Teresa Giudice, star of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, is no stranger to high-stakes drama, but even she met her limit during a grueling experience on FOX’s Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test—and it all came down to protecting her daughter, Gia Giudice.
The mother-daughter duo joined Season 4 of the extreme reality competition show, where celebrities undergo intense physical and psychological challenges modeled after military training. For Teresa, saying “yes” to the show wasn’t easy—especially when she found out it involved deep water activities.
“At first, I was so terrified,” Teresa admitted in a recent interview with Decider. “I saw that it was no joke… I don’t know how to swim. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ I was really scared.”
But the game changed when producers offered the opportunity for Teresa to appear alongside her daughter. “Then they came back to me and said, ‘I think we want to do you and Gia, a mother-daughter duo.’ And then that’s when I was like, ‘I can’t pass this up,’” she recalled. “Gia’s like, ‘Mom, we have to do this together.’ She motivated me… I was like, ‘I have to do this with her.’”
A Difficult Decision for a Devoted Mom
Although Teresa was determined to push her limits, things took a turn when she learned her daughter would have to fight U.S. soccer legend Christie Pearce Rampone. Teresa made the heart-wrenching decision to withdraw from the course—just moments before the match.
“I didn’t want to see my child get hit. I would have definitely jumped in,” she said. “I didn’t even want her to see me getting hit… I feel like I’ve been defending myself for a long time in the whole Housewife thing. I was just like, ‘I don’t want to show my child that.’”
An Emotional Aftermath
Despite knowing that Gia was fully capable of continuing the competition, Teresa struggled with leaving her behind.
“I cried that whole night in the hotel [and] the next day going to the airport,” she said. “I was going to wait for her, but I was like, ‘Let me just get home to my other kids.’ My youngest was 15 at the time. I knew she missed me… I cried until Gia came home.”
The emotional impact was clear even to her husband, Louie Ruelas. “Louie was like, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ He was like, ‘You’re so different. What happened?’ I was like, ‘I miss my child. I just want to make sure she’s okay.’ I was upset until she came home.”
Strength Runs in the Family
In a touching scene from the show, Gia reflected on her mother’s exit and made it clear that Teresa wasn’t holding her back. “She even said I was not holding her back, and she knows that. My child knows me really well,” Teresa said. “But I knew, if I left, she would be totally fine. She’s my child. She’s strong. She’s got this.”
“She’s a tough cookie, that’s for sure,” the interviewer noted.
“Yes she is,” Teresa replied. “Like her mama. All my daughters are really tough. They really are.”
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