Teresa Giudice Reveals She and Husband Luis Ruelas Did Not Sign a Prenup Before Marrying

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo: Cindy Ord/Bravo via Getty

Teresa Giudicestayed true to her heart when marryingLuis “Louie” Ruelas.

On Tuesday’s episode ofWatch What Happens Live withAndy Cohen— which was taped on Sunday evening during the closing hours ofBravoCon 2022—The Real Housewives of New Jerseystar confirmed that she stuck to her instincts and did not sign a prenuptial agreement beforewalking down the aisle to wed Ruelas in August.

Giudice, 50, first revealed in February that she and Ruelas likely wouldn’t be heading down the prenup path — much to the frustration of Cohen, who warned her to protect the fortune she rebuilt in the years since she and ex-husbandJoe Giudicewent to prison on fraud charges.

EvenReal Housewives of New York CityalumBethenny Frankelgot involved, tweeting that she would"may jump through my phone if [Teresa] doesn’t sign a prenup."

“True love,” the reality star added.

For his part, Cohen showed his support for her choice, saying, “All right. Personal decision.”

Teresa’s aversion to prenups, she’s said in the past, stem from the fact that Joe made her sign a prenup before the two walked down the aisle back in 1999 — something she was reluctant to do at the time.

“A week before we were getting married, Joe asked me to sign a prenup andI just felt when you love someone, you don’t do that,” Teresa then explained in a 2020RHONJepisode.

Though she said she “wasn’t going to go through with it,” Teresa stressed that she couldn’t imagine actually canceling their nuptials. “Being Italian, I have old school parents, and it’s an embarrassing thing to call off a wedding,” Teresa said at the time.

Instead, she agreed to sign it on the condition that a clause be added voiding the prenup if there was ever infidelity. “I didn’t even read it, I just said, ‘I want you to put one thing in there. If you ever cheat, the prenup is void,'” she recalled.

She recalled the story during herWWHLappearance back in February. “I wanted to call the wedding off but my mom told me not to,” she told Cohen.

Heidi Gutman/Bravo/getty

As for why she didn’t want to sign one with Ruelas, Teresa said, “I mean, Iwould[sign a prenup], you know, if [Luis] said so. I’m so very easy about that.”

“He definitely has more than me,” she added. “I would never take anything from him, I’m so not like that.”

Teresa received support from her 21-year-old daughterGia Giudice, who was appearing onWWHLas a bartender. “My dad made her sign a prenup, and I really didn’t like that,” Gia said, asking Cohen, “Why would she sign a prenup?”

The talk show host replied, “Whywouldn’tshe sign a prenup?” before arguing that it’s necessary to “protect what she has” and for Ruelas to “protect what he has.”

As Gia tried to argue that her mom and now stepfather wouldn’t “want to take anything” from each other, Cohen stood firm on his stance. “I know, but you put it in writing! You just put it in writing. Of course, they don’t want to take anything from each other,” he said.

Jill Zarin/Instagram

Teresa said her “I dos” to Ruelas on Aug. 6 in front of 220 guests at thePark Chateau Estate & Gardensin East Brunswick, New Jersey.

Theevent was filmed for a special set to air on Bravonext year, followingRHONJ’s season 13 finale. A preview of the episode debuted at BravoCon over the weekend.

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Elsewhere at BravoCon, Teresa opened up about her11-month jail sentence, saying that things would’ve played out differently if she wasn’t on the Bravo show.

Teresa and Joe Giudice.Steve Mack/FilmMagic

She went on to recall that she didn’t expect to be found complicit. “Joe was telling them, ‘She has nothing to do with it.’ He told me, ‘Damn, they want you more than they want me!’ And he was the one who did it.”

“I was just going through the motions,” she added. “I really thought nothing was going to happen and when I was in court and when the judge said I was going to jail, I was like, ‘What!?’ I said to my lawyer, ‘What did she just say? Am I going to jail?’ And he said, ‘Yeah.’ I was shocked.”

Teresa still has strong emotions about the prison time, which saw her behind bars for nearly a year before hernow-ex-husband, Joe, served 41 months and was later deported (he and Teresafinalized their divorce in September 2020).

“It was the most devastating thing in my entire life,” she said. “Just [think of] leaving your four daughters. My heart is just beating just talking about it.”

source: people.com