After almost a full year in prison after being found guilty of fraud charges, Teresa Giudice has been released.
Earlier this week, her attorney James Leonard announced that the 43-year-old "Real Housewives of New Jersey" star would be released from her 15-month prison sentence early just in time for the holidays due to good behavior, as HNGN previously reported. "She's looking forward to coming home," Leonard said at the time. "She's going straight home. She's not going to a halfway house. She's going to get to spend Christmas with her family and get back to her life."
At 5:01 a.m. Wednesday morning, following mandatory release paperwork and procedures, Giudice was officially released from the Federal Correctional Institutional in Danbury, Conn. "She is free," Leonard told People.
"She is thrilled that she is finally going home," a source close to the star also told People. "Prison was tough for her, but she made the best of it...She couldn't wait to get home to [her husband] and the girls from the minute she set foot in prison. She is so happy and grateful that she is able to be home with them, for Christmas, no less."
Giudice arrived at her home in New Jersey around 7:30 a.m. in a black SUV with Leonard and four other matching vehicles surrounding them, according to E! News. She was greeted by several signs hanging on the front door, one even read "We Missed You."
Her husband Joe, who pled guilty to the same charges, will start his 41-month sentence in March.
