In 2015, Teresa Giudice went to prison with her husband. 7 years later, she married her "soulmate".

Teresa Giudice is synonymous with The Real Housewives franchise. 

She first came onto our screens in 2009 as part of The Real Housewives of New Jersey (RHONJ) – the franchise's fourth instalment, and arguably, one of their most successful. 

When the cameras first panned on Teresa, she was living in a beautiful mansion. And over the years we got to know her then-husband Joe Giudice and see their four daughters grow up.

But at the same time that Teresa's fame was increasing, so too was scrutiny surrounding her and Joe's finances. Because in October 2009 – the very year she started on Housewives – she and Joe filed for bankruptcy, citing an $11 million debt. 

By 2014, they had entered a guilty plea to 41 counts of fraud after being charged with mail, wire and bankruptcy fraud for undervaluing their assets, exaggerating their income on applications and failing to report their actual earnings.

It resulted in some hefty fines, along with Teresa getting sentenced to 15 months in prison and her husband Joe getting 41 months behind bars.

It was a major downfall for the reality TV star who had built up a high level of celebrity for herself. And the prison stint had every chance of completely derailing her career and role on RHONJ. 

But somehow, it didn't.

Teresa in the early days of RHONJ. Image: Bravo. Instead, Teresa came back stronger than ever.

In January 2015, Teresa surrendered herself to prison, with Joe being allowed to complete his prison sentence once Teresa's had finished – for the sake of their kids. Teresa said leaving for jail and saying goodbye to her daughters – Gia, Gabriella, Milania and Audriana who at the time were all under the age of 15 – was difficult.

"It was the hardest thing I ever had to do in my whole entire life," she wrote in her memoir Turning the Tables.

Even though she was a reality TV star, Teresa's prison stint wasn't cushy.

She said inmates used maxi-pads for everything from facemasks to makeup removers, slippers and cleaning rags. Regular exercise helped Teresa cope, and occupied her, along with her role in the prison kitchen. There were sometimes maggots in the food provided, plus the showers were freezing cold. And the inmates would fight over the television.

Teresa said that prison changed her. 

"It was nothing like being on RHONJ. Let me tell you... when you go to prison there's a lot of drama," she said.

At one point, Teresa said some of the other inmates would try to goad her into fighting with them – but she was determined to keep her head down and walk away from the tension.

"Maybe I needed that time for myself to reflect and to grow and just to be a better mother, better wife, better daughter, better human being through all this."

Days before Christmas in 2015, Teresa was released from prison after serving 11 months of her 15-month sentence. The moment she came home to her family was captured on RHONJ.

Watch Teresa returning from prison. Post continues below.

In March 2016 (three months after Teresa's release) it was Joe's turn to surrender himself for his 41-month sentence. Within the first week, he managed to get five months knocked off that sentence.

While in prison, Joe kept himself busy by also exercising regularly. In March 2019 he was released.

Since Joe is not an American citizen, he was deported to Italy. He now lives in the Bahamas. 

By October 2019, it was confirmed that Teresa and Joe had split after 20 years of marriage. Throughout their relationship, rumours had been rife of alleged infidelity from both parties.

Listen to The Spill. In this episode, the women interview Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards. Post continues after audio.

Teresa said on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen that hindsight made her realise she hadn't felt respected by Joe during their marriage.

"If Joe says something disrespectful to me, I'm no longer going to tolerate it. He says the craziest things to me like 'who would want you, you have a lot of baggage'. Do I feel like he was faithful? No. I've been faithful to him. We're both two different people now. We're both happy for each other, because you know what? We have four common denominators: our daughters."

After prison, Teresa continued to star on RHONJ. She has become one of the whole franchise's highest-paid cast members and she's a best-selling author.

There was pressure for Real Housewives' executive producer Andy Cohen to fire Teresa from the show given the crime she committed. 

"There were people who said, 'You have to fire her'," Cohen said to Vulture. 

"And it's like, 'Look, she's going to jail. We've invested all this time'. This was something that her friends were accusing her of for years, and she was running from it. I'd rather see her grow as a human being than kill her off. And she did her time."

Teresa and Joe speaking to Andy Cohen. Image: Bravo. As for what Teresa's life looks like today, she continues to be a staple on RHONJ and this week she married her second husband.

In late 2020, she met and started dating her now-husband Luis Ruelas, a 48-year-old entrepreneur from New Jersey who has two sons from his previous marriage. A year later, they were engaged and living together with their respective kids.

While RHONJ fans were no doubt excited to see the pictures from her wedding, the conversation quickly turned to a feature that Teresa is infamous for: Her hair. 

"As we know, my girl Teresa is the queen of Jersey, so we needed hair that was fit for a queen," her hair stylist said in an interview with Andy Cohen on SiriusXM's Radio Andy. "You go big or you go home. Teresa said, 'My hair has to be over the top'."

It was made up of "over $7,000 worth of custom luxury hair extensions" that were each pinned into her hair with more than 1,500 bobby pins and a long process that required her stylist to stand up on a chair. The rate for the styling itself was around $2,500, for a grand total of close to US$10,000.

Teresa said she had always dreamed of a big Jersey wedding.

"You have no idea how you've changed my life," the 50-year-old wrote on Instagram about Ruelas. 

"You have shown my girls what true love is, you nurture my soul, make me feel beautiful and adored. I'm so thankful to the universe for bringing us together."

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"He listens to me. He is pretty perfect. I've never been shown so much love before in my life. Never an unkind word – Luis is my dream come true," she said on RHONJ.

To celebrate their marriage, she wrote on Instagram: "I love you more than I could ever express. I'm so blessed that you, your boys, and your amazing family have come into my life and love me and my girls unconditionally. Thank you to all of our loved ones who came to celebrate with us — our love bubble is only bigger and stronger with all of your support."

Feature Image: Bravo/Instagram @teresagiudice/ @jenniferaydin.