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WE TV Takes an Inside Look at "MAFIA WOMEN" on May 13 at 10PM

Ten carat diamonds. Overdone hair. Tasteless home furnishings and tacky make-up. Tight clothes and even tighter lips. These are just some of the images that come to mind when thinking about mob wives. But is there more to the first ladies of the mob than just big hair and blue eye shadow?

WE tv's original docu-series SECRET LIVES OF WOMEN explores the unique lifestyles of women in today's culture. The upcoming episode "Mafia Women," premiering on Tuesday, May 13 at 10-11pm ET/9c, explores the mysterious world of mob wives and asks the questions that every viewer wants to know. Are mob wives really as meekly obedient as the movies might suggest? Do they live lives of quiet desperation or do they relish life in the fast lane? What is it really like to be a real life Carmella Soprano?

Andrea Giovino is one of three unique women profiled on SECRET LIVES OF WOMEN's "Mafia Women." A mother of four, Giovino refused to enter the Witness Protection Program despite knowing there was a contract out on her life. Indicted in 1992 with her husband and brother on charges of conspiring to distribute marijuana and cocaine in Brooklyn and Staten Island, she was relocated to an undisclosed location in return for her husband and brother's cooperation with the government.

Now a model working parent, Giovino recently wrote a book entitled Divorced from the Mob: My Journey from Organized Crime to Independent Woman, in which she relays the story of her life in the mob, from her childhood days idolizing wise guys to her criminal years, from rubbing elbows with John Gotti, and finally to wanting out.

The other women featured in the episode are:

Camille Serpico married into the mob nearly 40 years ago. After burying two husbands and divorcing two others, she is looking to part company with her fifth. Camille is the real deal - she even married the man who killed her first husband.

Ruthan Seccio was the girlfriend of mobster Ralph Natale, who was the boss of Philadelphia's Bruno-Scarfo family. In 2001, Natale testified against several of his fellow mobsters in order to shorten his own prison sentence. Seccio was offered a place in the Witness Protection Program to play along, but she refused, telling the Philadelphia Daily News, "I'd rather die than rat."

judythpiazza@newsblaze.com