Finally, the moment we’ve seen only seen in glimpses through Instagram posts is being shown on the small screen: the grand reunion between Teresa and Joe Giudice. The exes hadn’t seen one another in-person in over three years before reuniting in Italy in November, but fans couldn’t see the tense talk that happened behind the happy reunion on social media — until now, when the new trailer for The Real Housewives of New Jersey uploaded on Dec. 23. “Are you excited?” one of Teresa’s daughters asks, as the teen and her mom pack for the trip abroad in the trailer. “I’m nervous,” Teresa confesses.
Acknowledging the limbo land Teresa is stuck in — will she split from Joe, or not? — someone off-screen can be heard telling her, “You need to come out of this trip knowing what you want.” Teresa’s daughters Gia, 18, Gabriella, 15, Milania, 13, and Audriana, 10, are later shown rushing up to their dad, Joe, after taking multiple flights and a road trip to reunite with their dad. That cued a montage of the Giudice family enjoying activities as a reunited family, like sightseeing and having an emotional dinner.
However, Teresa and Joe could no longer brush aside the talk that needed to happen: what are they going to do about their 20-year marriage? “When you’re married they’re supposed to protect you and then everything just came crashing down,” Teresa told Joe, after both pleaded guilty to multiple fraud charges in 2014 which led them to serve separate prison sentences. Joe was removed from his family for the longest period of time, since he was put behind bars between March 2016-March 2019, and then sat in custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) until Oct. 2019. The family man wasn’t too happy to hear Teresa’s true thoughts — you can hear his reply in the clip below.
As fans know, Teresa and Joe did ultimately appear to go their separate ways. “It’s time to let go,” Joe wrote under a side-by-side photo of him and Teresa on Dec. 17. The news wasn’t blindsiding to the parents’ close circles, we’ve heard. “This decision isn’t shocking to those around either of them,” a source close to the Giudice family EXCLUSIVELY told HollywoodLife. “Teresa and Joe have been living separate lives. This decision is not something that came overnight and they’ve both known this split was happening for a while.”