It's official: Danielle Staub won't return to 'Housewives'

After a tremendous amount of speculation and rumor, it was announced on Monday that "Real Housewives of New Jersey" castmember Danielle Staub will not be returning to the show. "The reunion was Danielle’s last appearance on 'The Real Housewives of New Jersey,'" said Andy Cohen, Bravo’s senior vice president of original programming and development. Staub was one of the most divisive characters in "Real Housewives" franchise history, which can make for really good television. So why would she leave? According to one source close to Staub, she'd rather focus on having a show of her own. According to multiple sources close to the series, if Staub stayed, then the rest of the cast was walking. There was also an issue, according to a source close to the show, that with Staub, the show got "more than (they) bargained for." The Smoking Gun revealed Staub was arrested by FBI agents in June 1986 for her role in a kidnapping plot that grew out of a cocaine deal gone bad, and in one of the last shows of season two, Staub brought an armed bodyguard to a dinner with fellow housewife Caroline Manzo. "Bringing people with guns to dinner? That's just too much," said the source. Staub told Us Weekly that it is time to "move on and upward. I don't see any interest for me to be attacked like that." Staub told the magazine that her goal is to get her own show. "I want to be me now," Staub said. "Not me according to other people. Me ... a spin-off is absolutely, positively where I'm going."