"She is thrilled that she is finally going home," a source tells People. Following mandatory release paperwork and procedures, Giudice loaded into a waiting car with her lawyer James J. Leonard, Jr. and headed straight for home in New Jersey.
She was released at 5:01 a.m., but was still at the prison as of 5:30 a.m., Leonard says. "She is free," he tells People.
After being released, the 43-year-old mother-of-four headed home where she will complete the rest of her 15-month sentence in home confinement.
"Prison was tough for her," says the source, "but she made the best of it."
"She couldn’t wait to get home to Joe and the girls from the minute she set foot in prison," says the source. "She is so happy and grateful that she is able to be home with them, for Christmas, no less."
Giudice was found guilty of fraud charges and sentenced to 15 months in jail in October of 2014. She entered the minimum-security satellite camp for women, made popular by the hit Netflix show Orange Is the New Black, on Jan. 5 of this year.
Photo Credit: Bravo