Teresa Giudice abruptly shut down a TV interview with Chicago’s WGN Morning News on Friday, June 20, after being asked about her past tax problems.
“Let’s just hang up,” Giudice, 53, announced, before cutting off the discussion.
The Real Housewives of New Jersey OG was seemingly unprepared to talk about her and ex-husband Joe Giudice pleading guilty to 41 counts of fraud in 2014. (Teresa served 11 months behind bars, while Joe was deported to his native Italy in 2019 after serving a 41-month prison sentence.)
In March, Us Weekly obtained court documents indicating that Teresa and her second husband, Luis “Louie” Ruelas, are facing approximately $3 million in tax liens. The government issues tax liens against a person’s property when there’s a failure to pay a tax debt, according to the IRS.
WGN’s Larry Potash brought up the Giudices’ legal troubles by asking why a “family doesn’t pay their taxes for years,” seemingly in reference to the infraction that kickstarted the 2014 federal case against the Giudices.
“What family are you talking about?” a seemingly confused Teresa asked.
When Potash, 49, clarified that he was asking about the Giudices’ “fraud charges,” Teresa instantly stopped the interview.
“Okay, I’m hanging up,” she announced. “Let’s just hang up. That’s it.”
After Teresa closed her laptop screen, Potash joked that his guest clearly “didn’t like that question.” The WGN host argued that controversy is “what reality shows are made of,” before pointing out that Teresa’s ex-husband Joe “can’t move back” to the U.S. after his tax case.
Teresa was appearing on WGN Morning News to promote an upcoming live show at Zanies Comedy Night Club on June 29 in Rosemont, Illinois.
The interview got off to a frosty start when WGN aired a highlight reel of Teresa’s most volatile RHONJ moments, including numerous clashes with her sister-in-law, Melissa Gorga. After mentioning that the Bravo star had “been through divorce [and] prison time,” Potash’s cohost Robin Baumgarten quizzed Teresa on whether she regretted any of her TV outbursts.
“Obviously! I’ve been on TV 18 years,” Teresa replied.
Teresa was only marginally more forthcoming when asked if she would be returning for Bravo’s reimagining of RHONJ following a lengthy production pause.
“I hope, I’m the OG, yes,” she insisted. “We’ll see what happens! You have to ask Bravo for that.”
It wasn’t much longer before Teresa stopped the interview entirely. Teresa has remained tight-lipped over her and husband Louie’s tax troubles thus far, though her daughter, Gia Giudice, recently assured fans that “everything is under control” on her “Casual Chaos” podcast.
“We have had a lot of positive moments this week and some negative moments. I’m sure you all have seen the news,” Gia, 24, told listeners in March. “My mom has been the sole provider for my sisters and I since the minute my father [Joe] left for prison. She has been working her ass off to make sure that my sisters and I live a stable life and that my family is financially stable. Like, I can’t stress enough how much my mom has worked. Everything will be resolved.”
She went on, “My mom has everything under control, and there’s nothing to worry about. My stepdad, Luis, is the most amazing stepfather. He treats my sisters and I like we are his own. He is also working on getting everything resolved as well. But there’s nothing to worry about. Everything’s going to be fine. But thank you for your concern.”
Lawyer Margery Greenberg Esq – who is not connected to the case – exclusively told Us in March that Teresa’s latest legal issues are significantly different to her and ex-husband Joe’s fraud case because “it doesn’t look like Teresa and Louie have charges against them.” However, Greenberg noted that the couple “seem to have a substantial tax debt” and, thus, the “government is looking to go after [Luis] to collect their money.”
“[The liens are] on the level of having your current income and your current assets being seized and how that impacts the children,” the lawyer explained to Us. “If to the extent that the youngest is still living in the home, the risk of having that home enter into foreclosure or being seized by the government is, you know, impacting currently, the day-to-day lifestyle that that child has.”
Teresa’s RHONJ nemesis, Margaret Josephs, told Us in April that she found her rival’s apparent legal troubles to be “very sad” and insisted she would “never wish ill on anybody.”
“I don’t want anything bad for Teresa ever,” she insisted. “I never want anything bad to happen to her, and that’s why I always spoke up.”
