Teresa Giudice couldn’t have been more prepared to enter prison on Monday, Jan. 5. The Real Housewives of New Jersey star spent Sunday, Jan. 4, attending church with her family and throwing her eldest daughter Gia an early 14th birthday party, a source tells Us Weekly.
“They had a birthday party for Gia,” a source tells Us of the family’s last free day with their mother, who will miss the 3KT singer’s actual birthday on January 8. “They had a cake and a celebration.”
Before wishing the aspiring singer a happy birthday, Teresa, along with her husband Joe and their daughters Gia, Gabriella, 10, Milania, 8, and Audriana, 4, attended mass at Sacred Heart in Newark, New Jersey, the same church where she wed Joe 16 years ago. “She wanted to go there yesterday and be there with the girls,” her lawyer, James J. Leonard Jr. told Us.
Later that night, Teresa said her goodbyes and prepared to report to prison. According to Leonard Jr., who accompanied her to the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury on Monday, when she checked in early at 3 a.m. to avoid media attention, the Bravo star had it all planned out.
“Our plan was that we were going to leave her house at midnight to start our journey to Danbury. I got to her house at 10:30 p.m. and it was somber,” Leonard Jr. tells Us. “The kids had already been put to bed. She was cleaning up the kitchen two minutes before we left for Connecticut. She was still running around, making sure the house was normal. It was all about her children and her family. That’s been her singular focus,” he said. “The main reason we left at the time we did, is she didn’t want her kids waking up for school and have a million people in front of their home waiting for Teresa to come out.”
After getting a bite to eat at a diner near the prison before checking in and phoning her brother Joe Gorga, the mom of four was prepared to enter the facility, Leonard Jr. said. “Whatever emotions she needed to get out, she did it prior,” he told Us of Teresa’s state upon check in. “She had her game face on. She was ready to go.”
