Teresa Giudice Talks Prison Life, Reuniting With Family & Supporting Donald Trump

Teresa
Giudice is ready for a new chapter.

The
“Real Housewives of New Jersey” star was released from Connecticut’s
Danbury Federal Correctional Institution in December after serving nearly a
year on charges of bankruptcy fraud. As she sat down to promote her new memoir,
“Turning the Tables: From Housewife to Inmate and Back Again” on
Access Hollywood Live, she told Billy Bush and Kit Hoover that her time behind
bars provided a difficult but important learning experience.

It was
humiliating. It was something that I’ve never experienced in my entire life and
I did what I had to do
,” Teresa said. “I’m out now, I’m happy and I’m
just looking forward to the future.

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The reality
star recalled the night she arrived at the facility, and said it was hard to
process what was happening to her.

“I
think I was just numb. I was really numb,” she said, adding that loved
ones, including her husband, Joe Guidice, offered their support until the last
moments. 

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“I was
texting with Joe the whole way there. And you know, all my friends, they were
texting me too,” she said. “I was just trying not to think. … I was
just embracing [it], I was like, ‘Whatever happens, happens. I’m just going to
go with it.'”

Teresa said
making the initial transition from civilian to prisoner may have gotten a bit
more personal than she’d imagined.

“I
didn’t know what to expect,” she said of the check-in process.

When
you go in, they strip search you. You have to
bend down and cough just in case you have anything up there, which I mean, I
would never,
” she added. 

WATCH: Teresa Giudice: Prison Was ‘Hell’

Although
Teresa said her fellow inmates were “really nice,” she did feel as
though her fame made her stand out from day one.

It was
like I was like an animal in a cage. Everyone was coming to check me out
,”
she told Billy and Kit.

Everyone
was saying, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s here, Teresa’s here, Teresa’s here.’ I kept
hearing that
,” she said.

Some of the
other prisoners even tried to capitalize on her celebrity, Teresa said.

There
were girls that brought in cell phones trying to take my picture. They were selling stories,
” she said.
They were making money.

Despite the additional attention, Teresa said she did find a
group of women who helped her feel safe.

“The
girls in my room were really protective of me, and they’re like, ‘Leave the
girl alone,'” she said.

As for her
living conditions, Teresa clarified that her surroundings were “not a
country club at all,” but she was able to practice yoga, eat a relatively
balanced diet and experience a sense of openness not typically associated with
prison life. 

“There
were no bars, I was never in a cell,” she explained. “It was camp and
I wasn’t behind a fence.”

There was
also the opportunity to enjoy a few minutes alone with Joe during his visits,
Teresa said.

While she
and her husband of 16 years were able to “make out” on occasion,
Teresa said her fellow inmates had dedicated a space dubbed “the ‘boom
boom’ room” for their own physical relations.

That’s
what I called my room when I first got there,
” she said. “Because
there was a lot of ‘boom boom’ going on. … Not that I heard it, because there
was a big fan in our room, so they’d turn the fan on so I couldn’t hear
it.

Adding,
I just pretty much put my head underneath the covers and went to bed and
turned my face toward the wall so I wouldn’t have to see anything. … I just knew what was going on.

When asked
if she ever felt pressure to get intimate with another prisoner, Teresa said it
was clear to everyone that she was off the market.

No,
no, no,
” she told Billy and Kit. “I think everybody knew that, you
know, that I’m with Joe.

MORE: Teresa Giudice Supports Sister-In-Law Weeks After Prison Release

Being
separated from Joe and their kids was the hardest part of about her sentence, Teresa added.

The
worst thing was being away from my four daughters,
” she said, explaining
that she’d missed Gia’s eighth-grade dance and Adrianna’s kindergarten
graduation.

While the absence
of her family weighed heavily on her throughout her sentence, Teresa said she
came away from prison with meaningful new relationships.

I did
make friends there. I met some wonderful women,
” Teresa said.

I
think about them all the time,
” she added. “I hope that [they’ll]
come home soon and be with their families, just like I’m with mine.

Teresa may
have been out of the public eye for the past year, but she seems to have kept
up with current events.

The
43-year-old told Billy and Kit she’s an enthusiastic supporter of Donald
Trump’s presidential campaign.

He’s
just like, real. Like how Joe and I are. Like, what you see is what you
get,
” she said of the mogul, whom she got to know while appearing on
“The Celebrity Apprentice.”

I just
think there’s a lot to be said about that,
” she added. “I think he’ll
make a great president.

— Erin Biglow

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