‘Real Housewives’ Star Teresa Giudice Has Been Released From Prison

According to People magazine, the “Real Housewives of New Jersey” star was released from Danburry Correctional Facility on Wednesday, Dec. 23, after serving nearly a full year behind bars for mail, wire and bankruptcy fraud. Joe also gifted Teresa a brand, new black Lexus SUV, which was waiting in the driveway with a big red bow when she pulled up.

But Giudice, of “Real Housewives of New Jersey” fame, emerged from the pack early Wednesday.

Teresa and Joe were sentenced to jail time in October 2014 after pleading guilty to 41 counts of financial fraud – which included failure to pay taxes, hiding assets and submitting fake loan applications – in March of that year.

As for her husband of 16 years, Joe Giudice stood guard outside the home’s garage in the early morning darkness to greet his wife after almost a year apart from her. She has missed them all so much while she was in prison.

The entertainment site reports Giudice will be going to extremes to avoid being photographed as she’s released.

Her release comes a few months before the scheduled end of her 15-month sentence. She looked very happy and excited to be out, and she had quite the drive back to New Jersey to see her kids.

Giudice had a “very emotional, very powerful” reunion with her husband and four daughters, Leonard said. Teresa and Joe are parents to four young daughters: Gia, 14, Gabriella, 11, Milania, nine, and Audriana, six.

A lawyer for Teresa Giudice said she was freed at about 5 a.m. from the Danbury Federal Correctional Institution in CT. “You can’t be scared about it, you just go in and do it”, he told E! at the time.