Teresa Giudice kept daughters in the dark about her prison ‘hell’

Teresa Giudice revealed in her first live television interview since being released from federal prison that her youngest daughters were kept in the dark about her legal troubles.

 

“I told them mommy was going to write a book,” the 43-year-old “Real Housewives of New Jersey” star confessed to “ABC News” anchor Amy Robach in an exclusive interview on “Good Morning America” on Tuesday morning.

Giudice’s four daughters did visit their mother in the Federal Correctional Institute in Danbury, Conn., where the reality star served 11 1/2 months for mail, wire and tax fraud.

But they apparently believed the prison was a “camp” where Giudice lived to write her book. “I had to go through the experience, and that’s what mommy was writing about,” Giudice said.

The girls are being fed a similar fairy tale about their dad Joe Giudice, who is poised to begin serving his own 41-month prison term next month. Giudice explained it as, “When mommy comes home, then daddy is going to go to work.”

But the publicity-starved reality star said the rest of her life is “an open book” to everyone else. That’s clear in her lurid behind bars tell-all, “Turning The Tables: From Housewife to Inmate and Back Again,” that hit shelves on Tuesday, which has already made headlines for hyping steamy lesbian sex between her bunkmates.

“I’m gonna share my whole life,” she told Robach.

She also declared her financial problems are history, and that she’s paid back the more than $400,000 owed in restitution.

“My house is not in foreclosure anymore, thank God,” Giudice added. “Everything is good.”

Robach met with Giudice previously in her New Jersey home for a taped interview, where the star claimed the “Real Housewives” have nothing on real inmates when it comes to drama.

But the Giudice - who’s no stranger to drama - wasn’t fazed.

“I wasn’t scared,” she said. “I could hold my own. But there was fights that went on, believe me. They were trying to start drama with me, but I just walked away.”

She insisted that Danbury was “no country club” even though celebrities such as Martha Stewart and Lauryn Hill have also done time there. The facility is also the basis for the hit Netflix series “Orange is the New Black.”

“It was definitely living in hell,” said Giudice. “There's mold in the bathroom, there is not running water constantly, the showers were freezing cold.”

But the biggest struggle was missing her husband and four children. “Being away from my daughters and Joe, that was the worst part,” she said.

But Giudice still insisted Tuesday that she had no idea she was breaking the law when committing fraud.

“Definitely not. I didn’t know I was committing a crime,” she said. “The government saw differently.”

Now her husband set to begin his own 3 1/2-year prison term soon, and could also face deportation back to Italy once he’s released.

When asked if she would take the kids and follow her hubby to the home country, Giudice would only say, “We’re just taking one day at a time. I’m just happy to be home, and we’re just enjoying every moment. Living in the moment.”