After years of proudly sporting her cosmetically enhanced set of lips on the small screen, Teresa Giudice is ready to say goodbye to her lip fillers. Or so we thought. 

On Friday, the Real Housewives of New Jersey star revealed to her fans on TikTok that she’s finally ditching her wide lips by dissolving her fillers. 

“Come with me to get my lips dissolved,” Giudice, 52, says in her video update where she’s seen sitting inside a beauty clinic, preparing for a cosmetic procedure that would eliminate the fillers in her lips. 

“So the reason why I’m getting this done is because I see migration on the top of my lip over here,” the Bravo actress explained while pointing at her upper lip. 

According to Teresa, she could no longer recall the last time she had her lips done, but now that she found Chanel from BeYouth Medusa in Caldwell, NJ, she’s more than ready to start fresh. 

“So she’s recommended to me that I need to start fresh — from the beginning. So we’re gonna dissolve them and then we can have two weeks and then come see her again and do [my lips] the Chanel way,” Giudice said. 

Before starting the procedure, the mom of four acknowledged the never-ending discussions online about her mouth, saying, “I know a lot of you make comments about my lips. I like my lips but I’m gonna try a different way.”

The video then showed a speed-up version of the procedure where Teresa’s lips could be seen bleeding after Chanel injected enzymes into the edges. The spa staff member explained that the enzymes would dissolve the hyaluronic acid from Teresa’s past procedure. 

“Instead of a wider look, we’re gonna go for more height, a crispier vermillion border. A more natural look,” Chanel said. 

Once the injections were done, Chanel applied some bruising cream on Teresa’s lips. At the same time, the Real Housewife clarified to the camera that the procedure was completely pain-free and she had no burning thanks to the numbing cream Chanel used on her lips before the injections. 

Teresa also did not leave her fans hanging on the results. She showed off her more natural-looking lips several hours after the appointment and then reiterated that she’ll be returning to the spa in two weeks to get new fillers. 

However, many in the comments chose to look past her underlining that it is her body and her choice as they brandished strong pieces of advice for her to ditch the fillers for good, stressing that she looked better without them. 

“Teresa your lips after look SO good! Natural lips & no makeup make you look even 10 years younger! You’re beautiful,” one commented, while another wrote, “Leave them dissolved!! You look amazing – less can be more!”

Someone else said, “Honestly, you don’t need any more work [done]. You look beautiful the way you are,” while another person opined, “You look so much prettier. Leave them alone, you never needed fillers.”

No matter what opinions you may hold about cosmetic procedures, at the end of the day, whether she needs them or not is for Teresa to decide. Joe Giudice’s ex-wife has always been open about the procedures she’s done to enhance her appearance on her reality show. Aside from her lips, she’s had a breast augmentation and nose surgery. Her sister-in-law Melissa Gorga also claimed that she had her forehead lengthened, but Teresa never confirmed this, according to Page Six. 

While reality stars having brushes with the law certainly isn’t anything new, Real Housewives of New Jersey icon Teresa Giudice and her criminal conviction is easily one of the most severe. While wealthy celebrities can often get a simple slap on the wrist compared to the average Joe, Giudice is a rare example of a public figure who served hard time, when she was granted a lengthy 15-month sentence, staying in prison from 2015 to 2016.

What did Teresa Giudice do to break the law?

Teresa Giudice’s husband at the time was Giuseppe “Joe” Giudice, an entrepreneur and businessman born in Italy and raised in the U.S., with whom she shared four daughters. According to Women’s Health, the couple had a troubled financial history before Teresa began starring on RHONJ in 2009, with several loans to their name, filing bankruptcy the same year. Around this point, the two were said to have greatly exaggerated their t income – a scheme that extended to concealing increased assets, with Joe evading taxes between 2004 and 2008.

In 2013, the couple were charged of “a conspiracy to defraud lenders and illegally obtain mortgages and other loans as well as allegedly hiding assets and income during a bankruptcy case,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice, citing wire, mail, and bank fraud – on top of Joe’s tax evasion.

Joe and Teresa were ultimately sentenced to 41 and 15 months in prison, respectively. The sentencing was partially influenced by the couple’s failure to provide proper probation and asset reports, as well as other financial information, falling $75,000 short of listed items, according to People. The judge presiding over the case also expressed a desire to “send a message” over their failure to prepare, noting their poor filings “offended the court”.

Giudice’s time in prison

Teresa and Joe served non-simultaneous sentences, citing childcare responsibilities. Teresa began her sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, in January 2015, and was released early in December of that year. Joe began his 41-month sentence in March 2016, serving in full.

Reflecting on the experience, Teresa said her time locked up was a turning point in her life. She worked as a cook inside the correctional facility, and began practicing yoga and meditation as part of her daily routine. Giudice sites the structure she developed while inside, something she developed to clear her mind while missing her daughters, allowed her to master her mental health and re-direct the trajectory of her life, as she reflected on in her memoir, Standing Strong. When she was released from prison, Teresa became a certified yoga instructor.

What happened after?

Joe was released from Allenwood Low Federal Correctional Institution in Allenwood, Pennsylvania in March 2019, before being directly transferred to an ICE detention center. In October, Joe agreed to return to his birth country of Italy ahead of his deportation, with the couple announcing their separation in December of that year.

Teresa and her children unsuccessfully petitioned then-President Donald Trump, who the Giudices ed politically during his 2016 election campaign, but the plea – along with a request for a character reference letter during Joe’s trial – was rejected.

Teresa remarried after her divorce from Joe was finalized in 2020, although the pair remained close, with Teresa happily taking her daughters to Italy to visit their father, and later the Bahamas when the businessman moved once more. Her now-husband is another entrepreneur, Luis Ruelas, with the couple tying the knot in 2022.

As of season fourteen, Teresa is still a housewife on RHONJ, and is now the sole original cast member of the long-running reality series. Teresa’s redemption tour has included some pit stops on other reality shows, with a brief stint on season 15 of Dancing with the Stars and the second season of House of Villains.

The New Jersey native has also turned into somewhat of a self-help guru, publishing two books since her prison stint: Turning the Tables: From Housewife to Inmate and Back Again in 2016, and Standing Strong in 2017. She has been a huge proponent of her prison-era yoga and transcendental meditation, with a web series in collaboration with Women’s Health teaching viewers how to de-stress and “calm your s**t”. She has even attempted to recruit some of her RHONJ co-stars to take the stress levels of their environment down a peg and practice some zen with her, as seen on the show.

Donald Trump was the first reality TV star-turned-president of the United States, having hosted and presided over the competition series The Apprentice from 2004 to 2015. It should be no surprise then that he has some strong ties in the industry, with Real Housewives of New Jersey icon Teresa Giudice being the most cited example.

Like many of Giudice’s relationships, however, the history between her and the former president has had its ups and downs, to say the least.

Does Teresa Giudice Donald Trump politically?

During Trump’s first bid for the presidency in 2016, Giudice was one of the few celebrities willing to throw their hat in the ring and the businessman. Giudice had known Trump for some time at this point, having placed fifth on season 5 of The Celebrity Apprentice in 2012.

“I think he’s amazing. I think he’ll make a great president,” Giudice told host Andy Cohen in 2016, on an episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen.

In 2016 and 2019, Teresa, along with her family, appealed to the then-president of the United States to prevent the imprisonment and later deportation of her then-husband, Joe Giudice, back to Italy. Joe Giudice had been living in the U.S. since infancy, but a guilty verdict for fraud saw the businessman serve a 41-month prison sentence, which saw Teresa also serve 15 months as an accomplice to her then-husband.

It was reported by TMZ in 2018 that Teresa allegedly asked Trump to write a character reference letter for Joe back in 2016, but the request was denied. That didn’t stop Teresa and Joe from trying again after Joe’s release from prison in 2019 when he faced deportation.

“We request that our President, Donald J Trump review our petition and pardon my father to relieve him of this life sentence the courts are bestowing on him,” Teresa’s daughter, Gia Giudice, wrote in a statement on behalf of her family on their change.org petition. “yes in Italy he will no longer be incarcerated but will he ever be free if kept from his family and be able to be a productive member of society">Andy recalled, referring to the network WWHL airs on. “I his assistant putting the call through … He was furious at [Teresa]. And he was like, ‘You need to do a retraction!’ It was a whole thing.”

Cohen didn’t specify when Trump made the call, but it was likely after — or the moment — he and Giudice fell out. Giudice has never retracted her political of Trump, but her distancing from the former President and his campaign seemed to occur when he failed to Joe in his legal troubles. While this is still speculation, there is enough of a chronological timeline to suggest there could very well be bad blood between the housewife and the former president.

From flipping a table to arguing with her sister-in-law over a gift of sprinkle cookies (seriously), Teresa Giudice has captured our attention since the pilot episode of The Real Housewives of New Jersey. We can’t help but be fascinated by her lifestyle, which is why we’re curious if she’s exiting the reality show that’s brought her so much fame and fortune (and also a lot of personal problems).

Season 14 of RHONJ is currently airing on Bravo and shocking us at every turn… even though we should be used to the extreme fighting by now. We once wondered if Melissa Gorga was going to exit RHONJ, and now we’ve got the same question about Teresa Giudice.

Will Teresa Giudice leave The Real Housewives of New Jersey?

Real Housewives viewers have truly seen it all with Teresa Giudice. After years of fighting with her sister-in-law, we would totally understand if she wanted to say goodbye to the Bravo franchise. Ever since season 13, fans have been curious about her status as a regular cast member, but there’s good news for RHONJ fans: Teresa is staying on the reality series.

In December 2022, Teresa told People, “I would never step away. I started the show,” adding, “I’m never going to give that to anyone because I’m the one that started the show.” She also alluded to being an OG cast member, saying, “I started this. I’m not walking away until Bravo wants me to walk away.”

Since then, Teresa hasn’t said she is leaving RHONJ and seems determined to continue with the franchise. From her comments, we could guess she would only leave if she was fired. That seems unlikely considering she’s been a Housewife since day one.

Of course, the big news this season is that there won’t be a reunion episode since there is just too much bad blood between Teresa and Melissa Gorga. According to E! News, when she appeared on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen on June 9th, 2024, Teresa said season 14 was illuminating and filled with drama. She said, “Everything I had to say, everyone’s going to see it this season.”

While we don’t love how Teresa Giudice’s personality can sometimes come across like a mean girl, we’ve been through it all with the reality star. We empathized with her while she went through her messy divorce from Joe Giudice, and she’s definitely a caring mom who would do anything for her four daughters. We would totally watch a show just focused on Teresa’s family.

If Teresa ever leaves RHONJ, it’s possible the reality show would continue without her, and Melissa would play an even bigger role. We’d probably still hear about Teresa sometimes since, of course, they’re family, but then again, maybe they would see each other even less if they weren’t filming the popular Bravo series. For now, we’re hoping Teresa sticks around for as long as RHONJ is on the air.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly 15 years since the altruists at Bravo went out-of-pocket to buy New Jersey its own real housewives, replacing the imitation housewives that the state had been forced to make do with since the Great Housewife Famine of 1902. Putting good out brings good in, and the television network has since seen its investment in the community pay dividends through the meteoric rise to stardom that its real housewives have experienced.

And that brings us to television personality, Teresa Giudice, the Dancing with the Stars contestant, and star of the hit VH1 original movie Fuhgeddabout Christmas. A very real housewife from the state of New Jersey, then briefly a real house divorcee from 2020 to 2022 before getting real house remarried, she’s a star with a devoted following, and that following couldn’t be more clear about their needs: They want more Teresa Giudice. Her kids can come, too.

Fans’ Giudice levels are getting treacherously low

Yes, the votes are in, and Giudice-head social media s want to live in a world where Giudice has a spinoff series – one besides Teresa Checks In, the 2015 show chronicling her prison stint following a conviction on 41 counts of fraud. The logic: “Bravo’s done worse.” That’s it, that’s the whole argument. 

And while the logistics of producing a second reality show focused solely on the Giudice family while simultaneously filming the ongoing series The Real Housewives of New Jersey might be questionable, one fact remains empirically true: Tre’s Company is a way better name for a show than Manzo’d with Children. Seriously, Bravo. Put some effort in, you guys used to air operas.