Danielle Staub: Why I Left 'Real Housewives'

USMagazine, Tuesday, September 7, 2010, 7:49am (PDT)

As previously announced, Danielle Staub is officially gone -- but not forgotten -- from "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" after two seriously drama-packed seasons.

The reality star, author and budding singer told UsMagazine.com about her departure from the Bravo hit that made her famous.

"I'm way too good for this," Staub, 48, tells Us. "They have used me about as much as I can be used."

Since the moment the Garden State version of the franchise debuted last year, Staub clashed with the four other housewives, despite an initial friendship with Jacqueline Laurita.

"I think it's time for me to move on and upward," says Staub. "I don't see any interest for me to be attacked like that." (Staub's extensions were ripped out by Laurita's daughter, Ashley Holmes, and she was threatened by Teresa Giudice during the second season's shocking finale, among many other memorable battles.)

"I mean, what's left for [the other castmates]? To kill me? Bravo seems to be glorifying their behavior. And I think it's almost like telling children to behave poorly at school, 'It's OK.' "

But Staub has big follow-up plans.

"I want my own show," she tells Us.

"I want to be me now," Staub continues. "Not me according to other people. Me ... A spin-off is absolutely, positively where I'm going."

A spin-off, she says, would allow "my kids [Christine, 16, and Jillian, 12] to be seen for the wonderful children that they are. I want to be shown as a mother, an artist, a supporter of my charities and the foundations that I'm passionate about. I want to use my platform to speak about the things that I love in my life."

What about the future of "RHONJ" post-Danielle? "The bottom line is, they need me, I don't need them," she says. "They don't talk about anything but me. I don't talk about them, at all. I talk about me too!"

She adds: "I have no need for them in my life. They have a great need for me to make the show successful. I made it successful."

One topic her spin-off might cover: her continued search for her birth mother. "I did not give [this] to Bravo because I felt like there was no fair portrayal of me and my family ... to share with people who didn't even want to portray me as a human being."

"So that will be shared," Staub says. "I will do a breaking story on that when it does come out and it will be a part of my spin-off."

Life these days? "Life is fantastic!" she tells Us. "I am far too busy to be around things that don't make me feel good and people that don't make me feel good."

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