“They wanted the first photo and I did it. I was like, if they’re going to get it anyway, so I might as well make money off of it,” the ‘Real Housewives of New Jersey’ star said of making money off the first photos of her upon her release from prison in 2015.
Teresa Giudice is looking back on the time she spent in prison — and her eventual exit.
After detailing the delicious food and “beautiful grounds” at Danbury, Connecticut’s Federal Correctional Institution, Giudice, who spent 11-months behind bars for fraud charges relating to her ex-husband Joe Giudice‘s bankruptcy fraud, revealed that she staged her now-infamous prison exit photos.
“They wanted the first photo and I did it,” the Real Housewives of New Jersey star admitted, while appearing on the Hollywood Raw podcast with Dax Holt and Adam Glyn, Wednesday, adding it;s the only time she staged paparazzi photos.
Giudice, who explained that the agency shots were set up by her team, said she decided to profit off the moment after realizing paps were going to get the shot either way.
She continued, “I was like, if they’re going to get it anyway, so I might as well make money off of it.”
Elsewhere in the podcast, Giudice shared on update on her relationship with her ex-husband, telling listeners that pair are friends now.
“We don’t talk that much because we only talk when I need him. I need help with this, talk to this one like that,” Giudice explained, before sharing that her husband, Louie Ruelas, talks to Joe more than she does. “But we don’t, I mean, I have to say, Louie and him talk more than Joe and I talk.”
She added of Louie, “He’s always doing the right thing. He’s pretty amazing. It shows the kids that they get along and they love that. They love that.”
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Giudice also said she’s forgiven Joe for putting her in a situation that landed her behind bars, and took time away from both her ailing parents and her children.
“It took a long time for me to forgive him because then I lost my parents. I came home, I lost my mom eight months later. I was so devastated. My parents were my life. I come from a small family, and my mom, she was a saint. She just lived for me and my brother. I had those kind of parents that just loved their kids so much that just did everything for us. Home cooked meals every day, everything was about me and my brother. They were just the best parents ever,” Giudice explained. “And so I lost my mom eight months later, never thought that would happen. And then my dad moved in with us and he was so upset. He cried for a year straight after my mother passed away, and then I had my dad with us for three years, and then he passed away.”
She continued, “He was so heartbroken that the love of his life passed away. And I knew, but he fought. He wanted to stay with me and the girls, which was beautiful. And that’s it.”
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Forgiving Joe, the RHONJ OG said, allowed her to find love with Louie, who she called her “soulmate.”
“But finally, I finally forgave him because I know that this had to happen in order for me to not have been with Joe anymore. So I felt like that had to happen in order for me to meet my soulmate, which is Louie, because I probably would’ve never left him,” Giudice shared.
“But you never know. Maybe if Joe would’ve came home… I don’t think it would’ve worked out. So I think everything happened the way it was supposed to happen.”
