The time has finally arrived! Real Housewives of New Jersey star Teresa Giudice was released from jail early Wednesday (Dec. 23) morning, just in time to spend Christmas with her family. She was reunited with her husband Joe and their daughters.
After nearly serving a year behind bars for bankruptcy fraud, the 43-year-old Paterson, New Jersey native was set free from the Federal Correctional Institution around 5 a.m. in Danbury, Connecticut. Teresa arrived at her Montville, NJ home around 7:30 a.m. and was welcomed with an early Christmas present from Joe: a $90,000 black Lexus SUV.
Besides receiving a surprise luxurious vehicle wrapped in a big red bow, Teresa was greeted by an even better present: her family. Eagerly awaiting her return home was her husband and four daughter, 14-year-old Gia, 10-year-old Gabriella, 9-year-old Milania, and 5-year-old Audriana.
"Joe kind of stood off to the side for a second and let them all greet their mother," a source told People. "Then the whole family kind of embraced each other and had a moment together."
Teresa's attorney, James J. Leonard Jr., told People she plans on spending an intimate and low-key holiday season with her family. While this is a happy moment for the family, their time together will soon be cut short as Joe prepares to head off to prison.
In March 2014, the outspoken housewife and her husband plead guilty to federal fraud charges, admitting to hiding assets from creditors and lying on their loan applications. In October 2014, Teresa was sentenced to 15 months in a minimum security satellite camp for women, which she entered in January. Joe is expected kick off his 41-month prison sentence in March 2016.
A photo posted by People Magazine (@peoplemag) on Dec 23, 2015 at 7:09am PST
A photo posted by People Magazine (@peoplemag) on Dec 23, 2015 at 10:40am PST
News headlines won't be the only way fans can hear about her stint in jail. Teresa is planning on releasing a tell-all novel about her experience behind bars in February, with a book called Turning the Tables: From Housewife to Inmate and Back Again.
The book will also act as a memoir, detailing her childhood, starting a family with Joe, and growing up in an Italian household.
