Teresa and Joe Giudice Think Going to Jail Is 'A Learning Lesson'

The final part of Andy Cohen’s interview with Teresa and Joe Giudice aired on Watch What Happens Live Thursday. The couple put on a united front, though whether the reality of their situation has yet to set in remains to be seen.

Though this second part of the interview focused more on Joe’s issues, whether this affair had strained his relationship with Teresa was very much discussed. “I don’t think he meant to hurt me in any way,” Teresa said. “I think it’s a learning lesson for both of us, right honey?”

When asked by Cohen whether he felt bad about making his wife go to prison (the presumption that she was not complicit in their fraud is staggering), Joe said, “I do I do. But at the same time, what am I going to do? I did everything I could to get her out of it but it didn’t work.”

Cohen pressed on, asking how Joe felt about it. “Obviously not good. Definitely not good,” Joe said, having to go beyond his usual monosyllabic answers.

Eventually, he did apologize to Teresa. “I want to apologize that I got you into this mess,” he said. “I don’t even know what else to say. If I could take it all back, I would but I just can’t and I’m sorry you have to go through all this. I tried everything I could to convince the judge not [to convict you] but I have no control over that.”

That seemed to be enough for Teresa; she said “I love you” and repeated yet again that Joe just had to support their four daughters.

The pair also discussed Joe’s apparent drinking problem, which their lawyer brought up during the trial as a clear way to try and get Joe to be sent to rehab and not prison. “I might have a little problem,” he said. “Before you started this Real Housewives stuff, I think I used to only drink on the weekends. Now I drink everyday.”

Teresa defended Joe’s drinking, explaining that while it’s worse than it was, it’s partially because his father died and because “it helps him sleep.”

“One bottle is like sucking a bottle of milk,” Joe said of his two to four bottles a night habit (shared with other people, sometimes). “It’s either that or I have to take a pill and I don’t want to have to take a pill.”

Joe also said of the possibility that he might be deported that he’s “going to worry about that when the time comes” and that the family living in Italy might not be “such a bad thing.”

The couple also discussed their businesses, which they say have been greatly affected by the trial and made it seem like they are really really broke. While last episode Teresa basically blamed her lawyers for not explaining to her what a plea deal is, this episode she tried to foist the blame of not listing all their assets on an accountant. “I wasn’t aware that we needed to put all that information down,” she said. “I wish our accountant had come to our house and then filled out the paperwork.”

The most telling moment of the interview was one they didn’t air on TV, when Teresa attempted to explain why she had previously said she didn’t understand why this was happening to her.

When I say it like that I mean like, I was saying that like, I understand now fully in black and white I understand, but when I was saying that, meaning like, I never really, I meant like, I never hurt anyone. I never tried to hurt anyone, I never was malicious to anyone, like, behind their back. that’s what I meant when I was saying that. But I understand why it is happening, in black and white, because of what I was signing. So sometimes Andy I don’t know how to, I’m misunderstood by the way I say things.

She did say, “I want to apologize to the people out there I let down and I want to say I’m deeply sorry for what I’ve done.” When Andy asked the couple how they were so strong, they credited it to just going “day by day.”

Joe will be back in court on October 15 over charges that he tried to get a fake driver’s license with his brother’s ID. He is facing 12 more years in prison.