Teresa Giudice Describes How She Survived Prison

The reality TV star spent nearly a year in prison.

ByABC News
February 10, 2016, 12:24 PM

— -- Teresa Giudice has already described being in prison as "living in hell."

On Tuesday night, she shared with Andy Cohen on "Watch What Happens Live" how she survived her 11 and a half months at the Federal Correctional Institution-Danbury, a minimum-security prison in Danbury, Connecticut.

"I felt like I was dying, in reality, that's how I felt," the "Real Housewives of New Jersey" star, 43, told Cohen in the first of a two-part episode.

"I was numb, I was going through the motions, when you first get there, they strip search you, you have to bend down, cough, I felt humiliated," she said of her first days behind bars.

"There was urine stains and blood stains on the mattress, it was disgusting. The other girls helped me make my bed, I was exhausted," the reality star shared.

Giudice admitted that she she lied when she told husband Joe, 43, that prison was like a "low-budget spa" where she had time to "work out every day."

"It wasn't really like that," she confessed. "I really just told him that so he wouldn't worry."

In her first television interview since being released from prison in December, Giudice told ABC News’ Amy Robach that being incarcerated was like "living in hell."

"I mean there was mold in the bathrooms. There was not running water constantly. The showers were freezing cold ...I mean, the living conditions were really horrible. Like, horrible," she said in an exclusive interview that aired Tuesday morning on "Good Morning America." "There were some nights that we didn't even have heat. It was -- it was hell."

Giudice passed the time in prison by staying active, working out three times per day and developing a passion for yoga.

"Yoga changed my life. I’m going to get certified in yoga," Giudice told Robach, adding that she also did Pilates and ran on an outdoor track.

She also survived with the help of her fellow inmates, which she called "amazing," adding: "You know, anytime anybody new comes, we all help each other. So I was given stuff, which was nice, when I first got there."

ABC News was unable to reach the Federal Correctional Institution-Danbury at the time of this report.