Last night Teresa Giudice and her husband Joe spoke out in an interview with Andy Cohen for the first time since they were hit with a federal indictment that includes 39 counts of fraud. The Real Housewives of New Jersey stars addressed what their attorneys would allow since their case doesn’t head to trial until February.
A lot of the show’s fans have been shocked that Teresa has been going about “business as usual”, doing events and vacationing with her family like nothing happened. Teresa defended those actions, “I’m not crawling under a rock and hiding. That’s not me. I’m still gonna be the person who I am and the day I go to court and we resolve this, everyone will see who Joe and I really are and I’m not running away.”
Teresa shared what her oldest daughter Gia, 12, knows about the case. “Gia knows there’s something going on, but she’s good, we’ve talked to her. We’re like ‘mommy and daddy have to go to court and mommy and daddy are gonna fight this’ and she’s good with it. She doesn’t know exactly what the charges are. She she knows it’s about business dealings and she knows our attorneys are handling it and that’s it.”
When asked if Gia realizes her parents face serious prison time (up to 50 years each), she shares, “I think she knows that sometimes things are exaggerated, especially in the magazines. So, we really haven’t gotten into that. Gia’s a smart girl, if she wants to ask me that specific question, I’m sure she would ask me. If she would feel more comfortable we’d let her speak to our attorneys if that would make her feel better and maybe that would.”
The reality star said she hasn’t been thinking about who will care for her four daughters if she and Joe go to prison. “I’m not really thinking about that right now. I’m just focusing on my family, being a wife, a mom to my four beautiful daughters.”
When Andy Cohen asked her if she’d consider letting her brother, Joe Gorga, and his wife Melissa care for the kids, Teresa didn’t have a direct answer, but her husband Joe did. “like I said, I’m not focusing on that right now. I’m focusing on staying positive, being a mom, being like every other mom out there.” Joe chimed in “If, God forbid, something should ever happen where we’d have to worry about where the kids would go, It wouldn’t be Melissa and Joe. It would be my sister, my brother. Which I don’t even think my kids would want to go with Melissa and Joe with all the things they say on television about their mom.”
Teresa explained why she has seemed so unemotional about the very serious charges. She said she does it for her girls. “I can’t fall apart. I have my daughters. They mean the world to me. You go through things in life and I don’t know why. They say everything in life is a learning lesson, so maybe something my daughters can learn from this is ‘my mom was really strong through all this, she was there for us.’ I hope they always have that with them.”
The couple also shared that they feel the show is to blame for some of the situation they’re in right now (even though the charges date back years before they joined). You can read the full interview on Reality Tea.
Do you think Joe and Teresa will do serious time?
Photo by Wenn.com
