Fraud, Felonies & Fights! 18 Scandals From Teresa Giudice’s Worst Year Ever
Sept. 22 2016, Updated 2:41 p.m. ET
Most people look forward to the New Year, hoping that it will be better than the last. But Teresa Giudice knows that the disaster that was 2014 has landed her in the slammer for much of 2015. Here’s a look back at the low points of The Real Housewives of New Jersey star’s year, as she gets ready to swap designer threads for an orange jumpsuit in January.
Most people look forward to the New Year, hoping that it will be better than the last. But Teresa Giudice knows that the disaster that was 2014 has landed her in the slammer for much of 2015. Here’s a look back at the low points of The Real Housewives of New Jersey star’s year, as she gets ready to swap designer threads for an orange jumpsuit in January.
The year didn’t get off to a good start, when in March, Teresa and Joe Giudice pled guilty to a slew of fraud charges. The reality TV couple walked hand-in-hand into Newark Federal Court where they admitted they were guilty of offenses that included bankruptcy and mail fraud and tax evasion. In a statement Teresa said, “Today, I took responsibility for a series of mistakes I made several years ago.”
Teresa’s legal woes turned from bad to worse when she and Joe learned their fates during their October sentence hearing. That’s when the couple learned she would spend 15 months in prison – from January 2015 onwards – and he would then spend 41 months behind bars. The judge told Teresa, “For a moment I thought about probation…but I think a period of confinement is absolutely necessary in this case.”
Meanwhile, Joe faces deportation after he serves his sentence. The Italian – who never became a U.S. citizen – could lose his right to stay in the country. At the October sentence hearing, the judge told Joe that his deportation is a “virtual certainty.”
One would think that – faced with spending the next 15 months of your life in prison – you’d want to mend fences and enjoy the Christmas with your loved ones, right? Not Teresa who apparently is maintaining her feud with her sister-in-law Melissa Gorga to the bitter end. An insider told Radar, “Teresa has been extremely vocal about the fact that she will not spend the holidays with Melissa or her brother Joe.”
Her daughter failed to raise the $7,500 needed to pay for a music video but, according to an insider, Teresa blamed her RHONJ co-stars for the teen’s crowdfunding flop. In November the source told Radar, “Teresa believes there are negative forces…that are the reason why Gia’s music video fundraising efforts have been a failure so far.”
To quote the Rolling Stones, “you can’t always get what you want.” For Teresa that’s because a judge denied her request to serve her sentence in a halfway house. Had her wish been granted, she would have been able to work and visit home at the weekends during her 15-month sentence.
After losing her freedom, Teresa was later dumped by her legal crisis manager Wendy Feldman. It was all because the RHONJ star defied the expert’s wishes and asked the judge if she could serve her sentence at Danbury Federal Prison in Connecticut – the real-life inspiration for the hit series Orange Is The New Black. In October Feldman admitted that her client was not following her advice, saying, “Sadly my time with Teresa…has come to an end.”
At the time that she needed money the most Teresa lost a lucrative endorsement deal for Fabulicious Gelato Bars. In October, weeks after she received her prisons sentence, the firm cut ties with her. A source told RadarOnline.com, “Grocery store owners said their customers didn’t want to buy anything associated with Teresa.”
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How much fraud can one woman be accused of? In October it was alleged that Teresa pays a ghost writer to writer her Bravo blogs after each RHONJ episode. The insider cattily remarked, “There is no way she could form such cohesive sentences, or convey her thoughts in such concise terms!”
Following their plea deals came reports that Teresa was considering her husband. The mother-of-four reportedly visited an attorney on the very day that Joe appeared in court for sentencing in his driver’s license fraud case. According to a source, Teresa also hoped that the family lawyer would help her to appeal her prison sentence.
In the midst of their legal woes, Joe admitted on Watch What Happens Live that he may have a “little problem” with alcohol. During the joint interview with Andy Cohen, he admitted, “Now I drink every day…just wine, I don’t drink anything else really.”
Knowing you’re going to spend a total of 56 months away from your husband while you both serve separate prison sentences is enough to put a strain on any marriage, and the Giudices are no different. A source told Radar, “Behind closed doors when there are no cameras around, Teresa’s claws come out. They have been fighting non-stop about Joe taking care of their kids when Teresa goes to prison.”
Insiders claim that privately Teresa believes that Bravo exploited her legal troubles to boost the RHONJ ratings, especially during the October sentence hearing. The insider said, “She loathes Bravo and everything they have done to use her.”
Slap bang in the middle of all their financial and legal troubles Joe’s father Frank Giudice collapsed and died at the couple’s New Jersey home this summer. A rep for the family told People about the June death, “It’s very hard and the girls have gone through a lot and continue to go through it. There’s a lot of emotion going on.”
In September, Teresa put two of the family’s three homes up for sale, including their Jersey Shore beach house. “The decision to sell the house was a very tough one, because it had been Teresa’s dream...” the source said of the cash-strapped couple. “And Joe has just been crying so much recently because he feels the house is a symbol of everything that has put them in the crosshairs of prosecutors.”
Crime didn’t pay for Teresa in 2014 as sales of her book Fabulicious!: On The Grill plummeted. The RHONJ star sold just 80 copies between January and April – a trend that was reflected by the poor sales of her previous books during the same time period. It seems that her legal issues turned off readers.
She may be one of the highest paid stars on reality TV but, according to Kim Granatell, back in April Teresa and her hubby were allegedly “begging people for money.” The RHONJ regular told OK!, magazine, “Desperate people do desperate things.”
Like her parents, Gia Giudice accepted responsibility for her actions in 2014 by admitting she was wrong to use a homophobic slur in a tweet back in February. The teen called one of her friends a “little f*gg*t” but deleted it and apologized, telling Star magazine, “It was a mistake to joke, but that’s not what I meant.”