545585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}