Jersey Shore's Ronnie Ortiz-Magro Breaks Silence On Rehab Stay

One of the original stars of Jersey Shore, Ronnie Ortiz-Magro, revealed his battles with depression and alcohol addiction in an interview with Us Weekly on Tuesday. The 33-year-old reality TV celebrity spoke on his recent decision to enter rehab, motivated by his desire to be a good role model for his daughter.

“I decided to go to treatment because I wanted to be a better person, a better father for my daughter,” Otiz-Magro said. “Eventually, all the bad decisions I was making were going to lead me to places that I didn’t want to be. I wanted to be led to the place that I am now—that’s happy, healthy and the best role model for my daughter.”

Ortiz-Magro has a little girl, Ariana Sky Magro, with his on-again-off-again girlfriend Jen Harley. Around the new year entering 2019, the couple had a violent fight that ended in a bloody face for Ortiz-Magro. Us Weekly reported that a source described their relationship as "volatile."

In the interview, the reality star admitted to not being proud of many of his actions over the years, that he was making the wrong decisions, and was “very depressed.” Going into addiction treatment, he described himself as depressed, angry, and “resentful to myself about a lot of things I’ve done over the last year, or even years.”

Like many individuals involved in the fast-paced life of stardom, Ortiz-Magro developed problems with drinking over a period of years and found himself feeling increasingly out of control.

“I think it’s a chronic disease. It’s a progressive disease. I’m still struggling,” he explained. “You stop and you start up again, and it’s worse than when you stopped. You’re just like, ‘Wow, I thought I had this under control,’ but at the end of the day, it has full control over you.”

Ortiz-Magro is not the only person involved in the Jersey Shore franchise who's had to face addiction. Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino spoke in 2018 about the drug use that led to some of his reckless behavior. In season four, Sorrentino landed himself in the hospital after intentionally slamming his head into a concrete wall that he thought was drywall.

"For a couple of years, from season two on to five, I was really pushing the envelope on my behavior," Sorrentino told The Asbury Park Press of New Jersey. "I was very wild, very careless, reckless."

He checked himself into rehab in 2012 in order to get treatment for his addiction to oxycodone. He has since married his college sweetheart and appears to be doing well.