Teresa Giudicemade a shocking revelation on Wednesday’s episode of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, when she said that her husbandJoe Giudicehad blamed her for the fact that he never became an American citizen.
The episode was shot months beforenews broke that Teresa, 47, and Joe, 49, are separating. They share daughters Gia, 18, Gabriella, 15, Milania, 13, and Audriana, 10.
“He blamed me yesterday,” Teresa said on the episode of Joe, who was born Italy and lived there for a year before his parents relocated to the United States. “He said, ‘Why didn’t you make me an American citizen?’ ”
RHONJcameras then flashed back to a phone conversation Joe had with Teresa days earlier.
“Listen, all you had to do was pick up a phone and call a lawyer,” Joe complained to her.
“Right, so then why didn’t you do it?” Teresa asked. “Why is it on me now?”
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He had been transferred there in March after completing his 41-month jail sentence for mail, wire, and bankruptcy fraud — a decision he made so that he could fight out the U.S. government’s deportation ruling.
Last October,a ruling was made that Joe would have to leave the countrybecause he never obtained American citizenship.
The conditions at the ICE facility, Joe had said on previouslyRHONJ, were far worse than those inside the low-security prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, where he had spent much of his time behind bars.
“He called me five times right now and every single one of his hopes are getting denied and he can’t live with it,” Gia also said.
Later, when Joe called the family for Easter, he elaborated more on his struggles. “I’m hanging in there,” he said. “You got no choice with this bulls—t. Every once in a while I have a little mental breakdown.”
“I’m doing everything I could, man,” he said. “Enough is enough of this s—, man.”
Teresa Giudice, Joe Giudice and their daughters.Joe Giudice/ Instagram
But the conditions of Joe’s ICE stay — and mainly, the fact that visitors were not allowed physical contact with Joe, meaning that his daughters would all have to talk to their father from behind a panel of glass — also meant Teresa wasn’t interested in taking her youngest daughter, Audriana, to see him.
“She wants to see him, but I don’t want her to see him like that,” Teresa said of Audriana. “She’s too young. Behind the glass? …. I don’t want her to see him that way.”
At the time, Teresa also wasn’t telling Audriana the latest development in his ongoing deportation case: that he had lost his second appeal, and that the odds of him winning his third and final appeal were slim.
Audriana had her suspicions something was up, asking her mother if her father was getting deported and making her promise to relay the information if he has.
The Giudice family.Gia Giudice/Instagram
She may have been trying to hide the pain from Audriana, but Teresa admitted that she was struggling with the decision a lot — especially because of the impending holiday.
“I’m just so sad, just thinking about it,” Teresa said. “If we didn’t have this immigration problem, like, Daddy would have been home for this Easter.”
“What’s so painful of me, the past five years, our family has been ripped apart,” Teresa told viewers. “We haven’t been together on holidays. Joe has missed the girls growing up, and that’s something that we can’t get back.”
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Since filming that scene, Joe has been released from that ICE facility and moved to Italy, where he is currently waiting out the final appeal in his deportation order.
On Tuesday, a source close to the Giudices confirmed to PEOPLE that Joe and Teresa had separated, explaining that they “agreed that each had to move on.” (Teresa’s lawyer politely declined to comment.)
Still, the source said there are “no plans for divorce” at this time, adding that “both of them are focused” on their four daughters.
The last time the now-estranged couple were together was in early November, whenTeresa took the girls to Italy to visit Joe. Bravo cameras filmed the sweet family reunion for an upcoming special.
“It was really great to reunite with Joe and see how happy the girls were to see their dad,” Teresatold PEOPLE after the trip. “It was all about the girls, and we just had the best time with them.”The Real Housewives of New Jerseyairs Wednesdays (9 p.m. ET) on Bravo.
source: people.com
