Teresa Giudice is reflecting on her past legal troubles a decade after serving time.
“When it all happened, I didn’t know. I thought it was all a joke. For me anyway,” Teresa, 53, admitted during the Monday, May 12, episode of her eldest daughter, Gia Giudice’s “Casual Chaos” podcast. ‘With your father, obviously I knew. For the government to come knocking on your door, there was something going on.”
Teresa said she remembered people coming to the house and waiting for her ex-husband Joe Giudice.
“I was never arrested, never handcuffed, never shackled,” she added. “Thank you, God. At least that was one good thing.”
Teresa and Joe, 52, filed for bankruptcy in 2009, citing an $11 million debt. Five years later, they were indicted on fraud charges, eventually pleading guilty. Teresa served 11 months of a 15-month sentence in prison from January to December 2015, while Joe served 41 months in prison before being deported back to his native Italy. Teresa and Joe divorced in 2020. She married Luis “Louie” Ruelas in August 2022.
“I recently found out, now, that I thought I bought a house. I thought I bought two houses, because I really wasn’t really paying attention to the whole thing,” Teresa said during Monday’s podcast. “I guess stupid of me, but not really because I wasn’t involved in your father’s business. I thought it was all a joke.”
Teresa Giudice and Joe Giudice host a wine bottle signing and tasting at NB Liquors at Costco on March 1, 2014 in North Plainfield, New Jersey. Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images
Teresa said she “never thought I was gonna go to jail, ever, like in a million years,” when reflecting on the past.
“I didn’t do anything. I was like, ‘All right, I’m not involved in my husband’s business. I didn’t do anything wrong.’ I was really cocky about it,” she admitted. “I cooperated, I did whatever they told me to do.”
At the time, Teresa thought Joe was using her credit to buy a house because he was flipping homes. However, she asked Joe for clarity more recently.
“He’s like, ‘You didn’t even buy a house, Tre.’ He’s like, ‘We refinanced a property I had.’ I was like, ‘What?’ I went to jail for refinancing a house,” she added. “I’m like, ‘Why did you make me sign those papers that day?’ … So that’s what I went to jail for.”
Teresa continued: “I put my my signature on papers. Whatever numbers were on those papers were incorrect. That’s considered fraud. From now on, never sign papers unless you know what you’re signing.”
The worst part about going to jail, for Teresa, was being away from her four daughters. (Aside from Gia, 24, she and Joe share Gabriella, 21, Milania, 19, and Audriana, 15.)
“What hurt me the most is leaving the four of you for almost a year,” she said.
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