Real Housewives of New Jersey star Teresa Giudice turned herself into prison on Monday morning. One day later, her attorney, James J. Leonard Jr., has revealed last words.
“I’ll be fine,” Leonard told PEOPLE Magazine on January 6. “She said, ‘Tell Joe and the girls I’m good.’”
In the wee hours of the morning on January 6, Leonard picked up the Real Housewives of New Jersey star and headed to the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Conn.
“She was upstairs when I got to the house,” he recalled. “I’m assuming she was with her children. I tend not to ask people about things that are outside of my area.”
Joe Giudice “was somber,” Leonard said. “The enormity of this entire situation hit him.”
Once she said goodbye to her husband and daughters, Gia, 13, Gabriela, 10, Milania, 8, and Audriana, 5, Giudice got in Leonard’s SUV and the pair had a casual chat.
“If I have to drive with someone for one-and-a-half to two hours who is on their way to prison, I’m not trying to get them emotional. I try to keep it light with jokes and talk about things that are light. So it was light from the time I saw her until the time I left her. She was great. She was very strong. She said, ‘I know I am going to get through this.’ She was very, very upbeat. She was like, ‘Hey. Let’s go. Let’s get this done.’”
Although the Real Housewives of New Jersey star wasn’t due to turn herself in until 10 a.m., she opted for an early entrance, which would help her avoid the media circus that was certainly awaiting her.
“The reason she wanted to go early was because she didn’t want to have her children wake up on Monday morning and see a big [media] circus outside of the house,” he said.
When Giudice arrived to Danbury, she spent between 10 and 15 minutes in the pre-processing area.
“They talked about starting her commissary account. They told her she would be able to make her first phone call within 24 hours once they had her account set up. They said they were going to make it possible for her to meet with her immediate family this weekend. So she was very happy with that. There weren’t going to be any delays with that stuff,” said Leonard. “Everybody was extremely respectful and courteous. It was very easy to ease her way into this because everything was positive. There was a lot of positive energy there.”
When they parted ways, Leonard told Giudice,”You’re going to be fine.”
“She said, ‘Yeah. I’ll be fine.’ She was very stoic and very strong. I left them there. They didn’t handcuff her. She was just standing there.”
“The last thing she said to me was, ‘I’ll be fine. Tell Joe and the girls I’m good,’” Leonard continued.
Although Giudice just got to the facility, she’s already planning for her first visit with her kids, which Leonard claimed will happen this weekend.
“They will 100 percent come see her,” he said. “I think she wants to see them whenever she can. Her kids aren’t just the No. 1 [priority] in her life. They are the only one. The entire time I have been involved with her, the only thing she has talked about in connection with this prison sentence is how it is going to affect them – not her.”
As the Inquisitr reported earlier this month, Giudice was sentenced to a 15-month prison term, but is only required to serve 85 percent of her time .
“We project she will be home sometime before Christmas,” Leonard said of the Real Housewives of New Jersey star, according to a Reality Tea report .
[Photo via Twitter ]