Not holding back! Real Housewives of New Jersey’s Dolores Catania is so impressed with Joe Giudice’s post-prison weight loss, that she joked about paying a visit to the same center he was held at.
“I think I want to go to the same camp he did. He looks so great! He looks like Mike ‘The Situation.’ They look alike,” Catania, 48, told Us Weekly exclusively at The Skin Cancer Foundation’s Champions for Change Gala in New York City on Thursday, October 17. “He just spent almost four years in jail. You don’t come out looking the same, that’s for sure.”
Catania noted that Giudice, 47, has “been doing karate for many years and he’s a big fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme.”
Giudice completed a 41-month prison sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fort Dix, New Jersey. He slimmed down while serving time for fraud, with fitness expert Ray Abdwell telling Us that Joe potentially dropped nearly 70 lbs.
After exiting prison, Giudice — an Italy native — was immediately placed into ICE custody in March at the Clinton County Correctional Facility in McElhattan, Pennsylvania. (Teresa Giudice, his wife, also went to prison for 11 and a half months for fraud, which she completed in December 2015.)
Joe had attempted to repeal the judge’s order for his deportation before being released from the detention center on October 11. Upon becoming a free man, he went back to his home country of Italy.
“He spoke to Teresa and Gia from the plane and he is extremely happy to be released, more than words can describe,” James Leonard, the family’s attorney, told Us in a statement. “We are still fighting and it is his desire to return home to the United States to be reunited with his family.”
Speaking to Us on Thursday, Catania speculated about what’s next for Joe. She quipped that he’d probably become “mayor of the town in Italy that he’s from,” noting that she’s “sure he’ll find his footing.” Though she admitted to being in contact with Teresa recently, she said it’s “no secret” that the couple plan to divorce.
“She said this in front of 2.5 million people, that she would not follow him there,” she explained. “The jury for me is still out on whether or not that spark is still there when they see each other. However, they haven’t yet. So, I can’t speak on that.”
Teresa and Joe tied the knot in 1999. They are the parents of daughters Gia, 18, Gabriella, 15, Milania, 14, and Audriana, 10.
With reporting by Diana Cooper
