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"My father is not speaking to me right now because of the show. He has his own views, I respect him," she says. "He's my father, I'm his daughter, nothing will ever stand in the way of that. He respects me I respect him but they understand they have to let me grow otherwise I'm going to have an ignorant mentality and never really have my own identity."
Graziano may have been in the dark about her father's alleged Mafia connections -- according to prosecutors, he was for years the consigliere of New York's Bonanno crime family and is currently in prison.
"For me, growing up was very much like the movies and I'm not saying that I'm proud of that lifestyle, that was just my parents," Renee tells me before making clear that as far as she is concerned her father has never done anything wrong. "I think I was in my mid-20's when I thought something wasn't right. Most parents work 9-5, my dad worked 5-9."
Feisty 'Mob Wives' standout Drita D'avanzo had a very different experience after marrying into what she refers to as "this lifestyle."
"I was disowned for it because my father was not having it," Drita tells me. "You never know what you're signing up for. When you're young and in love, you don't really look at the bigger picture and then when you have children, you don't think like that. But it's a roller coaster of a marriage and it's fu**ed up."
The ladies tell me organized crime is much bigger than anyone thinks and that in fact we all know somebody who is involved, including many celebrities.
"Yeah, I grew up around James Caan and Steven Seagal, so for me I got to hang out with a couple cool people," Drita confesses.
So how close to reality was the 'Sopranos'? "Put it this way ... so many people I know were like identical to that person on the show," Drita tells me. Renee chose not to watch it, "because I lived it."
'Mob Wives' concludes its first season June 26.
https://www.popeater.com/2011/06/17/mob-wives-deal-with-fractured-families-fd-up-marriages/
