This Real Housewife Is Rumored To Be The Poorest In The Entire Franchise
Part of the intrigue and excitement of the Real Housewives franchise is the fact that most of the women on the show are super-rich. Viewers get to watch them living the high life with plenty of drama and shenanigans. But although they get paid for their reality TV appearances, not all of the housewives earn the same amount of money. Nor have all the ladies been super lucky with their finances either before or after the show.
In fact, one of the Real Housewives of New Jersey stars seems to be nearly broke, according to figures on her net worth.
Most Housewives Make Millions (But Some Don't)
While reality TV fame is clearly one priority when housewives join the franchise, another is likely the paycheck. Many big-name housewives fetch a higher up-front per-season price, while some make as little as $6,500 per episode.
Given that RHONJ has been on the air for so long, its leading ladies fetch a bit higher salary than the absolute minimum. But even a sizeable per-episode salary doesn't keep Teresa Giudice from ranking as one of the poorest housewives in the franchise.
How Much Does Teresa Giudice Make On Real Housewives?
Most fans know about Teresa's legal troubles and the 2015 prison sentence she served for fraud after filing for bankruptcy. Her bankruptcy paperwork had claimed somewhere around $11 million in debt at the time, but it's unclear whether that was accurate.
Following the court case regarding the bankruptcy, Teresa and her now ex-husband were in a lot of hot water. Not only did they both serve time behind bars, but they also had to pay the Internal Revenue Service and the New Jersey Department of the Treasury back.
It's unclear exactly how much money Giudice owed, or where she's at in terms of payback progress. However, her earnings as of 2021 were around $62,000 per episode or about $1.12 million per season.
Earlier in her Bravo career, Teresa reportedly made about $1 million per season, which across the 12 seasons she appeared in between 2009 and 2022 should amount to a take-home pay of at least $12 million. Teresa has other earnings as well, from various deals, books, and more.
Yet Giudice apparently owed over $10 million to creditors in 2010, plus almost $200K in credit card and other debts. Even if Teresa hopped on a payment plan at that time, it would take her years (on her salary alone) to repay the money owed.
To date, Teresa's net worth doesn't seem to have recovered following the legal issues and payback amounts.
Teresa Giudice Might Be The Poorest Real Housewife
Teresa Giudice is said to be worth somewhere between $400,000 and $500,000 in 2023, depending on the source. That means she ranks rather low on the richest housewives list.
In contrast, other housewives are worth multiple millions; Real Housewives of Atlanta's Kandi Burruss' net worth is around $35 million while Heather Dubrow of Real Housewives of Orange County is worth about $30 million.
Other housewives are worth far less, including Tamra Judge (sub-$1 million), Melissa Gorga (about $1.5 million), and Phaedra Parks (around $2M).
Teresa clearly isn't making millions these days—at least, not yet. It's possible she could continue to build up her net worth, especially if she's finished paying restitution payments at this point.
Teresa's case is somewhat similar to that of Jen Shah, whose own legal troubles seemingly tanked her net worth. Even with massive earnings, neither cast member was apparently satisfied with how much money they were making and turned to illegal financial moves to pad their pockets.
Jen Shah May Take Over As The Poorest Housewive Post-Trial
Teresa Giudice's financial troubles are very well-known, but what isn't yet clear is whether she might be bumped from the lowest-net-worth spot by a fellow housewife.
Viewers know about Jen Shah's legal troubles, which threatened to completely bankrupt the formerly rich reality show personality.
Jen was said to be worth around $3 million pre-trial, thanks to not only the criminally-tied marketing company but also other businesses. Her earnings from RHOSLC also factored into her net worth.
Jen may have been earning between $50K and $100K during her time on the reality series, so the restitution she was required to pay (reportedly up to $9.5 million) was a hefty amount. That's not considering Shah's expenditures, which Women's Health Mag notes were significant; Shah admitted to spending $50K per month prior to her arrest.
Fortunately for both Teresa and Jen, however, Real Housewives doesn't seem to blacklist its cast members for their legal troubles. In fact, much of the show's material comes from that type of drama, even as cast members go to prison (and are later released).
Only time will tell whether Jen, Teresa, or any other lower-net-worth cast member can bump things up thanks to regular paychecks from Bravo.
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