JERSEY Shore’s Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino has opened up about his past battles with drug addiction, tax evasion, and prison time.
Mike delves into his demons and more in his new autobiography.
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The Jersey Shore star says that at his worst, he was addicted to drugs including oxycodone, Percocet, Xanax, and cocaine.
“I was into everything,” he told Entertainment Tonight. “I had everything on me at all times in my Louis Vuitton bag.”
The MTV reality star recalled going to great lengths to hide his addiction, which eventually seeped into every facet of his life.
Mike confessed to being high on talk shows, his reality show, and even during Season 11 of Dancing with the Stars.
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In his new tell-all, Reality Check: Making the Best of The Situation — How I Overcame Addiction, Loss, and Prison, Mike admits he spent about half a million dollars on pills.
“When you think of that number, when you hear that number, that’s a good college fund right there,” he reflected. “I was wild. I was careless. I was reckless, and I fell prey to drug addiction.”
But the lowest point in the 41-year-old’s life came the day before he finally checked into rehab in 2015.
“I ended up trying a drug that I never thought I would try,” he recalled.
“A drug that kills most people. A drug that most people don’t come back from. A drug that I told myself that I would never do, that I thought was dirty.
“It was heroin.”
Now sober, Mike is revealing more troubled moments of his life.
TAX EVASION
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Mike’s life started to spiral in 2018, when he pleaded guilty to one count of evading taxes on $123,000 in income, and was sentenced to eight months in prison.
The star managed to turn even that into a reality moment, going live as he voluntarily surrendered himself to the Federal Correction Institute in Otisville, New York.
In the live stream, he said: “The Situation will reveal itself in 2019.
“It’s currently under construction, but it will be revealed. It’s under new management right now.”
COMMUNITY SERVICE
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Mike was released in September 2019 and went on to complete 500 hours of community service.
In September 2021, he took to Twitter to mark the milestone day and gushed: “Probation officer just left!! Community service completed. I’m a free man.
“Probation is over!! The Comeback is always greater than the Setback.”
DANGEROUS DELAY
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Mike’s completion came after he fell well behind on his hours the year before, with a judge nearly giving him a written warning.
According to court documents first obtained by TMZ, the reality TV star’s probation officer asked the courts to warn The Situation about completing his community service.
In December 2020 Mike had only completed 18 hours.
His probation officer claimed in the documents that she has reminded Mike “at nearly every interaction to find a venue for community service, including service that could be performed from home,” but that he has made little attempts to complete the hours since his release in 2019.
ANOTHER TAXING SITUATION
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Mike’s tax troubles resurfaced in 2022.
Documents exclusively obtained by The Sun show that Mike was hit with the IRS tax lien in April and that his debts to the feds span the course of several years from 2010 up until 2016.
A New Jersey clerk confirmed the lien with the IRS totaling $2.3 million.
Mike’s publicist, Robyn Bordes, told The Sun at the time: “Michael Sorrentino has been working diligently to comply with his current and past tax obligations, and he will continue to do so.”
WEDDED BLISS
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But some good did come out of Mike’s troubles.
Before turning himself in in 2019, he married his long-term girlfriend Lauren Pesce.
The reality TV star popped the question on Jersey Shore: Family Vacation and admitted it had been his “dream” to ask for Lauren to marry him on the series.
He said: “I have always dreamed of proposing on Jersey Shore, the show that introduced me to the world.
“I’m currently living the dream and proposed to my college sweetheart, Lauren Pesce, amongst my best friends on the biggest reality show in the country.”
NEW ADDITION
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In September, Mike revealed he and his wife Lauren are expecting their third child, sharing some photos on social media.
In the first snap, Mike and Lauren, 38, along with their two children, Romeo Reign and Mia Bella, posed in their kitchen with some photographs of their new addition.
In several other snaps, the Jersey Shore star shared a pic of his family outside their home surrounded by fall-inspired decorations – including Mike and Romeo holding a small pumpkin.
In the final photo, Lauren and Mia shared a mother-daughter moment with the tiny pictures of the unborn child.
“Good things come in threes. Adding another pumpkin to our patch Baby #3 coming March 2024,” Mike captioned the photo.
Lauren also commented: “Three under three here we go.”