‘RHONJ’ Star Joe Giudice Reportedly Ordered to Be Deported to Italy

Real Housewives of New Jersey star Teresa Giudice‘s husband, Joe Giudice, has reportedly been ordered to be deported to Italy, Radar Online reports.

A judge made the ruling in immigration court on Wednesday, Oct. 10, with the reported deportation to follow Joe’s prison sentence.

“Based upon the law, I find you deportable and ineligible for any kind of relief,” Judge John Ellington told Joe at the hearing in Pennsylvania’s York Immigration Court. “Mr. Giudice, no matter how this turns out, I wish you the best. I decided this case as a matter of law.”

The judge added that Joe has the opportunity to file an appeal by Nov. 9.

Joe appeared via teleconference and reportedly sounded shocked as he digested the news.

“I don’t understand how I can be deported on this case,” he told the judge. “If you will, I’ll tell you my side. I shouldn’t even be here right now. I have to go back and tell my kids this, and they’ve been waiting to hear from me.”

Joe and Giudice married in 1999 and share four daughters: Gia, 17, Gabriella, 14, Milania, 12, and Audriana, 9.

In 2014, both Joe and Giudice pleaded guilty to 41 counts of fraud. Giudice served 11 months in prison in 2015 and Joe began his 41-month sentence in 2016.

During a previous court hearing on Sept. 1, Joe asked the judge to let him stay in the United States.

“I’ve been here my whole life, I wouldn’t know what to do in any other country,” he said, via Radar Online. “I want to stay here.

Ahead of his time in prison, there had always been the potential that Joe would be deported, and it seems the court has made good on the possibility. Joe had moved to the United States as a child, but ultimately never became a citizen.

During the Real Housewives of New Jersey reunion in January, Giudice said she “wouldn’t mind” living in Italy if Joe ended up being deported.

“I mean, Italy’s a beautiful place to live,” she said. “Whatever God has planned for me, that’s what’s going to happen. I will embrace it the best I can.”

It was initially reported in June that Joe was in deportation proceedings, but his lawyer told Us Weekly at the time that the reality star would not have to leave the country.

“We remain optimistic that when the day comes where a court decides the fate of Mr. Giudice, they will return him home to his wife and four daughters where he belongs,” attorney James J. Leonard said. “But that is for a judge to decide.”

Photo Credit: Getty / Paul Zimmerman