“He was never inappropriate, but he definitely was very affectionate,” said Lexi before sharing what made her think he had a “weird obsession” with her for years after his breakup with Dina.
Dina Manzo‘s daughter, Lexi Ioannou, is opening up about her relationship with her former stepfather, Tommy Manzo.
While appearing on the May 26 episode of Gia Giudice‘s Casual Chaos podcast, the 26-year-old daughter of the Real Housewives of New Jersey alum detailed the years she spent in Tommy’s home after her mother married him in 2007.
“He had this, this, like, weird obsession with me,” Lexi claimed. “For years, people would tell me that he kept my room exactly the same because he thought I was going to come back. I can’t even begin to understand why he would think I would ever come back there.”
Despite his split from Dina, Lexi said Tommy “held on to my things for, you know, 10 years.”
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“He never had children of his own and I was the closest thing he had to it. So, he really loved me,” she said, explaining his bond with her. “He was never inappropriate, but he definitely was very affectionate. And that was something I was very uncomfortable with because neither of my parents are that way.”
“To receive it from a stepfather is kind of, like, extra strange when you don’t receive it from your actual father,” she added.
Lexi noted that she was expected to return that affection out of obligation, which made things worse.
“I was told to pay him that kind of affection out of respect,” she explained. “Therefore, I felt like our relationship was very uncomfortable for me.”
Dina and Tommy tied the knot in 2007 when Lexi was just six years old. They separated in 2012 and officially divorced in 2016.
Dina went on to marry now-husband, David Cantin, in 2017.
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Tommy, meanwhile, who is the brother of former RHONJ star Caroline Manzo’s husband Albert Manzo, is currently serving time in prison. In 2024, he was sentenced to 84 months behind bars for hiring a Lucchese crime family soldier to assault Cantin back in 2015.
Lexi previously touched on her experience with her former stepfather in a Substack essay titled Don’t Poke the Bear, where she claimed Tommy forcibly kicked her out of the house during the split.
“In 2012 I was ‘violently’ shaken awake by Tommy, who told me I had 30 minutes to ‘get the f–k’ out of [his] house,” she wrote. “In that chaotic moment, I lost not only my home, but also irreplaceable heirlooms collected over generations, along with my childhood keepsakes.”
“I mourn not only for myself, but for my future children,” she added, “as these tangible connections to my family history have been stolen from us.”
While speaking with Gia on Casual Chaos, Lexi revealed that she tried to retrieve those belongings after Tommy’s sentencing, but was met with silence.
“I had an understanding that he kept everything of mine all those years, so I wanted it back,” she said. “It was really difficult for me to extend myself and to ask for help, but I was that desperate. I just wanted those things back.”
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So desperate, in fact, that she reached out to her cousin, Caroline’s daughter, Lauren Manzo, in hopes of getting some help, but nothing came of it.
Lexi also attended Tommy’s trial and described the emotional toll it took on her and her family.
“I went to the trial last year and I sat there for a week, and I listened to everybody testify,” Lexi shared. “My mom and I are so different like that. She couldn’t even stomach being there for, like, 30 minutes. I went every day, all day, for seven days. I needed to know everything. The word that came up a lot was obsessive. There was some kind of obsessive disorder going on there with the fact that he lost his ‘family’ and my mom and I. He just lost control.”
“Some of the things he has done have been the most painful things I’ve ever had to face in my life,” she added. “[To] See my mom go through, see Dave go through, it’s been completely unfair.”
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Lexi also discussed her mom’s strained relationship with sister Caroline, telling Gia, “I don’t think my mom and her sister can ever repair what’s broken — it’s too far gone, but why can’t the cousins?”
She continued, “It pains me, but the reality is, from my eyes, they failed me. And I had some really awesome conversations with my cousin — I lover her. I really do. She’s the closest thing I’ll have in this lifetime to a sister. And I think it kills both of us that we don’t have each other anymore.”
