It’s been nearly three years since Joe Giudice said goodbye to his wife Teresa to report to prison, and sources say their marriage may never recover.
In October, an immigration court ruled to deport Joe to his native Italy after his prison sentence. (Even though he has lived in the United States since he was a child, he never obtained American citizenship, and immigrants can be deported if they are convicted of “a crime of moral turpitude” or an “aggravated felony,” according to U.S. law.). One month later, he appealed the ruling in November.
Although Teresa said at a previous RHONJ reunion that she would consider moving overseas if Joe were deported “(I mean, Italy’s a beautiful place to live”), multiple sources confirmed to PEOPLE that she recently told her castmates they’d go their “separate ways.”
“Teresa told Andy that if Joe gets deported, she’s not going,” a source on the scene at the season 9 reunion taping earlier this month told PEOPLE. “She said that she and Joe had talked about it over the phone, and that he understood.”
The Giudices’ attorney Leonard declined to comment. A rep from Bravo did not immediately respond for comment.
As they await Joe’s fate, an insider close to the couple said that the family is remaining hopeful.
“They are obviously optimistic that he is coming home,” said the insider. “Teresa’s hope is that they can remain together as a family.”
In October 2014, the couple was convicted of mail, wire and bankruptcy fraud and allowed to serve time separately. Three months after Teresa, 46, was released on Dec. 23, 2015 — after her nearly 11-month sentence — Joe, 48, began his 41-month sentence.
“I want to thank all of you for the love & support you have shown my family during this difficult time. It means the world to all of us,” Teresa tweeted hours after her husband was taken behind bars.
Earlier that day, the Real Housewives of New Jersey star shared a photo of the family together before Joe checked into Federal Correction Institute in Fort Dix, New Jersey.
“My Beautiful Family,” she captioned the shot of, Joe and their four daughters: Gia, 18, Gabriella, 14, Milania, 12, and Audriana, 9.
The time apart has understandably changed the dynamic at home.
Shortly after Joe reported to prison, a source told PEOPLE that “Teresa and the girls are sad that Joe’s gone, but they’re doing their best to adjust.”
“Teresa’s keeping busy with the girls,” the source said. “Her life centers around taking care of them and making sure they get to their activities to keep as life as normal as possible for them.”
RELATED: Teresa Giudice Says She Doesn’t Talk About Husband Joe’s Deportation: ‘That’s Negative Thoughts’
The source added that “the girls are pitching in a lot, which makes Teresa really happy.”
Although Teresa was hopeful to regularly see Joe at the correctional facility, the frequency that she could visit with their daughters was limited just months after he began his time.
“She’s been going up every other weekend, with whichever of the girls don’t have activities,” Teresa’s lawyer James J. Leonard Jr. explained to PEOPLE at the time.
“Where he is, you get a certain number of points every month and each visit counts as a point. Weekend visits are considered more points,” Leonard said. “So because he also has his mother and sister coming to visit, and Teresa can’t go during the week because the girls are in school, they’re having to do it every other weekend.”
“The way it was when she was there was, Joe would come up with whatever girls didn’t have activities. Teresa didn’t want anybody disrupting the girls’ activities just to come see her,” Leonard said. “Joe feels the same way. They want their kids to be able to have a normal schedule and feel like they’re living a normal life.”
Leonard said that Teresa and Joe “speak every day on the phone and over email and with the girls. Just like when she was away,” and that the four of four was “getting acclimated” to his new surroundings. “He’s settling in and he’s getting along as well as can be expected.”
As for Teresa, “Her mind is on her husband and her children and that’s all she’s concerned about,” said Leonard. “She’s looking forward to when the girls get out of school and they can visit Joe with more frequency.”
Behind bars, Joe has been focusing on his fitness and lost a dramatic amount of weight.
“Joe’s doing great. He’s lost like 30, 40 pounds,” Teresa said in an interview with The Daily Dish in October 2017. “I mean, he’s really thinned out ,and he’s really muscular and really toned and really fit. He looks really, really good.”
RELATED: Teresa Giudice Loves Husband Joe’s New Body: ‘He Looked So Bloated’ Before Going to Prison
And his physique hasn’t been the only change impressing Teresa. When the Bravo personality made a visit to catch up with her husband — who, as of September 2016, was already down 35 lbs. in the first six months of his 41-month sentence — she “loved the way his hair was styled.”
“When I go see them, they’re all clean cut; they look really good,” she added at the time. “Everybody looks good for when their family comes to see them, so he looked really good that day.”
At the end of 2017, Joe was transferred from the Federal Correctional Institution in Fort Dix, New Jersey, to a federal prison in Pennsylvania.
Following his transfer, Teresa initially wasn’t able to visit Joe at the new prison because her paperwork hadn’t yet been approved. Still, she told PEOPLE she and Joe “still talk every day.”
“He’s doing well,” she said. “It’s been awhile now, so I’m kind of just used to it. He’s only a half hour father away. And it’s fine because it’s a camp facility, so it means that he’s closer to coming home. In his situation, it’s a good thing.”
Still, since Teresa and Joe were convicted, she had been seeking an apology from her incarcerated husband — something she finally received after harboring resentment towards him.
As season 8 of RHONJ came to a close in January 2018, audiences learned that Teresa and her daughters went to visit Joe at his prison and asked him for the apology.
“The moment when I saw Joe, I got really choked up. And all that courage that I built up to ask him for an apology just like, went away,” Teresa told audiences at first.
But later, she told Melissa and Joe Gorga that she had in fact confronted her husband and got what she wanted.
“I was nervous,” she recounted. “I got emotional. I said, ‘I lost 11 and a half months with my mom. Not only did you do it to me, you did it to our daughters. Why weren’t you on top of everything? I didn’t sign up for this.’ And then I said, ‘I want to hear sorry. … I want to hear it from your mouth, it means more.’ “
Joe was receptive. In fact, he told his wife he’d been apologizing for a long time.
RELATED: Teresa Giudice Reveals Her Daughters’ ‘Hysterical’ Reaction to Their Dad’s Upcoming Deportation
“He was like, ‘Teresa, do you read my letters and do you read my emails? I’ve said that to you so many times,’ ” Teresa recalled of Joe. “He was like, ‘I’m so sorry. I’ll never let anything like this ever happen again.’ And then I started crying and he started crying and then he hugged me and the girls were crying.”
“It seemed sincere,” Teresa said. “You know, it sucks. It’s sad, you know? I just always think about mommy and then when he comes home it’s going to be so different cause she’s not here. But listen, not everyone’s perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. He better make it up to me when he gets home.”
Speaking with PEOPLE months later in March 2018, Teresa revealed that visiting her husband in prison comes “third” on her list of priorities.
While she said at the time that she visits Joe “all the time,” she makes sure to put herself and her four daughters first.
“This is how it goes. Work comes first — I’m by myself — so it’s work, then all the kids’ activities come second. Then he comes third,” she explained at an event for FabFitFunTV‘s cooking segment, “Cooking with the Housewives,” in New York City. “He’s totally fine with that. When I’m free, then I go see him, and he’s totally fine with that.”
Whenever she does have free time to make the trip to his new prison location — near Penn State University — she makes the most of it.
RELATED: Teresa Giudice Admits She’s ‘Very Angry’ at Husband Joe: ‘He’s Lost 3 Years with His Children’
“I love the ride,” she said. “It’s so meditative. I love Route 80. The mountains! The mountains are so beautiful!”
She admitted she prefers this drive much more than visiting him at his previous prison near Fort Dix. “I hate the turnpike — I used to dread going to see him when he was in Fort Dix because I hate the turnpike. Where he is now, it’s beautiful.”