MOB Wives star Renee Graziano was just eight years old when she learned what it meant to be a rat.

Most children don’t grow up learning about the consequences of breaking the mafia’s code of silence. 

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Anthony Graziano, pictured here with daughter Renee, was a high ranking captain in the Bonanno organized crime family Credit: Instagram

Renee Graziano sat-down with The U.S Jattvibe for an exclusive interview Credit: The U.S. Jattvibe

Yet being the daughter of a high-ranking member of the Bonanno crime family was anything but ordinary.

Her father, Anthony Graziano, was a feared Bonanno captain who spent years in prison on racketeering, extortion, and tax-related convictions. 

At home, however, he enforced one simple rule: don’t ask questions and don’t talk about what happens in the house.

Anthony didn’t speak to his daughters for several years following the release of the VH1 hit Mob Wives which first aired in April 2011 and ran for six seasons. 

Renee said he felt that crucial code of honor had been broken.

Yet younger sister Jennifer, who produced the show, believed that films like Goodfellas and The Godfather often glamorized organized crime or centered exclusively on the men involved. 

She wanted to tell a different story — one that exposed the harsh reality and lasting consequences for the women and children left behind, forced to rebuild their lives while those men served time in prison. 

All members of mafia families were told that critical vow of silence — known as Omertà — and became one of the defining lessons of Renee’s childhood.

Those early learnings centered around a piggy bank stuffed with cash.

Renee, now 56, innocently told her father, who died aged 79 in 2019, that her older sister Lana had been taking money from it.

“He told me, ‘Don’t you ever tell on anybody,’” she said. “I learned to keep things to myself.

“My oldest sister used to have me wait in the hallway, and she would play chicky, like, in other words, looking for the cops.

“But there were no cops in our house. I was just looking for my father so she would turn it upside down. She would take the salad tongs, a flashlight, and she would pull out all the big bills.”

One day, dad Anthony decided to crack it open.

“But one day my father was like, all right, come on, Renee, let’s crack the piggy bank. He taught me how to count money,” she continued.

“He cracks it open and he puts me on first. He puts me on the table, gets the mallet, cracks it open, and there’s, uh, no big bills.

“And he says to me, Renee, where’s all the money? And I told him that Lana took it.

“‘Boom!’ he said, ‘don’t you ever tell anybody.’ And I was very confused because he asked me a question. But now he’s telling me to say nothing. So as an eight-year-old, all of this is running through my head.

Renee Graziano pictured in her younger years while married to a mob informant Credit: Instagram

Mob Wives aimed to give viewers a glimpse into the lives of mafia families (cast pictured) Credit: Handout

“He said ‘I don’t care who asks you a question. You never say anything’. That was my first experience of what tattling was.”

While Renee knew him simply as Dad, Anthony Graziano was a powerful figure within the Bonanno crime family, one of New York City’s infamous Five Families.

Convicted on racketeering, extortion and tax-related charges, he spent a total of 22 years in prison spread across three different terms for racketeering, tax evasion and extortion, but remained a respected figure in organized crime. 

Despite leaving school after seventh grade, Anthony built a formidable reputation as one of the family’s biggest earners, rising through the ranks from capo to consigliere under Bonanno boss Joseph “Big Joey” Massino.

The Bonanno family, alongside the Gambino, Genovese, Lucchese and Colombo families, formed the upper echelon of New York’s Mafia hierarchy. 

Their influence stretched across illegal gambling, loansharking, labor racketeering and other criminal enterprises that generated millions of dollars over decades.

As a child, however, Renee knew little about any of that. Her father told her he ran a trucking company.

“I didn’t realize we were different until I heard other kids talk about their dads’ jobs,” she said.

“That’s when I started noticing things — the suits, the jewelry, the late nights. But you know what? I liked it.”

Still, her childhood felt normal.

“My father was the guy buying candy for all the kids, taking care of everyone. That’s what mattered to me,” she said.

“My father, to this day, is my hero. He was always there to solve every problem and grace us with a fur coat that fell off the back of the truck. He used to take me to work with him.

“He had a personality larger than life to match his heart.”

At 16, she got her first glimpse of how differently the outside world viewed him.

“I was at the end of the bar with a friend and this guy came over and he said he wanted to meet my dad because he was a captain,” she recalled.

“I remember being so taken aback and saying, ‘My father doesn’t drive a boat. My father doesn’t have a ship.’

Renee Graziano is set to appear in a new season of popular show Mob Wives Credit: Splash News

Graziano went to prison on three separate occasions before his death in 2019 Credit: Instagram/reneegraziano

“I went home and cried and then I asked him if he drove a boat. Was he driving cruise ships?

“I didn’t realize that I was different from all the other children until one day all the kids were chit-chatting and they were saying their fathers worked nine to five, and I was like, my dad works five to nine.

“Most kids learned about the birds and the bees at that age.I learned about captains and soldiers.”

Years later, Renee came to realize that the lesson her father taught her about secrecy had consequences far beyond organized crime.

Dating proved difficult. She said trying to find a boyfriend “sucked” – boys were either scared of her family or used her to get close to the mob.

“Guys were always running away from my father or running towards my father, so I had to make this decision for myself. What is it about me that I’m going to figure out that guys will stay for me?

“I think I became promiscuous because of that lifestyle, too. I couldn’t work out if a guy likes me, or does he like my father more?”

As a teenager, Renee said she also struggled with insecurity despite her father’s reputation.

“People think growing up like that makes you feel powerful,” she said. “For me, it didn’t.

“I think I was addicted to power, money, and men even before I was addicted to a substance.”

She claims she also experienced abuse in relationships at a young age. After one boyfriend hit her, she finally told her father.

“We drove to a restaurant. He told me not to look out the window,” she said.

“I didn’t hear what happened, but my ex showed up later with a cast.”

A stormy marriage to ex-con Hector Pagan gave Renee her beloved son AJ, but a lifetime of recrimination and anger.

With her father’s secrecy ideal sewn into her fabric, she kept everything in. It’s something she bitterly regrets.

“I tell this story lightheartedly,” she continued.

“However, it affected me tremendously throughout my whole entire life where I was constantly holding secrets that weren’t mine.

“I would keep secrets about my ex-husband when I shouldn’t have.”

Renee ultimately left the marriage and has said she turned to drink and drugs to ease her pain.

Pagan re-entered Renee’s life in 2011 while she was recovering from serious medical complications and fighting for survival in hospital.

“I had bad plastic surgery gone wrong and I was dying,” she recalled.

“I lost over six pints of blood and was in the hospital for months.

“That’s when he came back into my life. I believed him — but he only came back to entrap my father. He knew exactly who my father was. He used me. He was like everyone else. He just wanted to get closer to the action.”

Not long after Anthony was arrested again, and Renee began to suspect something was wrong.

“I knew something wasn’t right,” she said. 

“But I never thought it was him [Pagan]. I found out like everyone else — through the media. When the world knew, I knew.”

Pagan had turned Graziano into the cops. Just three months after being released from a 12-year prison stretch, he was heading back inside. 

After the truth emerged, Renee made a discovery she says still haunts her.

“When everything came out, I found his watch box. I thought I could sell them,” she said.

“But when I had them checked, I found out they were fake — and they all had wires in them. Mine included.

“You put a wire on my wrist that could have taken me away from my son. That’s the level someone will go to to save themselves.”

Pagan was released on parole early in 2024 after being sentenced to 11 years in jail for murder in 2014.

Together with two mob associates, Pagan targeted an auto body shop to heist tens of thousands of dollars from James Donovan, a check-casher associated with the Luchese crime family. 

During the robbery, Pagan shot Donovan in the back, striking Donovan’s femoral artery, causing him to bleed to death. 

Renee, meanwhile, is back in New York after a spell in the Florida sunshine and focused on moving forward.

She has conquered some addiction demons and is now involved in an immersive theater production called Married by the Mob.

There is also a body-care line, a memoir in the works alongside plans for future books.

There is also the small matter of Mob Wives returning for a sixth season.

Producers hope the show will return later this year, with Renee once again set to hit the big screen and take multiple trips down a memory lane overflowing with bad memories and experiences.

However her past, she claims, has made her stronger and more confident within herself. 

“I’ve been celibate for nearly three years,” she said. “It was a choice based on self-respect.”

Despite everything she has endured, there are no regrets.

“I try to laugh at what I’ve been through,” Renee said. “I’m smarter and wiser now. If I had the chance to live it all over again, I would. I would never change being my father’s daughter.”

You can watch The U.S. Jattvibe’s full interview wtih Renee Graziano here.