Getty Nicole Polizzi arrives for the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on August 26, 2019.
Nicole Polizzi opened up about her decision to leave Jersey Shore in a new interview.
The former reality star, who left the MTV spinoff Jersey Shore: Family Vacation at the end of last season, explained that the show no longer fits her lifestyle—and she ruled out starring in a version that would include her kids, Lorenzo, 8, Giovanna, 6, and Angelo, 1.
Here’s what Snooki had to say:
Nicole Polizzi Revealed That Filming ‘Jersey Shore’ Is ‘Mentally Draining’ & That Having Her Kids on the Show Is Not an Option For Her
In a new interview with the AV Club. Snooki admitted that her husband Jionni LaValle hates fame and reality TV, so she chose to keep their family life private.
The reality TV veteran said Jersey Shore is a “nightmare” to schedule now that several cast members are parents, and she added that it is “not an option” for her to bring her kids with her to film.
“It’s not an option for me,” she said. “I’m not going to take my kids out of school just so they’ll be with me and I’m happy. That’s not even an option for me.”
Snooki said that near the end of her run on Jersey Shore, things got “too heavy” and that it was “mentally draining” to be part of the “bad girls’ club drama.”
She added that she was not able to be the best mom to her kids and that she hated leaving them for days on end to film the show. At the end, things got so crazy that haters told her they hoped her kids would get bullied.
“It doesn’t work for my life anymore,” she added of the show.
In a separate interview, Snooki told E! News that she needed to completely break from the show that made her a household name.
“Jersey Shore‘s been my life for ten years,” she said. “And I loved my roomies, but I just needed—my soul needed—a break because the drama was getting too much. And I feel like I wasn’t being the best mom that I could be to my kids.”
Nicole Polizzi Previously Revealed That Her Son Would Get Anxious When She Filmed & Would Beg Her Not to Go to Work
In December 2019, Snooki announced on her It’s Happening with Snooki & Joey podcast that he was leaving Jersey Shore. She explained that the party all the time lifestyle was not her life anymore and that she hated being away from her kids. Snooki also said her son Lorenzo begged her not to go work, and that he would get anxious when she left the house for long periods of time.
“When we came back from Miami, I was gone for two weeks, then I came home for a night and then left for another two weeks,” she told Us Weekly at the time. “That literally scarred him. So anytime I say ‘Mommy’s going to work,’ he’s like, ‘Mom, you cannot leave me again like you did. I was so upset. I don’t want you leaving.’ So now every time I say I’m leaving for work, he goes, ‘How long are you leaving?’ It kind of gives him anxiety now. I can’t do that anymore.”
Snooki said leaving her kids to film the reality show was “really hard” on her.
“I don’t like partying three days in a row. It’s just not my life anymore. I want to be home with the kids,” she said in 2019, per OK magazine.
She also admitted that she didn’t like what the show had turned into.
“I’m putting myself out there and I just want to come off as a good person and lately, on the show, it’s just been very dramatic,” she said. “Our show, Jersey Shore, is about family and making fun of each other and having a good time. …. Lately, everything is so serious. Fans are against one another when it comes to a cast member. I don’t want that. I’m not leaving my kids for days on end to film this show when that’s the result of it. I don’t like the turnout of it. I don’t like the person I’m portrayed as.”