Angela Rialo — known to fans of reality television as “Big Ang” — succumbed to brain and lung cancer early Thursday morning after a year of waging a very public battle for her life.
She became a reality-show star with the premiere of “Mob Wives,” where the brassy babe stole the show with her outspoken opinions.
Her own mob connection came from being the nephew of Salvatore “Sally Dogs” Lombardi, who was a notorious captain of the Genovese crime family.
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Big Ang had built her own reputation as a tough gal by running the Drunken Monkey in Staten Island, where she served up plenty of liquor to some of NYC’s toughest guys. She was soon given her own self-titled spinoff show in 2012.
Tragically, Big Ang also revealed that she spent her final year splitting from husband Neil Murphy — telling Dr. Mehmet Oz on his “Dr. Oz Show” that “I felt like he never stepped up to the plate, so I was done with it…I would rather be by myself. I would rather be alone.”
The family saw a lot of early death announcements being mistakenly made through the day, with Radar Online having the original scoop on Big Ang facing her final hours.
The family finally confirmed that Big Ang had passed at 3:01 a.m. this morning.
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The announcement was done via social media by longtime friend Vinnie Medugno, who added: “In typical Big Ang fashion, we know she would say ‘Love you my babies!'”
