Prior to Erika Jayne and Jen Shah’s current legal woes, there were the bombshell fraud charges against Teresa Giudice and her then-husband Joe Giudice in 2013. The couple would eventually strike a deal with prosecutors: they pled guilty to 41 counts of fraud, with Teresa getting sentenced to 15 months and Joe to 41 months in prison. The situation played out on previous seasons of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, but the show’s headliner is reflecting on the prison stint in an altogether different way now. She's also revealing if she keeps in touch with the women she met there.
Ultimately, Teresa Giudice served less than 12 months of her 15-month prison sentence. (She was released the day before Christmas Eve in 2015.) As was seen on Real Housewives of New Jersey, Giudice struggled for a while with processing the loss of time from her four daughters and her elderly mother (the latter of whom ended up passing away over a year after her prison release). But the reality star is getting frank about the ordeal and her ex as well. She told Andy Cohen on his SiriusXM radio show:
I'm fine with saying I went to jail. I'm good with it now. Remember Andy [Cohen]? I didn't want to say the word before. … It bothered me for a long time because I know in my heart I was not supposed to go there. And I know I only went because I'm in the public eye. Listen, I'll shout it out to the world. I signed two contracts that Joe [Giudice] was flipping [for] two homes he was buying. That's all I did. I knew nothing about what he was doing. I mean, I have nothing to hide. Like, I did my time already, you know?
Though the star has spoken about these experiences on Real Housewives of New Jersey and in her books at length, the topic of her prison sentence is usually a touchy subject live in the moment. In the last season of the show alone, co-star Jackie Goldschneider pushed Giudice’s buttons majorly when she asked her, “Did you get that confidence from jail?” For context, they had been arguing over cheating rumors and coke analogies, but the drama went even further left after the jail comment.
However, nowadays, the Bravo alum is OK when asked about that time (if it's coming from a friend). Andy Cohen questioned if Teresa Giudice – who just came off an island stint with the likes of Ramona Singer on the Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip – still talks to the woman she was incarcerated with, and surprisingly, she dropped a name, saying:
Yes, a lot of them, they still reach out to me. Jamila Davis. Her name is Jamila Davis, you can look her up. ... Chris Christie put her away for 10 years for mortgage fraud.
It's likely that Teresa Giudice is so candid about her prison experience of late because she is well and truly moved on from it. Not only is she divorced from her ex who got her into the legal mess, but they have reportedly finished paying restitution for what was owed in their case. The New Jersey alum is also now engaged to her beau, Luis Ruelas, after just a year of dating.
Supposedly, Luis Reulas’ name gets dragged into the mud in the upcoming season of the reality series. Castmates might want to be weary, though, because Teresa Giudice is (obviously) a loyal partner. Tune into Season 12 of The Real Housewives of New Jersey when it premieres on February 1 at 9 p.m. EST on Bravo! And be sure to check out CinemaBlend's 2022 TV schedule for more on the shows that will be airing this year.
