When it came time for Teresa Giudice to pen her new memoir, “Turning the Tables: From Housewife to Inmate and Back Again,” she hired, then fired the co-writer of her previous four books.
Page Six has learned that the 43-year-old reality fixture unceremoniously booted New York Times bestselling author Heather Maclean from the project in the spring of 2015 and eventually recruited People magazine writer and reporter K.C. Baker to co-author the tome.
A source characterizes Giudice and Maclean as former “best friends,” but says Maclean was “excommunicated” when Giudice banned her from contact via email and from visiting the Danbury prison where Giudice served her 15-month prison sentence for fraud. Together, the pair produced the wildly successful “Fabulicious!: On the Grill” (2013), “Fabulicious!: Fast & Fit” (2012), “Fabulicious!: Teresa’s Italian Family Cookbook” (2011) and “Skinny Italian: Eat It and Enjoy It” (2010).
The insider notes that Maclean’s plan for the book didn’t exploit the kids and she believes it’s unfair to highlight their grief.
“It was a pleasure to help Teresa on the four successful cookbooks we did together,” Maclean told Page Six in a statement. “I did not however have anything to do with her current prison memoir, and can’t comment on it since I haven’t seen it. I did work with her on a book for many months both before and while she was in prison that was meant to serve as a cautionary tale for other women who find themselves in bad situations.”
She continued, “I believe that she had an opportunity to use her platform to shine a light on women’s issues and could have been a wonderful advocate for better financial decision-making. However, Teresa chose to go in a different direction. The way this was handled was a shock to me — despite that, and the end of our time together, I wish her all the best with it.”
Another excerpt, published Monday, details the “hysterical” reaction of Giudice’s four daughters — Gia, 15, Gabriella, 11, Milania, 9, and Audriana, 6 — to her leaving for prison. “We lay there, a tangled mess of arms and legs, hugging each other and crying. Me, Joe and Gia, bless her heart, tried to calm the little ones down as best we could. This was tearing my heart out, but I didn’t let them see that. I couldn’t. I had to be strong for them,” Giudice wrote.
Requests for comment from Giudice’s lawyer and K.C. Baker weren’t immediately returned.