In real time, we know that Joe Giudice was deported and there’s no telling when Teresa will see her husband again.
Seeing it all play out on The Real Housewives of New Jersey, fans get to watch as it first sinks in to Teresa that her family will never be the same.
She can’t even bring herself to share the news with two of her daughters.
Teresa sits down with her family attorney and with her brother, Joe Gorga, to figure out what to do.
It turns into a kind of intervention, as Teresa realizes that if she doesn’t give up on Joe, she may lose everything.
Disaster!
Teresa learns that Joe has lost his appeal against his deportation, and she finds herself in a crisis and faced with difficult choices.
Teresa was in panic mode
She wanted to sit down with Jim Leonard, her family attorney, and Joe Gorga, her brother to assess her situation (on camera) and have an extremely difficult conversation.
Joe’s deportation still doesn’t feel real to her
“I feel like I’m just so numb,” Teresa confessed. “I feel like I can’t even believe this is happening.”
Teresa has mostly kept the news to herself
Teresa of course told Gia that Joe’s appeal was denied, making Gia “so upset.” She also told Gabriella, so “Gia’s not the only one who has to deal with this.”
But the other two didn’t know yet
Audriana, the youngest, had already cried as she tried to remember specific instances with their dad during family vacations that happened when she was younger. And Milania was the most sensitive of the daughters, so Teresa was holding off on informing her.
That could be a recipe for disaster
Joe Gorga warned Teresa: “You better tell her. Don’t let her hear it from somebody else.”
Then things get even more serious
Jim lays it out for Teresa: “”I don’t want speak too loud, but he’s in trouble. His immigration lawyers made the arguments to the lower courts, and the courts have denied it very aggressively. I mean, they blew up every single argument.”
So what can they do?
“So the next step is the other appeal, the third circuit,” Jim details, “and saying, ‘Please, the lower courts have made mistakes.'”
It may not be the best move
“It could take months,” Jim cautioned. “We have to start the whole process all over again. But the problem is, this is his last chance, and you’re not bringing forward new information.”
It’s a case of awful luck and even worse timing
“So I think the odds are against Joe at this stage,” Jim assessed. “Immigration is the hottest topic on the planet, and I think Joe is caught in the crossfire of that.”
So what are the odds?
Teresa asks for a percentage chance of her husband coming home. Jim tells her that it’s “not good,” but her brother presses for numbers, suggesting “50. 30. 10 percent?”
No such luck
Jim admits: “Given what we learned this morning, significantly less.” When one of the options was 10%, that’s not great news.
Teresa wallows in despair
“I feel helpless,” she admitted. “I want him to come home. We have four daughters together. I didn’t sign up to do this alone.”
Joe is completely broken
“Joe was calling me,” Teresa shared, “and he’s like, ‘I’m sorry I let you guys down. I’m sorry.'”
Teresa gets a financial wakeup call
“Let me ask a serious question here,” Joe Gorga asks his sister. “Why continue to fight? You’re burying yourself financially.” Teresa said their daughters wanted him to fight. “Yeah, but when there’s no money,” Joe warned, “it’s that much harder. You know that, right?”
She has so much left to lose
“So for your future, your daughters, your everything — to keep going?” Joe asks his sister. “You have to think now as a business person that he’s not coming home. Sometimes, you have to understand, ‘It’s not going anywhere. I might have to move on.'”
Teresa wasn’t ready to hear it
“I understand what my brother’s saying,” she says to Bravo’s cameras, “but I’ve been through financial strain before. I had to pay back taxes, I had to pay off all our debts, so how can I put a price tag on my daughters having their daddy home?”
That’s rough
That said, your children must always come first, because they are your responsibility. If it’s a choice between having their dad home and putting their educational and financial futures at risk, or worse, that’s a no-brainer. Therapy can help people cope with an absent dad, but not a lack of a college education.
You can really feel the pain
In comparison to all of this, getting chewed out by Danielle Staub for leaking that she boffed Marty is a veritable cakewalk.