Teresa Giudice’s time behind bars sounds … kinda nice?
The “Real Housewives of New Jersey” star — who served 11 months at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Conn., in 2015 — says she enjoyed the prison’s meals and ambiance.
“I have to say the food was really good,” Giudice revealed on the “Hollywood Raw” podcast Wednesday. “And I actually cooked there also ’cause, you know, I’m a three[-time] New York Times bestselling author for three of my cookbooks out of four.”
The Bravolebrity, 51, recalled cooking “dinner for everyone” at the facility — which she estimated to be around 200 women — including a “chicken stir fry.”
“I’m telling you, the food was so good,” she reiterated. “What was my favorite was when I first got there, they had banana nut muffins. I would have a banana nut muffin every morning. It was so good! And then they ended up running out of them, and I was, like, so mad. ‘Cause they were so good! They were really good.”
Giudice said the prison’s atmosphere resembled a “camp setting,” as it housed many who committed “white-collar crimes.”
In 2014, she and her then-husband, Joe Giudice, pleaded guilty to bank, mail, wire, bankruptcy and tax fraud after striking a deal with federal prosecutors.
Joe, 51, was deported to his native Italy in 2019 after spending 41 months at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fort Dix, N.J., and another seven months in an ICE detention center.
“It wasn’t bad where I was,” Teresa explained. “I tell my daughter it’s like being at college, but the only thing is I just couldn’t leave. I had to stay there. I mean, I was able to go outside and get fresh air. And I have to say the grounds were so beautiful. The scenery was beautiful.”
The mother of four shared that she “used to talk to God” in those moments and ask, “Why did I have to come here?”
“I know I’m not a criminal. I know I did not intentionally commit a crime,” she maintained, claiming she got locked up because she’s “on TV” and “they want[ed] to make an example” out of her.
“It’s so sad,” she went on, admitting that she didn’t think the judge would “put [her] away.”
“I thought she could really see who I really was,” Teresa lamented. “But she kind of stereotyped me. She was talking to me like she knew who I was. She was saying, ‘You were trying to keep up with the Joneses.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my God, no I wasn’t.’ And it was because of everybody — even my brother, my cousin — stuff that they were saying on the show.”
“I wasn’t trying to keep up with the Joneses,” she insisted. “If anything, everybody was trying to keep up with me.”
Teresa also divulged that she made sure to get paid for the first photo taken of her upon her release from prison.
“I was like, ‘If they’re gonna get it anyway, I might as well make money off of it,'” she recalled thinking.
The reality star did not disclose the amount she earned for the shot obtained by People, simply saying that either her lawyer or publicist at the time brokered the deal.
