Teresa Giudice Opens Up About Her Mother's Death: "She Was Too Young"

Teresa Giudice lost her mom, Antonia Gorga, earlier this year. The Real Housewives of New Jersey matriarch died in March at the age of 66. Following her passing, Teresa remembered her mom in a series of Instagram posts, sharing fond memories from their time together. And when Teresa appeared on Brandi Glanville's Unfiltered podcast this week, she opened up more about losing her mom.

"I miss her so much, and it’s just the hardest thing. Life’s good, and life sucks. I needed my mom still. She was 66," she said. "She was too young."

Teresa discussed how she had seen how terrible it was for Vicki Gunvalson to lose her mom, a moment which was documented on The Real Housewives of Orange County two seasons ago. "I remember seeing Vicki going through that. Like, when she lost her mom, and y’know, I was just like, 'Oh my God that must’ve been so hard for her to go through that,'" Teresa said. "And then, never in nine years did I ever, could imagine that I would be going through that."

Teresa shared that her mom had battled pneumonia and rheumatoid arthritis before her passing. "It attacks your immune system. She ended up going to rehab after that and trying to gain strength because she was in bed for a while. She was on a breathing tube. They trached her. But then she got better. They were trying to get her to walk again," the Garden State mom recalled. "Then out of nowhere, my father got sick. He got pneumonia because he was visiting her every day. If I could take anything, I wish this never happened to me. Like everything else that’s happened to me, I don’t even care. This is the hardest thing that I ever had to deal with in my life, because never… It’s like I still needed my mom. Like, we all need our mom, you know?"

Teresa revealed that her father is doing better and is now living with her and her four daughters. And she has this message for everyone out there. "Don’t take your parents for granted. Always spend time with them, because you never know what’s gonna happen. And I have no regrets with my mom, because I was always with her, but still, it’s like I could’ve been hanging out with her now," she said. "And it’s like, and this is, like, when it had to happen."

Teresa recently joined forces with her brother and sister-in-law, Joe and Melissa Gorga, and opened up a restaurant, Gorga's Homemade Pasta & Pizza. It's meant to honor her late mom. "I mean, that’s my thing, my passion. I love cooking, and we wanted to keep the legacy of my mom going on, so, we opened up a restaurant together," she said. "So that’s great."

Check out throwback photos of Teresa, below.